We must not be misled here, any more than in our estimate of possible Atlantic voyagers, by the undue contempt with which the European is apt to gauge the capacity of primitive island mariners. At Vanikoro, the native canoe is a mere rudely-fashioned trunk of a tree, sufficiently grooved to afford foot-hold; yet to this the islander attaches an outrigger, spreads a mat for his sail, and boldly launches forth into the ocean, though few Europeans would be induced to venture in such a craft on the stillest pool. Dr. Pickering, when illustrating the ideas of ocean migration which he was led to form from intimate observations of widely-scattered and very diverse branches of the human family, remarks: “Of the aboriginal vessels of the Pacific, two kinds only are adapted for long sea-voyages: those of Japan, and the large double canoes of the Society and Tonga groups. In times anterior to the impulse given to civilised Europe through the noble enterprise of Columbus, Polynesians were accustomed to undertake sea-voyages nearly as long, exposed to equal dangers, and in vessels of far inferior construction. However incredible this may appear to many, there is sufficient evidence of the fact. The Tonga people are known to hold intercourse with Vavao, Samoa, the Fiji Islands, Rotuma, and the New Hebrides. But there is a document, published before those seas were frequented by whalers and trading-vessels, which shows a more extensive aboriginal acquaintance with the islands of the Pacific. I allude to the map obtained by Forster and Cook from a native of the Society Islands, and which has been shown to contain not only the Marquesas, and the islands south and east of Tahiti, but the Samoan, Fiji, and even more distant groups. Again, in regard to the principles of navigation, the Polynesians appear to possess a better knowledge of the subject than is commonly supposed, as is shown from recent discoveries at the Hawaiian Islands. One of the Hawaiian headlands has been found to bear the name of _The starting-place for Tahiti_: the canoes, according to the account of the natives, derived through the missionaries, leaving in former times at a certain season of the year, and directing their course by a particular star.”