PACIFIC AND BEERING’S STRAIT. 
1S5 
It has hitherto been a matter of conjecture how these islands, so CHAP, 
remote from both great continents, have received their aborigines. The 
intimate connexion between the language, worship, manners, customs, Feb. 
and traditions of the people who dwell upon them, and those of 
the Malays and other inhabitants of the great islands to the west- 
ward, leaves no doubt of frequent emigrations from thence, and we 
naturally look to those countries as the source from which they have 
sprung. The difficulty, however, instantly presents itself of pro- 
ceeding so vast a distance in opposition to the prevailing wind and 
current, without vessels better equipped than those which are in 
possession of those people. This objection is so powerful in the 
minds of some authors that they have had recourse to the circuitous 
route through Tartary,, across Beering’s Strait, and over the American 
continent, to bring them to a situation whence they might be drifted 
by the ordinary course of the winds to the lands in question. But had 
this been the case, a more intimate resemblance would surely be found 
to exist between the American Indians and the natives of Polynesia. 
x\ll have agreed as to the manner in which these migrations be- 
tween the islands have been effected, and some few instances have 
actually been met with ; but they have been in one direction only, and 
have rather favoured the opinion of migration from the eastward. The 
accident which threw in our way Tuwarri and his companions, wdio, it 
may be recollected, were driven six hundred miles in a direction con- 
trary to the trade-wind in spite of their utmost exertions, has for- 
tunately enabled us to remove the objections w'hich have been urged 
against the general opinion. The fact being so well attested, and the 
only one of the kind upon record, is, consequently, of the highest in- 
terest, both as regards its, singularity, and as it establishes the possibility 
of the case. Though this is the only instance that has come to our know- 
ledge, there is no reason why many other canoes may not have shared 
a similar fate; and some few of many thousands, perhaps, may have 
<irifted to the remotest islands of the archipelago, and thus peopled them. 
The navigation of canoes between islands in sight of each other 
Was very general ; and it was not unusual, in early times, for w^arriors, 
after a defeat, to embark, careless of consequences, in order to escape 
B B 
