2*22 
ON' THE MALAYAN AND POLYNESIAN 
Tne trade-winds are the seeming- obstacle to this communication ; 
but when the question is duly examined, they do not prove to be so. 
The south-west monsoon, to the north of the equator, extends to the 
Marianne Islands, and the 145° of east longitude; and the north¬ 
west monsoon to the south of the equator, as far east as New Gui¬ 
nea ; while westerly winds are frequently experienced in the Pacific 
far to the west of this island. This is the statement of the accurate 
Captai n H orsburgh. * 
La Perouse goes farther, and observes, that westerly winds are, 
at least, as frequent as east in the Pacific in a zone of 7° on each 
side of the equator, and that the winds are so variable, that it is lit¬ 
tle more difficult to make a voyage to the eastward than to the west¬ 
ward, t The testimony of Captain Fitzroy is to the same effect. J 
But it is further ascertained, that the monsoon “ (the western) is 
occasionally experienced through all the islands of Eastern Polyne¬ 
sia.’^ Captain Beechy, in his instructive narrative, informs us that 
he picked up at sea a tempest-driven canoe, belonging to Chain Is¬ 
land, three hundred miles east of Tahiti, and subject to it. She 
had been on a voyage to the latter, and by two successive gales from 
the westward, was driven 600 miles out of her course, to Barrow 
Island, in about the 20th degree of south latitude. When rescued, 
she had on board twenty* eight men, fifteen women, and ten child¬ 
ren ; in fact, the nucleus of a little colony. 
Captain Wilson found, when wrecked on the Pelew Islands, in 
the 8° of north latitude, and the 135° of east longitude, three Ma¬ 
lay mariners ; and, having among his own crew a Malay interpreter, 
he was able to communicate with the natives through these Malays, 
wiio had acquired the Pelew language. The account which they 
gave of themselves was, that in a voyage from Batavia to Tcrnate, 
one of the Moluccas, touching at Menado in Celebes, they were dri¬ 
ven by a storm on the Pelew Islands. One of them, however, who 
* Horsburgh’s East fndia Directory. 
-J* La Perouse, vol. ii. 
t Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of the Adventure and Beagle, by 
Captain Fitzroy, R.N. 
i Voyage to the Pacific in 1825, (Xfc. <£rc., by Captain Becchy, ft.N. Lon¬ 
don. 1831. 
