Volume 14 Australasia - dana ward's homepage

100° Meridian oP Greene RollI—482 AUSTRALASIA.East. of this my.steiious land the dispersion took place from island to island,and essays have been made to trace the very order ofthe map ofthe migrations by the aid ofTahiti and surrounding islands prepared by the Tahitian Tupaia, whoaccompanied Cook on one of his voyages. But this map itself, correct enough forTahiti and neighbouring lands, has probably little more than a mythical value forthe more western regions.Meanwhile, the race itself seems to be almost everywhere hastening to itsextinction, as shown by the accurate returns made at different times during thepresent century. In 1774 Cook estimated the population of Tahiti at about twoFig. 214.Movement.? of the Oceanic Populations.Scale 1 : 160,000,000.» H&//''i-i'^^^*^^ ^ which the population is increasing.The population increases also in the islands inserted on the map..^—^^^^^— 1,800 Miles.In all the others it diminishes.hundred and forty thousand, reduced to one hundred and fifty thousand by Forster,who assigned six hundred and fifty thousand to the whole of Polynesia. At jJresentthe Polynesians number scarcely more than one hundred and ten thousand, butwhile they are thus disappearing at a rapid rate they still remain physically one ofthe finest races on the face of the globe. In this respect there appears to be nodeterioration, and the decrease in numbers must be attributed in great part tonumerous external causes, such as former massacres, the contract labour system,especially before it was regulated bj^ government control, the sale of strong drinks,and above all the epidemics introduced by the white traders and seafarers. In1778, immediately after Cook's visit, Hawaii was decimated by this scourge, andwhat the Ilawaiians assert all their Polynesian kindred repeat, that disease andextermination were introduced by the Europeans.Even the adoption of European clothes, rendering them more susceptible to