CHAP. I. Williams' di sudden shock of an earthquake. Tanna and Pico belong to the first class; Otaheite, Huaheine, and Bolabola, are distinct specimens of the second; and Easter Island may be adduced as an example of the third. In this last all the rocks are black, burnt, and honeycombed; some have the appearance of slag; nay, even the soil, which is but thinly spread over the calcined masses, bears a close resemblance to dark-yellow ochre.* Mr Williams, the author of an interesting work on vision of the the South Sea, divides the islands of Plutonic origin high islands. into two orders, the Mountainous and the Hilly. In the former, the height of the land varies from 2000 to 15,000 feet above the level of the sea, the towering summits gradually rising from their base till they are lost in the clouds. The sides of these magnificent elevations are clothed with bright verdure of various shades, blending together in a very striking manner the elements of grandeur, wildness, sublimity, and beauty. All the islands of this class exhibit indubitable marks of volcanic eruption. In many of them the rocks are composed of a fine-grained basalt; in others pumice is found, together with stones of varied appearance, which have evidently undergone the action of fire. It is clear, moreover, that all these islands have at one time been under water; for at the top of the highest peaks, coral, shells, and other marine substances, are seen in great abundance. The savage and romantic appearance of the rocks, their broken, abrupt, and irregular forms, also indicate that at some remote era they have been subjected to disruption by the power of some mighty agent affecting their interior. The hilly islands. The islands which fall under the denomination of Hilly, vary in height from 100 to 500 feet, and are, in a great degree, destitute of the volcanic phenomena which abound in the others. The rocks, which are said to resemble the aragonite of the Giant's Causeway, are supposed to have been originally coral, and to owe * Forster's Observations, p. 153. their present hardness to the action of the atmosphere, as well as to that of water percolating from above through the mass while in a porous state.* CHAP. L All the Society Islands and many others in the Paci- Encompassfic are surrounded by a belt of secreted rock, from two to ing reefs. twenty yards in width, and situated at a distance which varies from a few feet to more than a mile. Against this barrier the long rolling waves of the ocean are driven with a terrific violence, and towering in one sheet to an immense height, dash themselves upon it with majestic power, though without producing any perceptible effect. The water between the reef and the shore is placid and transparent, at the bottom of which, and in the sloping sides of the banks, an enchanting picture presents itself. Coral of every shape and of every hue, intermingled in the richest profusion, suggests to the imagination the idea of a submarine flower-garden; while among the branches of the madrepore, and the spreading leaves of other varieties, fish of every colour gambol about in conscious security. the coral. But, in point of fact, the distinction now stated between mountainous and hilly does not apply to the physical principles according to which the several islands have been formed; for, as is well known, every one of them hitherto examined consists either of volcanic rocks or of limestone. With regard to the thickness of Thickness of he coral masses, it has been thought that the species of polypus which contributes most to their formation, does not live where the water is deeper than twentyfive or thirty feet. But it is not improbable that the branched madrepores, which exist at very considerable depths, may lay the foundation of a reef, and raise the platform on which the others are built. These conjectures, however, do not possess any strong claim upon our confidence, and are only entitled to be ranked with those other opinions which have been brought forward relative to the rate at which coral is supposed to grow in the vaults of the great deep. A Williams' Narrative of Missionary Enterprises in the South Sea Islands (8vo, Lond. 1837), p. 21. CHAP. I. modern author observes that the tendency of polypes to multiply in the seas of warm climates is so great, that the bottom of the tropical ocean swarms with countless myriads of them, ever actively employed in conExtent of the structing their small but enduring habitations. Almost volcanic cone and ridge, under the surface of the ocean, is made the nucleus of a colony. The calcareous secretions are accumulated into enormous banks or reefs, sometimes stretching to a length of many hundred miles; and these continually rising to view in spots where they were unknown before, endanger the navigation of many parts within the torrid zone. coral forma tions. Slowness of their growth. every * There is reason to doubt whether the process be quite so rapid as these remarks might seem to establish. The period of observation has not yet been sufficiently extended to afford ground for any conclusions as to the rate or the precise mode in which such additions to the crust of the earth are effected. The latest surveys, indeed, appear to warrant the opinion that the growth of coral is not so quick as has been commonly imagined. During