THE FRIENDLY AND OTHER ISLANDS 
493 
navigator, Cook, to have been “ liberal, brave, open, and 
candid, without either suspicion or treachery, cruelty or 
revenge ”; while the naturalist, Forster, who accom¬ 
panied him, declared that he “ never saw any of a morose 
or discontented disposition in the whole nation ”; and 
that “ they all join to their cheerful temper a politeness 
and elegance which is happily blended with the most inno¬ 
cent simplicity of manners/’ It must ever be a subject 
for regret that a people with so many admirable qualities 
should be exterminated before our eyes by the relentless 
march of our too imperfect civilisation. 
The traditions of the Polynesians point to Savaii, the 
largest of the Samoan Islands, as the home of their an¬ 
cestors, and many peculiarities in language and local 
nomenclature indicate that the various branches of the 
race, from the Sandwich Islands to Tahiti, and even to 
New Zealand, have migrated from this centre. Eaiatea, 
120 miles west of Tahiti, is another mythological centre 
to which many traditions refer; as well as Karotonga, 
almost midway between Tahiti and Samoa. These may 
be real indications as to the process of dispersion of the 
race, but are of little value in determining their origin or 
first entrance into the Pacific, which must be far too 
remote an event for legend to afford any trustworthy 
indications. The antiquity of the people is proved by 
language and by customs. The languages of all the 
brown Polynesians are dialects of one common tongue; 
and because many Malay and Javanese words occur in 
all these dialects, it has been hastily assumed by many 
writers that the Polynesians are really Malays, and came 
direct from the Malay Archipelago, passing by the 
islands inhabited by the fierce Melanesians till they found 
unoccupied lands farther to the east. But a more care¬ 
ful study of their language shows, as Mr. Eanken and 
