WHENCE PEOPLED. 125 
now inhabiting these and other islands have been, 
in former times, more widely extended than they 
are at present. The monuments or vestiges of 
former population found in these islands are all 
exceedingly rude, and therefore warrant the in¬ 
ference that the people to whom they belonged 
were rude and uncivilized, and must have emi¬ 
grated from a nation but little removed from a 
state of barbarism—a nation less civilized than 
those must have been, who could have constructed 
vessels, and traversed this ocean six or seven 
thousand miles against the regularly prevailing 
winds, which must have been the fact, if we con¬ 
clude they were peopled only by the Malays. 
On the other hand, it is easy to imagine how 
they could have proceeded from the east. The 
winds would favour their passage, and the inci¬ 
pient stages of civilization in which they were 
found, would resemble the condition of the abori¬ 
gines of America, far more than that of the Asiatics. 
There are many well-authenticated accounts of long 
voyages performed in native vessels by the inhabit¬ 
ants of both the North and South Pacific. In 
1696, two canoes were driven from Ancarso to one 
of the Philippine islands, a distance of 800 miles. 
“They had run before the wind for 70 days 
together, sailing from east to west.” Thirty-five 
had embarked, but five had died from the effects 
of privation and fatigue during the voyage, and 
one shortly after their arrival. In 1720, two 
canoes were drifted from a remote distance to one 
of the Marian islands. Captain Cook found in the 
island of Wateo Atiu inhabitants of Tahiti, who had 
been drifted by contrary winds in a canoe, from 
some islands to the eastward, unknown to the 
natives. Several parties have, within the last few 
