“(T)he first thought which presents itself to our minds, when we cast our eyes upon these islands on the map of the great ocean, is, surprise to find isles so remote from the world, with whose history we are acquainted, peopled by our own species …”
“… it may be as well, therefore, to make a few remarks, under the guidance of such information as we possess, concerning the first inhabitants of the group, and upon the probable means of their transport from the land from which they seem to have proceeded.”
“Future historians of this little state will not be spared the perplexities which have obstructed the first steps of all who have endeavoured to trace the course of events by which small societies became mighty nations.”
“We may pass very lightly over certain speculations, which cannot be wholly overlooked, tending to show that the natives of this group, if not those of the rest of the Polynesian isles, are descended from the lost tribes of the Jews.”
“These conjectures are founded upon the observation of several customs among the islanders, which are the same or similar to those believed to have been peculiar to the Jewish people.”
“The more remarkable of them are: the offering of their first-fruits to their deities; circumcision, which was also here a religious ceremony, and performed by the priests …”
“… the strict seclusion of the women after the birth of a child, and during other periods of natural infirmity, with the ceremonies of purification, under pain even of death; and the possession of cities or places of refuge, similar in design to those of that people.”
“The circumstances that chiefly strike us, when we compare one people with another, with a view to ascertain what ‘propinquity and property of blood’ they possess, are their physical conformation generally, but more particularly the features of the face, and their colour …”
“… and, after this, their language, their religion, and their well-established customs. For such examination of those that are at distances too remote from us to admit of especial or frequent observation, we have usually, and certainly in our case, to rely upon the accounts of navigators, missionaries, travellers, and merchants.”
“Now we find almost the universal testimony of all who have visited the Pacific islands, that the inhabitants of the whole of the groups, as well as of New Zealand, resemble one another in several, or in all these particulars …”
“… and, moreover, that they all bear in their type and physical conformation a greater resemblance to the Malay race, than to any other of the ancient inhabitants of the globe.”
“But all difficulties in the way of establishing the theory of their having sprung from that race will disappear when we consider certain traditions among the natives, in conjunction with known facts concerning the intercourse between the inhabitants of distinct groups …”
“… and some other circumstances which I myself, in common with others, learned in the capacity of traveller during these inquiries in the Pacific.”
“There are traditions among the Sandwich islanders regarding the land from which their ancestors came, and of an intercourse formerly carried on between different groups, and it is commonly believed by them, that they came from Otaheite.”
“They believe also that their progenitors, at a very remote period, possessed canoes of much larger dimensions and greater capability of navigating the ocean than the frail craft since in use among them.”
“If, indeed, such canoes or vessels of any kind did ever exist, this fact alone is sufficient to settle the question of the intercourse formerly carried on between the islands, as well as that of the origin of the inhabitants.”
“Let us then see what external information we have to corroborate these traditions. We know, from history, that every country bordering on the sea has from the earliest ages abounded in maritime adventurers …”
“… and, if we are acquainted with many circumstances which indicate the restraints that were put upon foreign enterprise and lawful trading, we also know that no laws have ever been able to suppress the marauding propensities of a nautical people …”
“… or of the organization even of direct systems of piratical adventure. Now, although we should suppose that no very long voyages were ever performed by any of the ‘Sea Kings,’ or Northmen of the Pacific …”
“… we have evidence in abundance, of the vessels of the Chinese and the Japanese being picked up by European whalers, after having been blown off the coasts of China and Japan, some of them with whole families on board.”
“In 1832, a junk, after being tempest-tossed for eleven months, was cast on the shore even of Woahoo, with four men of her crew still surviving, and some of these vessels have been known to reach even the coast of America.”
“During the voyage, with which this volume commences, there were but few old sailors among the seamen and officers on board our ship; but these had been long sailing in whalers in the Pacific, and especially upon the coasts of China and Japan …”
“… and they related to me many instances known to them of junks being blown off those coasts, and picked up after they were incapable of returning, and of their crews having been carried back to their own country.”
“In one of these cases, one of our officers was himself a party to the rescue of a junk and her crew, long after her pilots had lost all hopes of reaching their own shore.”
“Now it is clear, that it would be quite enough for any single one of these vessels to reach any island, provided there were but one man and one woman surviving, to people at least the whole group to which that island belonged …”
“… though it is extremely unlikely, that from a single vessel, probably cast on the shore, others should proceed to undertake the long voyage which the great distance between the groups would involve.”
“Nevertheless, if we even reject altogether the idea of intercourse between the groups generally, we have the same probability left, of the peopling of all the groups, one by one, by the same accident …”
“… which would equally account for the common Malay origin of their inhabitants, and also for such variation as we discover in their natural traits, customs, and language, by the variation of the character of the different nations of Malay origin, from which they might have come.” (All here is from Hill.)
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