The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-06-10

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| the peoples scattered on the many
groups. The first explorers who could
have helped us were the missionaries,
for they settled among the people,
learned their language. gave them let
ters and taught them writing. They
! We're, however filed with zeal for
saving souls and being thus filled there
was no room for an unbiased record of
the religion which they thought their
greatest duty to subvert. Their coming
changed the ideals and the mode of life
OF the natives to what they considered
better form, and consciously or un-
I consciously they implanted a sense of
shame for>their whole past life as
heather people almost universally so
! that the neophytes struggled to forget
! the past and their lips We're sealed
about matters they felt their superior
| teachers would surely condemn. OF the
various missionaries in the Pacific field
| the English have perhaps contributed
| most to our knowledge of the ethnology
| and sociology of the people they at
| tempted to convert, and certainly they
were not less possessed than others by
a desire to save souls, witness the per-
| feet type of a missionary William
Ellis in his Polynesian researches and
mers who contributed so largely to our
knowledge of people and things in the
| Papuan region and the while inspired
the rude people among whom he labor
ed with the respect and love due
father until his nartyrdom among a
| people who knew him not. Codrington
and Gill, one in the West the other in
| the East, have done much for ethnol-
ogy, nor have the RomaniSt priests
failed to contribute material of value
especially from the southeastern Pa
cific.
We know now that the religion of the
Polynesians at the time of the White
mems advent was not wholly con-
temptible,-there We're perhaps more
good points in it than in the practice
at least of the Children of Israel before
the time of David. The Polynesians
were very religious people and every
act in life was closely intertwined with
worship of the gods, and Yet there is
perhaps but one man living who has
conversed on confidential terms with a
priest of the old Hawaiian cult of
human sacrifice. and no account Of the
knowledge of the ancient worship thus
obtained within the very walls of an
ancient temple has been published hith-
erto. The interesting Polynesians are
fast departing and they leave no record. !
In other lines of Natural History our
ignorance is perhaps greater. Take the |
birds: a few visits to isolated rocks |
WI re the sea birds breed has only in
creased the list of unanswered ques- |
lions as to their migrations term of
life, and general habits. The land birds |
are hardly better known in the western ,
art of hi
fishes? The gentlemen of the Z. S. 4
Fish Commission during stay of only /
a few weeks found one hundred and5
fifty-fve species new to the fauna or /
Honolulu and this was the best studied !
part of the ARCHAEOLOGICAL fauna of the
Pacific. Doubtless many more species
remain to be described, and changes of
coIoration due to age and sex are still
to be studied. OF the Botany so little
is known about the western groups
the Solomon islands, New Hebrldes,
New Guinea and all that region that
we cannot even tell what wood the
clubs, spears and canoes are carved
from The fishes (being general art1-
cles of food are perhaps better known
than any other division of marine
Zoology.
Apart from the rapid passing of liv-
ing forms on the minute and isolated
bits of sand, coral and volcanic rock
that compose the Pacific islands. the
present seems a propitious time for a
new survey of this ocean as complete as
the means at our disposal can make IT.
The authorities at the Philippines are
at work on an chronological and biolog-
ical survey of the group forming our
western boundary, and Japan is con-
ortf ,
On our eastern border the Amerind has
been well studied by our own people, /
md for the coast tribes of South Amer
lea. Reiss. Stubel and Baessler have
lone good work. The Challenger ana {
her successors have begun the explora- {
ton of the depths of the ocean. and the '
are fairly well known. the '
Carnegie Institution is conducting l
magnetic survey of this region. Inc {
,borigi1es of the Australian continent G
ire being studied in a most thorough Z
manner by very competent Observers 7
What is needed now is a survey OF the {
nid-ocean groups; their topography c
.thnoIogv, marine zoology. While this e
,pplies primarily to the Polynesian and s
region proper it perhaps o
more strongly attaches to the Solomon e
Stands. the Bismarck Archipelago and n
Iew Guinea for in this region must
,e traces of the eastward bound lmml- a
ration. if that theory be correct. and r
+ seems to be a fact that Polynesian =
are all along that line. r
The difficulties of exploration in TINS s
-estern region are great: quite sum W
lent to engage the powers Of such men a
s brave the polar regions. for pesldes fl
he warm and humid climate. the social 81
isposition of some of the natives mas Il
ot yet been wholly corrected by m Il
arcourse with foreigners and warm
may be followed by digestion 81
/ the hidden seat of the hosts afTec- W
ions. Even the devoted Chalmers. who NJ
new the people so well, fell victim to Il
ne cannibals- M
Such prospects will not daunt the sc
i atf ct FIR, 70