1280, Genghis Khan, a great Mongol chief, whose name was a terror in Europe, at the same time invaded China with hordes of barbarians from Tartary, whom his descendants hold in subjection at the present time. Having accomplished this object, he fitted out an expedition consisting of 240,000 men in 400 ships, under command of Kublai Khan, one of his sons, for the purpose of conquering Japan. While this expedition was on the passage between the two countries, a violent storm arose, which destroyed a great part of the fleet, and drove many of the vessels on the coast of

America.

(Cronise: Wealth of California.)

Some of these statements are hardly clear. The races from which the Montezumas sprung, were natives of Atzlan, a country forming at that time a small portion of northern South America, and extending into South Central America. In about 180 A. D., a portion of this race emigrated to the valley of Mexico, forming the foundations from which the Aztecs sprung. If this statement be true, Kublai Kahn did not arrive in America until many years after. If the dates are correct, neither he or the people who are said to have reached America from Assam, about the same time, can be claimed as the founders of the Aztec

race.

Probably if a thousand years or so were taken from the above dates, and time given for the great oceanic laws governing the currents of the Pacific, as well as the gradually extending ventures of a natural maritime people, like the Chinese and Japanese, we might account for a partial peopling, at least, of the Americas by the Asiatics.

Nor is it well, in this connection, to isolate ideas

and facts, and view the peopling of the Americas from the Pacific standpoint alone, or to ignore the influence of the great ocean currents of the Atlantic, or the early maritime ventures of countries not on our side of the world, and the bearing they have had on the ethnology of America.

ISLAND RACES.

Among the islands of the Pacific, the lines separating races are very closely defined, and through what would seem perfectly natural causes. In nearly every case the peopling of the islands can be accounted for, by supposing that their migratory habits were in accordance with the natural laws controlling the winds and currents in these regions.

Closely following the migratory movements of the human race, as an example, we may take the animal kingdom. A north and south line can be drawn through the Eastern Archipelago, where animals of the larger growth cease to exist. Borneo, Sumatra, Java and some of the other islands have the animal kingdom of India and Asia well represented in the elephant, lion, tiger, panther, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, ourangutang and monkey, with the reptilian and feathered species of the larger kind, all partaking of the species found on the main land of Asia. Of this latter country, it is believed that the islands named, at one time formed a part.

Still another parallel, running north and south and further to the east, may be drawn, where the larger of the species named above, have never been known to exist. Thus, the islands of New Zealand, Tasmania, Australia, New Guinea and others in the same

range, are entirely free from the animals enumerated, excepting the monkey tribes, and in Australia the kangaroo.

Another parallel can be traced, running north and south and still further east, through the island groups of the Society, Tongas, Fijis, Samoas, Marshalls, New Hebrides and the Carolines, where hardly any animal larger than the dog or rat, can be found native to the soil. These parallels are followed just as closely by the reptilian and feathered tribes.

The latter, whose migratory powers are well known all over the world, seem curiously to draw the species line of locality or habitation, as closely as those of the animal kingdom. In the Bird of Paradise we find a marked instance. Their native home is New Guinea, where as many as twenty of this species of birds may be found, and are hardly ever to be met with in any of the other island groups.

This follows, also, in nearly as strictly defined lines, with the inhabitants of Oceanica. The people of Borneo, Java, Sumatra and the Molluccas partake of the Malay, Hindoo and Chinese, being all, in a comparative sense, a maritime people.

At Australia this race element ceases altogether. The natives are bushmen, and root-diggers, with no knowledge of navigation; not canoe-builders, or fishermen, nor in any way resembling a people who "go down to the sea in ships." The same is true of the New Zealander and the Tasmanian. Yet, but a little to the north, on New Guinea, and in the Carolines, the natives have some knowledge of canoe-building, sailing and maritime ventures. So on through the Molluccas and Phillippines, into Japan, where the art of ship-building and navigation, as among the islanders

of the Pacific, may be said to have been brought to comparative perfection.

East from Australia, in the Solomon Archipelago, and among the Marshall islanders, the Samoans, in fact, as far east as the island groups extend, north and south of the line, the Asiatic features are prominent. The inhabitants are expert canoe and boat builders, with considerable knowledge of navigation, making long voyages in their little crafts with lateen sails and outriggers to windward, and altogether perfectly at home on the water. These people, with the exception of the Fijis, and others of the wooly-headed type, have the features and many of the characteristics of the Chinese and Japanese-probably coming from those countries, making the grand circles of the ocean currents, with favoring winds, at very early periods.

The many wrecks of Japanese vessels found in the Northern Pacific, following the line of the ocean currents clear into the island groups, seems important evidence in favor of the above statement.

A like statement may be made of the maritime ventures of the Chinese, south of the equator, many traces of whose early settlements, habits and architecture are to be found in South America.

This would account for the absence of animal life of the larger kind on the easterly islands, as the length of the voyages, together with the small size of the shipping of the earlier periods, would make the carrying of animals almost an impossibility.

The prevailing winds follow the course of the currents through the equatorial regions of the Pacific from east to west. Assuming the movements of the ocean streams to be twenty-one miles per day, and

that favoring winds would add to the floating powers of a boat or canoe fifteen miles a day additional, we would have a favoring drift from east to west of thirty-six miles per day. Thus we might assume, that a journey of 1,000 miles per month could be made without the aid of sails or oars. Against such favoring circumstances it does not seem possible for a people without the modern appliances of steam and sail, to migrate.

Many traces of ruins of architecture, similar in form to the pyramidal structures of the ancient Peruvians and Chilians, are to be found in some of the islands, on Ascension particularly. Great blocks of hewn granite are to be found, with other forms of building stone, scattered over the ground in many places, and lying under water in some of the harbors. It was thought at one time that these had been transported from great distances, and that the geological formations of the material were foreign to anything to be found on the islands. Closer research, however, revealed the quarries from which the stones had been taken, located in the interior of the islands where such ruins were discovered.*

This fact has spoiled many curious, mysterious theories that were advanced in regard to the building material, and leaves us but to account for the people whose intelligence and skill, indicates their source to be from countries foreign to these islands. From the data (a review of which would but tire the reader) obtained on this subject, the race origin of many of the islanders of Oceanica is clearly indicated to be Chinese and Japanese.

*The stone implements, with the hieroglyphical writing and drawings on the rocks, found on Pitcairn by the Bounty mutineers, may help, some day, to trace the history of the ancient islanders