The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1894-03-06
POlynesian NaYigatOrs First Dis.
covered the Islands.
LONG VOYAGES IN FRAIL CANOES.
1t was They Who Originally Peopled
New Zealand and Madagascsr-were
They the Earliest Inhabitants of South
Misunderstanding in Unknown Waters

Alexander, the Hawaiian Commits
sioner now in Washington, has in hi
possession a lot of most interesting
facts about the wonderful navigator
who originally colonized the Sand
wich Islands.
1t seems that in the twelfth century
at the time when the Vikings were
performing such nautical exploits in
the North Atlantic ocean, navigatorS
OF another race were making even
greater achievements on the Other
side of the world. These men, of Ma
layan stock, having started from
southeastern Asia, were discovering
and populating the archipelagoes OF
the Southern Pacific, which up TO
that time had been uninhabited. They
were the ancestors of the Polynesians
Of today.
They had invented the deep-keeled
canoe, with sail and outrigger. The
boat was sharp at both ends. Some
times it was dug out of single log;
or, if there was not a big enough tree
handy, planks were sewn together
with a braid of cocoanut fibre called
"siunet." One of the most important
features of the craft was the outrigger,
by which it was enabled, though so
long and narrow, to stand up against
the wind. When it blew hard the
sailors would climb out upon this ap-
pendage tC steady her, just as men
man9uvre for the same purpose on
board of a modern yacht.
1t is easily imagined how the race
which originally populated the archi-
pelagoes of Oceauica began the bUsi-
ness of voyaging in a small way, pad.
ding about from one coral isle to
another at easy distances. As their
skill OF navigation increased they
ventured farther on the sea, and thus
group after group was discovered and
peopled, each new island becoming a
fresh starting point for exploration.
When people have improved their
apparatus beyond their opportunities
they seek larger opportunities. These
savages found themselves at length
provided with means for making voy-
ages of indefinite duration with
safety. So the time arrived, in the
twelfth century, when more than one
Polynesian Columbus deliberately set
forth in his frail canoe across thou
sands of miles Of unknown and track
less sea in search of Dew lands.
These "Norsemen of the Pacific" as
Professor Otis T. Mason calls them,
did not fear the sea. Why should
they? Being as much at home in the
water as on land, if the boat upset
they would right her, bail her out
with cocaanut shells and get aboard
again. They did not hesitate TO at
tack the biggest man-eating shark m
the fish's native element. Having
learned 10 make -four from the taro
root, they could carry in small COM
pass provisions for long voyage.
The ocean upon which they thus
Jared forth is eleven thousand miles
wide. Compared with it, the Allan
tic is mere pond. With only the
sun, moon and stars to steer by, it is
how these untutored navi-
gators, 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 guild
ed originally to the discovery of these
and other lands by the flights of birds.
The people who first landed upon the
Hawaiian Islands came all the way
from Tahiti-a voyage to the north of
more than 300 miles. Conceive what
the subsequent passenger traffic be-
tween those islands and Tahiti must
have been to furnish progeners for the
of four hundred thousand
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 a population of twenty
thousand. 1t is literally honey
combed with caves, formed by bubbles
of expanding gases during volcanic
action, in which the inhabitants for
merry dwelt. When they died their
bones were stored in the caYerns,
great numbers of which today are
found crowded with innumerable
skeletons. Gigantic stone images and
other works of art left behind by this
people remain an enduring
evidence of a wonderful semi-civili-
zation.
BY the time of Captain Cook this
race had occupied every
island in the Pacific that was capable
Of supporting life. New Zealand was
and populated by them.
They actually made voyages to MAZDA.
yascar, the present Inhabitants of
which, the Hovas, are their descend
ants. Many scientific men are of the
opinion that they were the first dis
coverers of America-the ancestors of
he ancient Peruvians and other tribes
of South America, if not of the North |
Indians.
There are marked ethnic differences |
the ancient Peruvians and |
he Polynesians, but the general type |
s the same. A Saxon and an Irish |
nan do not look much alike, but they |
ire of the same race nevertheless. |
People coming from tropical islands |
md attempting to exist on desolare
,oast where there was no rain, would |
,e apt to undergo considerable modi-
ication in the course of generations.
he men of the archipelagoes of
)ceanica belong to the same grand
ivision of mankind as the North
american Indians, being of q cop
cry color, with black eyes and straight
lack hair.
The nriOiuaforS of fha commerce of