J.JtEdwards with Dr Hough inskind regards. VIEW OF THE ORIGIN AND MIGRATIONS OF THE POLYNESIAN NATION; DEMONSTRATING THEIR ANCIENT DISCOVERY AND PROGRESSIVE SETTLEMENT OF THE CONTINENT OF AMERICA. BY JOHN DUNMORE LANG, D.D., PRINCIPAL OF THE AUSTRALIAN COLLEGE, SYDNEY; AUTHOR OF NEW SOUTH WALES. "Omissis ergo hujusce terrenæ philosophiæ authoribus, nihil LACTANTIUS de Falsa Religione, lib. i. c. 1. LONDON: JAMES COCHRANE AND CO., 11, WATERLOO PLACE, PALL MALL. 1834. Lately published, BY THE SAME AUTHOR, AN HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF NEW SOUTH WALES. In 2 vols., post 8vo, With an accurate Map of the Colony, price 21s. cloth. "Beyond all doubt the most complete and able account of this interesting Colony that has yet been given to the public." Companion to the Library. PRINTED BY A. J. VALPY, Vignand 2-13-31 INTRODUCTION. IN the course of my second voyage from New South Wales to England, in the year 1830, I was led to devote a few days, after crossing the Line from the southward, to an attempt to ascertain the manner in which the islands of the South Seas had been originally peopled, and to inquire whether there was any affinity between the languages and the institutions and customs of their singular inhabitants, and those of any other known division of the family of man. I was induced to enter on this particular branch of literary and philosophical inquiry, partly from a natural fondness for such investigations, but chiefly from the growing importance of the South Sea Islands, both as a field for missionary labour and for |