52 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
illustrate the means by which it may have been accom¬ 
plished ; for it is a fact, that every such voyage related 
in the accounts of voyagers, or preserved in the tradi¬ 
tions of the natives, has invariably been from east to 
west, directly opposite to that in which it must have 
been, had the population been altogether derived from 
the Malayan archipelago. 
From whatever source, however, they have originated, 
the extent of geographical surface over which they have 
spread themselves, the variety, purity, and copiousness 
of their language, the ancient character of some of the 
best traditions, as of the deluge &c. justify the supposition 
of their remote antiquity. Yet their ignorance of let¬ 
ters, of the use of iron till a short time prior to their 
discovery, and the rude character of all their implements, 
and of the monuments of their ancestry, seem opposed 
to the idea of their having been derived, as supposed by 
some eminent modern geographers, from an ancient, 
powerful nation, which cultivated maritime habits, but 
which has been frittered down into detached local com¬ 
munities unknown to each other. 
The accounts the natives give of the introduction of 
the animals found on the islands by the first European 
visitors, are most of them as fabulous as those relating 
to their own origin. Some, indeed, say that pigs and 
dogs were brought from the west by the first inhabitants ; 
but others refer their origin to man. One of their tra¬ 
ditions states, that after Taaroa had made the world and 
mankind, he created the quadrupeds of the earth, the 
fowls of the air, and the fishes of the sea; but one of 
their most indelicate accounts states, that in ancient times 
a man died, and after death his body was destroyed by 
worms, which ultimately grew into swine—and were the 