the late expedition to the Pacific, directed by Captain Beechey, no positive information could be obtained of any channel having been filled up within a given period ; and it seems placed beyond doubt, that several reefs had remained more than half a century at nearly the same elevation, at least if measured by the flow of the tide. It is admitted, nevertheless, that the increase of coral limestone may vary greatly according to the situation of mineral springs; for, in volcanic countries, these are known to issue in considerable abundance at the bottom of the ocean. Examples occur even in the Mediterranean, where they sometimes cause the sea at great depths to be fresher than at the surface; a phenomenon which is said to be very common near some of the islands in the Pacific.t * Buckland's Geology and Mineralogy considered with Reference to Natural Theology (2 vols 8vo, Lond. 1836), vol. i. pp. 443, 444. Williams' Narrative, p. 29. Lyell, vol. iii. p. 282. Beechey's Narrative of a Voyage the Pacific (2 vols 8vo, Lond. 1831), vol. i. p. 258. CHAP. I. The next question which naturally presents itself to the consideration of a philosophical inquirer is that which respects the origin and character of the inhabitants of the South Sea Islands. In the first place, it is clearly Origin of the ascertained that there are two distinct races of men who, Polynesians. from a very remote period, have occupied Polynesia, whose physical qualities are different, and whose languages have hardly any elements in common. The one class bear a considerable resemblance to the negro tribes ; having a black complexion, woolly hair, and depressed features. The other, from their colour and general appearance, seem to claim an affinity to the eastern Asiatics, and are supposed to have found their way, at an early age, from the Malayan Peninsula to those clusters of islands that gird the equator at a greater distance towards the east. language. It has been said that a tabular view of certain words in the Malayan, the Asiatic, the American, and the Polynesian tongues, would probably show that at some remote period the inhabitants of these several parts of the world maintained frequent intercourse, or, at all events, that colonies from some one of them originally contributed to people the others. The striking ana- Analogies logy between sundry parts of speech, not less than the of their similarity of customs prevailing among the aborigines of Madagascar, the Malays, and the Eastern Islanders, would make manifest that they are essentially one people, or at least, that they had migrated from the same source. It is alleged, too, that in many points the language and traditions of the Americans so strongly resemble those of Asia as to lead to the inference that they also must have made their way from the eastern shores of the old continent. But whether some of the tribes, whose motion from west to east across Behring's Straits we are now assuming, became the progenitors of the race who at present possess the Aleutian Islands; and whether, at some subsequent era, the settlers on the American coast were driven by the trade-winds to the Sandwich group, whence they Their original migrations. CHAP. I afterwards proceeded to others southward of the line, are questions which cannot be determined with any degree of certainty. Nor is it more easy to decide whether those of them who, in the course of time, had penetrated so far down as the valleys of Chili and Peru, trusted themselves at length to the Pacific, peopled Easter Island, and continued in their progress towards the west till they met the tide of emigration flowing from Java and Sumatra, where the Malays are still found to constitute the majority of the inhabitants. At all events, from a variety of facts connected with those countries, it has been supposed by several authors, either that part of the people who dwell in the islands of the South Sea must have proceeded from America, or that certain tribes of Polynesians, at some former epoch, had accomplished a passage thither, and formed a permanent settlement. Difficulties of their Some writers have maintained that numerous skeletons discovered in the caverns of Kentucky and Tennessee are the remains of a Malay tribe; and this opinion seems to be founded on the circumstance, that some of the bodies were wrapped in feather cloaks similar to those used in the Sandwich and Fijee Islands, and also that the best defined specimens of art among the antiquities of Ohio are clearly of a Polynesian character. From these facts it has been inferred that the North Americans, South Sea Islanders, and Malays were formerly the same people, or descended from one common origin as natives of Eastern Asia. As to the difficulties which must have attended the pasmigrations. sage of the first inhabitants from the American continent to the most eastern of the islands in the Pacific, these, it is asserted, are not greater than would necessarily oppose the migration of an equally rude people from the Society to the Sandwich Archipelago; and yet the identity of the inhabitants of these two clusters has never been disputed. It is, indeed, by no means obvious which of the two portions now mentioned of the Farther Polynesia was first colonized. Evidence of a great antiquity may be adduced in favour of both; but Mr. Ellis, no mean |