The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1892-12-09
ADRlF7 ON THE Seas.
INSTANCES OF REN4RK.
ABLE JOURNEYS.
Involuntary Wanderines That
Peopled the Isles of
the Pacific.

In the earliest days Of navigation
across the Pacific Ocean the myri.
ads of islands, big and little, scat
tered over the broad expanse were
found to be inhabited. Questions
as to the origin of these people and
how they reached their island homes,
separated as they often are by hun
-dreds of miles Of ocean, have long
interested anthropologists. 1t was
certain that these oceanic people
could not have originated where
they were found, for their relation
ship, not only with one another,
but also with the inhabitants of the
Malay archipelago, was easily appar-
ent. An hypothesis that had con-
siderable vogue was that these
islanders were merely remnants of
the people Of continent that years
ago sank beneath the waves with
only its mountain tops peering above
them. This hypothesis was proved
to be worthless.
In the course of the Investigations
it has become perfectly evident that
these islands were peopled by migra-
tions, and that very many of these
migrations were involuntary It has
been observed that the greatest and
most eastern of these Pacific races,
the Polynesians, in their traditions,
mode of life, religious practices, re-
semble in many respects the Papu-
ans, Malayans, and even the Japan
ese.
EVEN AMERICAN INDIANS RELATED.
Some careful observers have also
found analogies between the Poly
nesians and the natives of North
and South America, and it may be
that American Indian races had
some part in peopling the Pacific
islands, superstition that derives
the more probability from the fact
that the prevailing winds and cur
rents south of the Equator move
from east to west.
Since the Pacific became we'll
known numerous instances of migra
tons from continental lands to the
islands and from archipelago to
archipelago have been recorded.
Reclus tells of a Japanese junk
which, in 1882, was carried by a
typhoon far east of the island home
of the nine poor fishermen who
were on board. The Kuro Sivo
current bore the castaways still
further east. They lost all their
bearings, knew not whittier they
were drifting, and for ten months
they were buffeted here and there
on unknown seas until finally their
helpless vessel brought up on the
coast of Oahu, in the Hawaiian
Islands. Thanks to their load of
fish AMI the rain water they caught,
four of the unfortunates lived to
tell the story of their terrible
sufferings.
HAWAIIAN RESEMBLANCE TO THE JAPs.
sit is plain now that we came
from Asia" said the Hawaiians as
they recognized the resemblance be-
tween these foreigners and them
selves. Pine trees brought from the
coasts of Oregon or Vancouver Isl
and are often stranded on the shores
of this archipelago, and the tradi-
tions of Hawaii have handed down
reports of red men from the far East
whom some chance has cast upon the
islands.
One of the greatest geographers
has said that nations push forward
to possess new lands in a direction
opposite to that of the general move
ment of the air and waters This is
the case in the Pacific. To be sure
the general movement Of air and cur
rents flowing west produce retiuz
currents moving east, which have
undoubtedly been of great import
ance in scattering people among the
Eastern archipelagos. But these
counter currents are almost wholly
north Of the Equator, where oceanic
lands are rare. Most of the Polyne
sian islands are south of the Equator
where strong currents move across
the ocean from the Western world
toward Australia and New Guinea
and to reach these Eastern islands
the boats of the unfortunate cast
Always or voluntary travellers must
have been driven by wind and wave
over tortuous course until at last
when far towards America they
struck the westward currents and
wind zones and were carried to the
new homes of which they had never
heard.
IRIvEN FAR FROM THE DIRECT COURSE
Often, if they could have Travelled
in straight line, journey o
five or six hundred miles would
have taken them TO their neV
places of abode. But, as Recius ha:
said. the authentic records of these
involuntary voyages, made during
the past three centuries, show tina
many times the actual journey wa
two or three times as long as thu
shortest route. 1t is certain tina
comparatively few of these castaway'
were spared to be the seed from
which future peoples were to spring
bow many of them with their frai
crafts We're swallowed up in thu
deep?
There is proof, also, that these mi
grations have not only been the re
suit of accident, but, sometimes, also
of deliberate purpose. Two scholars
+bo Lotto Drof Onartrafaoes and Mr.