Of the islands generally, we need only further observe that, although situated within the tropics, the heat of the atmosphere is delightfully tempered by a succession of land and sea breezes. The soil is exceedingly fertile; and besides the vegetable productions found growing when the islands were first discovered by Europeans, it has given a welcome home to the orange, lemon, sugar-cane, guava, cotton, potato, melon, and other fruits and plants introduced by foreign visitants. The only native quadrupeds on any of the islands when first visited were pigs, dogs, and rats: but the ox, the sheep, the goat, and even the horse, have since been successfully introduced into many of the groups. The.feathercd tribes are numerous, likewise the insects, and the coasts every where abound with a vast variety of fish and crustacea, highly important as a matter of food to the inhabitants of those islands in which quadrupeds, whether native or intro duced, are found in only a small number.
For a more particular description of the several groups, we refer to the distinct articles of FIJIS, FRIENDLY ISLANDS, SANDWICH ISLANDS, etc. ; and shall now proceed to speak of the inhabitants generally under the head POLYNESIANS.—This race of people, supposed at one time by certain writers to be of American origin, is now almost universally admitted to have a close affinity with the Malays of the peninsula and Indian archipelago, and hence is classified with them by Dr. Latham under his subdivision of Oceanic Mongolithc. In physical structure and appearance, the Polynesians in general more nearly resemble the Malays than they do any other race, although differing from them in some respects, as. indeed, the natives of several of the groups also do from each other. In stature, they are generally taller than the Malays, and have a greater tendency to corpulence. In color, also, they more nearly approach that of the Europeans. The hair is often waved or curling, instead of long and straight, and the nose is frequently aquiline. These differences, however, which may all have been produced by lapse of time and different conditions of existence, offer no barrier to the strong presumption, that at some long antecedent period these islands were colonized by Malay adventurers. The Malays are known at the present time to be expert and daring sailors, mid in the 16th c. were so powerful at sea, that they had fre quent naval combats with European fleets in the Indian archipelago. In 1573 the king of Acheen, with a powerful armament, attacked and destroyed three Portuguese frig ates; and in 1582 the same king attacked Malacca with a fleet of 150 sail. At a later period—namely, in 1615, one of his successors attacked the same settlement with it fleet of 500 vessels of various sizes and 00,000 men. If this was their strength and enterprise at a comparatively modern period, may they not have been as enterprising, if not quite so powerful, in far more remote times? The distance between the more western groups of Polynesia and the eastern islands of the Indian archipelago is not so great but that it could have been easily overcome by a hardy race of sailors, even although their vessels may have not been so well constructed as in modern times; and the some reasoning holds good with respect to the other groups extending still further e., or still more to the n. or south. Each island or group, as it was attained, would only form a convenient point of departure in process of time for some other island or group more remotely situ ated. It is true that the affinities of language are not great between the Malays and the Polynesians; still, some affinity has been recognized by philologers; in their man ners and customs a strong resemblance has been shown to exist, as in the institution of caste, the practice of circumcision, the chewing of the betel-mit, and other things. Many other facts might be mentioned in favor of the theory of a Malay settlement, not only of Polynesia, but of the islands called Melanesia or Keltunonesia as well; the last mentioned being inhabited by a race almost identical with the Negritos or Pelagian Negroes of the Eastern archipelago. Dr. Latham, in treating of the Polynesians, divides them into two branches—viz., 1. The Micronesian branch. and 2. The proper Polynesian branch. his theory as to the probable line of migration is as follows: " The reason for taking the ,Micronesian branch before the proper Polynesian, involves the following question: What. was the line of population by which the innumerable islands of the
Pacific, from the Pelews to Easter island, and from the Sandwich islands to New Zea land, became inhabited by tribes different from, but still allied to, the Protonesian Malays? That line, whichever it be, where the continuity of successive islands is the greatest, and whereon the fewest considerable interspaces of ocean are to be found. Phis is the general answer a priori, subject to modifications from the counterbalancing phenomena of winds or currents, unfavorable to the supposed migration. Now, this answer, when applied to the geographical details regarding the distribution of land 11111I sea in the great oceanic area, indicates the 'following line. New Guinea, New In-land, the New Hebrides, the Fijis, and the Tonga group, etc. From hence, the Navigator's islands, the isles of the Dangerous archipelago, the Kingsmill and other groups, carry the frequently diverging streams of population over the Caroline islands, the Lc.drones, the Pelews, Easter island, etc. This view, however, so natural an inference from a mere land and sea survey, is complicated by the ethnological position of the New Guinea, New Ireland, and New Hebrides population. These are not Protonesian, and they are not Polynesian. lastly, they are not intermediate to the two. They break, rather than propagate the continuity of the human stream—a continuity which exists geographically, but foils ethnographically. The recognition of this conflict between the two probabilities has determined me to consider the .Micronesian archipelago as that part of Polynesia which is most likely to have been first peopled, and hence a reason for taking it first in order." The islands comprised in the Micronesian branch are the Pelew islands, the Caroline islands. the Marian islands, and the Tarawnn or Kingsmill group. In physical appearance the inhabitants of these groups more nearly resemble the Malays than is the case with the Polynesians proper. In person they are not so tall as the latter. Their language tuts numerous dialects, most of which would perhaps be Ittihad• ligible to the groups further s. and east. In religion they are pagans; but their mythol ogy and traditions differ from those of the Polynesians proper. Neither is the custom of the taboo and the use of kawa so prevalent as they are found to be among the latter. The proper Polynesians, so called, arc found in the Fiji islands, but not to the same extent as in the followingviz., the Navigator's or Samoan islands, the Society islands, and Friendly islands; also in the Sandwich islands. the Marquesas, the Dangerous amid. pclago, etc. In physical appearance, they are the handsomest and tallest of all the natives of the Pacific islands, with the exception, perhaps, of the New Zealanders or Maoris The aquiline nose is commonly seen among them, and them are many varieties both of hair and complexion. Their face is generally oval, with largish ears and wide nostrils. In the islands nearest to the equator. the skin is said to be the fairest, and it is darker in the coral islands than in the volcanic. Their language is said to bear some affinity to the Tagala. and is split up into numerous dialects, all, however, to a great extent mutually intelligible among the several groups. Paganism, originally prevalent among all the groups, is becoming gradually extirpated through the efforts of the mis. sionaries. principally English and American, as in the Samoan. Sandwich, and Society groups, where but few absolute pagans now remain. The superstition of the taboo, the use of kawa as an intoxicating drink, cannibalism, infanticide, tattooing, and circum cision, which were also formerly prevalent in all the groups, are now fast disappearing, under the influence of Christianity. Unfortunately, however, the contact of these islanders with civilization has not been always productive of unmixed good; the intro duction among them of the use of ardent spirits, and of the vices and diseases of peans, having thinned the population to a lamentable extent. Further particulars with respect to the natives of Polynesia will be found in some of our articles on the groups regarded as being the most important.