442 
MISSIONARY TOUR 
natives were larger formerly than they are now, and 
yet we have known them make several long voyages, 
being sometimes a fortnight or three weeks at sea. In 
the year 1821, a large canoe arrived at Maurua from 
Rurutu, and as it passed to the north of Huahine, must 
have sailed 500 miles, even supposing it had made a 
direct course. Since that time, a boat from Tahiti 
reached one of the islands near Mangea, almost 600 
miles, in a direct course, but probably not half the 
distance actually sailed by the natives in the boat. 
Canoes are frequently arriving at Tahiti from some of 
the eastern islands. Two came recently from Hao, an 
island of which the Tahitians were before entirely igno¬ 
rant. Several canoes passing among the islands, have 
been blown out to sea, and have never returned ; and 
the native teachers sent from the Society Islands to 
the various islands lying between them and the Friendly 
Islands, have met among them several of their coun¬ 
trymen. These voyages have always been in a west¬ 
erly direction. We never heard of one to the eastward. 
The trade-winds blowing within the tropics from the 
eastward more than three-fourths of the year, and their 
canoes not being adapted to sail close to the wind, 
render it difficult for the natives of the leeward islands 
to pass to windward. They never attempt it, except 
when the wind is somewhat westerly, which is but sel¬ 
dom, while it often blows steadily from the east for 
weeks together. 
These circumstances seem to favour the conjecture 
that the inhabitants of the islands west of Tongatabu 
have an Asiatic origin entirely ; but that the natives of 
the eastern islands may be a mixed race, who have 
emigrated from the American continent, and from the 
