The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1897-07-24
Strange Tale of People of
Other Years.
History Of Events Handed Down in
Song From One Generation
TO Another.

Especially written for the Advertiser
by H. p. Guppy, M. b.
The stranger in these Islands may
! look at things from two very different
admire the energy and enterprise with
which the white man is developing the
resources of the group. On the other
hand, the student of nature, anxious to
keep the old world about him, will la
ment the decay of a brave and kind
hearted people. Whilst in the one case
he will find, in the gallant struggle Of
the young Republic to justify it's ex-
istence before the world, a repetition
of the story of Anglo-Saxon pluck
over large part of the globe, he will
in the other observe with keenest SYM
pathy the attitude of a race standing
aloof and gazing sadly at the spectacle
of change around it. The naturalist, as
he climbs the mountain slopes and
looks down upon the lowlands, is apt to
be frequently in the blues. He longs to
see the people that once occupied the
viIlages~and towns, the sites of which
are now only indicated by the tracery
Of tumbling walls on the surface of
the plains.
The scene of the following legend,
much of which will not be ineligible
without reference to my previous
articles of May 4th and June 10th, is
laid somewhere between Tonga and
Fiji.
From time to time in the history OF
the POlynesian race, the length and
breadth of the Pacific have been tra-
versed by fleets of large canoes laden
with migrating peoples. There is rea>
son for the belief that there has been
no deliberate selection of the routes
In the course of ages the fleets appear
% have followed certain definite tracks, |
although the cause of their doing so is |
not apparent Colonies were estab- |
ished at intervals on the line of each |
route, and they formed halting-places |
for the several migrations. Genera |
ions often separated one migration |
rom the next; but in the colonies the |
tradition was never lost, the date of |
he last migration being the commence
nent of new era, beyond which very |
title was remembered. In the arrange |
ment of all their plans and in the d. |
rection of all their aims, the coming |
was the determining point.
The spectacle of successive multitudes |
Of men crossing the ocean along the |
same course, impelled by the same mo- |
ives, and never returning to the land |
Of their birth is more suggestive of |
that mysterious instinct exhibited in |
the migration of the lower animals |
han of that freedom of action and de- |
Iiberate purpose we are wont to at |
tribute to the mind of man.
It was in one of these colonies that |
+ found myself on the eve of the last |
migration. It was situated at the |
mouth of a narrow strait, through |
which ran a rapid current, never |
changing in it's direction. The cliffs |
On either side of the passage rose up |
to a height of several |
hundred feet, the lodges on their dark |
'aces being white with the deposits Of |
sea fowl that at certain periods con-
there in myriads. To the peo-
Die of the colony it was known as the |
Pass of the Thousand Canoes. They |
alleged that the water had no bottom.
md as they believed that no man who
entered it came back again, it's interior
vas unknown to them, and no canoe
ever attempted to stem its rapid cur
'ent.
Down this narrow strait sailed the
leets of the several migrations, and
tradition had preserved many details
If curious interest relating to the last