The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1894-02-20
NORsEMEN OF THE PACIFIC.


Something About the Ancient Dis
coverers of Hawaii.
These "Norsemen of the Pacific" as
Professor Otis T. Mason calls them, did
not fear the sea. Why should they 2
Being as much at home in the water as
on the land, if the boat upset they
would right her. bail her out with
cocoanut shells and get aboard again.
They did not hesitate to attack the
biggest man eating shark in the fish's
native element. Having learnt to make
flour from the taro root they could
carry in small compass provisions for a
long voyage.
The ocean upon which they Jared
forth is 1000 miles wide. Compared
with it the Atlantic is mere pond
With only the sun, moon and stars to
steer by it is marvellous how these I'M
tutored navigators, having once come
upon such isolated bits of terra firma as
Easter Island and the Hawaiian group,
should have been able to find their way
home and make trips to and fro as they
did, carrying new colonists on each
voyage out.
= Possibly they may have been guided
originally to the discovery of these and
other lands by the flight of birds. The
people who first landed upon the Ha-
waiian Islands came all the way from
Tahiti--a voyage to the north of more
than $500 miles. Conceive what the
subsequent passenger traffic between
those islands and Tahiti must have been
to furnish progeners for the population
of 100000 souls which Captain Cook
found when he visited Hawaii.
Similarly, Easter Island, though but a
block of lava thrown up from the
depths of the sea and having an area
Of only thirty-two square miles, once
had II population of 10000. 1t is literally
honeycombed with caves, formed by
bubbles of expanding gases during vol
canic action, in which the inhabitants
formerly dwelt. When they died their
bones were stored in the caverns, great
numbers of which to-day are found
crowded with innumerable skeletons.
Gigantic stone images and other works
of art left behind by this vanished PEG.
pie remain an enduring evidence of a
wonderful standardization.
By the time of Captain Cook this ad-
venturous race had occupied every isl
and in the Pacific that was capable of
supporting life. New Zealand was dis
covered and populated by them. They
actually made voyages to Madagascar,
the present inhabitants of which, the
Hovas, are their descendants. Many
scientific men are of the opinion that
they were the first discoveries of Amer
ica-the ancestors of the ancient Peru
vians and othertribes of South America
if not of the North American Indians.
There are marked ethnic differences
between the ancient Peruvians and the
Polynesians, but the general type is the
same. A Saxon and an Irishman do no
look much alike, but they are of tn,
same race nevertheless. People coming
from tropical islands and undertaking
to exist on desolate coast where ther,
was no rain would be apt to undergo
considerable modification in the cours,
of generations. The men on the archi
pelagoes of Oceanica belong to the sam,
grand division of mankind as the Nortl
American Indians, being of copper,
color, with black eyes and straight an'
black hair.
These originators of the commerce o
the Pacific commonly employed TO
long voyages double canoes, whicl
were built like modern catamarans
They sailed very swiftly, and each o
the two boats served in the place of al
outrigger for the other. Such Graf
would carry sixty or seventy people
The builders had every suitable materia
at hand for coDstruction-big timber
cocoa fiber for Irvine, aud gum fo
calking. In fact the islands of tn
South Seas are like so many gardens G
Eden, furnishing their occupants wit
everything they want without niue
labor.
A.typlcal canoelof the sort describe