POLYNESIA 
CHAPTER XIY 
THE FKIENDLY AND OTHER ISLANDS 
1. Extent and Component Groups. 
Polynesia comprises a number of distinct archipelagoes, 
together with a few smaller groups and scattered islands, 
distributed over a vast area of the Pacific which may 
be roughly described as included between the Tropic 
of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, and bounded 
on the Australian side by the 180th degree of longi¬ 
tude. Of the larger groups, the westernmost is the Tonga 
or Friendly Archipelago, with Samoa a little to the 
north-east. Between these are a few scattered islands, 
and north of Samoa the small Tokelau group, with the 
Phoenix group still farther to the north, at no great dis¬ 
tance from the Equator. East of Tonga, and in the order 
named, lie the Hervey or Cook group, the Society 
Islands (Tahiti), with the Austral or Tubuai Islands to 
the south of them, and finally the enormous and wide¬ 
spread cluster of islands which are known collectively as 
the Paumotu or Low Archipelago. The Marquesas are 
situated almost due north of these, and between them * 
