NAME OF POLYNESIA. 3 
Ladrone, and subsequently the Philippine islands. 
The object of the voyage was ultimately accom¬ 
plished ; the Victory, the vessel in which Magellan 
sailed, having performed the first voyage ever 
made round the world, returned to Europe : but 
the intrepid commander of the expedition termi¬ 
nated his life without reaching his original destina¬ 
tion, having been killed in a quarrel with the 
natives of one of the Philippine Islands. 
Several distinguished Spanish, Dutch, and Bri¬ 
tish navigators followed the adventurous course of 
Magellan across the waters of the Pacific, and 
were rewarded by the discoveries they made in that 
part of the world, which, under the appellation of 
Polynesia,* from a Greek term signifying many 
islands , geographers have since denominated the 
sixth division of the globe. This designation was, 
in the sixteenth century, given by Portuguese 
authors to the Moluccas, the Philippines, and other 
islands to the eastward of Java; and was first 
appropriated to those clusters and islands, in refer¬ 
ence to which it is employed in the present work, 
by President de Brosses, in his History of Naviga¬ 
tion, published in Paris, 1756. 
But, although many single islands and exten¬ 
sive groups, of diversified form and structure, some 
inhabited by isolated families of men, others peo¬ 
pled only by pelicans or aquatic birds, have been 
visited and explored, fresh discoveries continue to 
* According to I)e Brosses, Malte Bran, Pinkerton, 
and others, Polynesia includes the various islands found 
in the Pacific, from the Ladrones to Easter Island. The 
principal groups are—the Ladrone Islands, the Carolinas, 
the Pelew Islands, the Sandwich Islands, the Friendly 
Islands, the Navigators' Islands, the Hervey Islands, the 
Society Islands, the Georgian Islands, and the Marquesas. 
B 2 
