UNDISCOVERED ISLANDS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVI, Issue XXIV, 13 June 1896, Page 702

UNDISCOVERED ISLANDS.

Are there any undiscovered islands in the North or South Pacific ’—islands to whose people, if they are inhabited by human beings, the world is unknown ? Many experienced navigators have expressed the opinion that such islands may possibly exist. Then why have they not been discovered is the question that naturally follows. Hundreds of vessels are crossing and recrossing those great spaces annually, and English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and American exploring expeditions, especially alert and venturesome during the latter part of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth, have left on the maps of the silent waters a network of lines marking their search for new lands. Whaling ships have cruised far south of the Arctic in quest of bone and oil, moving with the trade winds, drifting with the ocean currents, and following no charted course. Unfrequented latitudes have been sought, even as far south as the Antarctic, and many profitable catches iu the vicinity of the equatorial islands have been recorded. Disabled vessels have drifted far out of their course, aud buccaneers have searched for spoil on almost every line of longitude between the coasts of Mexico and the Spice Islands. Thus it would seem that every considerable part of the Pacific Ocean must have been visited since Balboa first looked down upon its peaceful waters ; but a glance at its mighty areas, with a knowledge of the limit of human vision in traversing them, will tend to correct the error of supposing that through all the agencies named anything more than a partial exploration of the Western Sea has been accomplished, or that nothing farther in the line of discovery may be reasonably expected. No new islands of importance have been mapped for more than three quarters of a century. Previous to that period nearly every maritime power in Europe had been

diligently scouring the seas in search of them. The fever of discovery following the splendid achievements'pf Columbus had not yet subsided, and almost every vessel returning from the Pacific added something to the geeographical knowledge of the world. The Hawaiian islands were among the last to be discovered in the North Pacific. To Captain Cook is accorded the credit of the discovery, notwithstanding the Spanish claim that one Gaetano, on a voyage from Acapulco to the Moluccas in 1555, sighted the group without landing, and gave names to two or more of its islands. If so he forfeited the right to be recognised as their discoverer by charting them incorrectly. Although the early navigators of the Pacific—Magellan, La Perouse, Cook, Vancouver and others—were skilful and courageous seamen, their vessels were constructed with a less regard to their speed and tractability than to their safety and endurance, and their movements were directed largely by the winds and currents encountered. Except when reversed or deflected by the orbital position of the earth these periodic winds and deep-sea currents are practically uniform in volume and velocity, and their aid is still songht by sailing vessels in navigating the waters of the Pacific. It is, therefore, reasonable to assume that along the lines of these ocean forces the zones affected by them have been penetrated in almost every degree of latitude and longitude during the past three hundred years, leaving little room within their compass for the discovery of lands new to the world. But the fact remains that the great spaces beyond them have been bnt partially explored, with the probability of there being areas of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of square miles on both sides of the equator over which vessels have rarely passed. The development of Asiatic, Australian and Polynesian trade has largely augmented the number of vessels continually traversing the Pacific on errands of commerce, but everything is sacrificed to the modern demand for speed as well as safety, and they follow the charted routes almost undeviatingly, unless driven from their course by stress of weather. And in the marking of these routes the winds and currents of which the early navigators availed themselves have been considered

and utilized, so that the conditions which tended to confine past explorations to certain channels are still, to an extent, effective in retarding discovery. The courses of steam vessels are as direct as practicable between points of departure and destination, and they seldom venture into unfrequented waters.

As most of the widely separated islands of Oceania were inhabited at the time of their discovery by Europeans, it is reasonable to infer that should accident bring to light new lands in any of the unexplored waters of the Pacific they also will be fonnd to be peopled. Then why, if snch islands exist, have not their people made themselves known to the world ? Because the world to them is unknown, and fear, superstition or the lack of facilities may prevent them from venturing far out upon the great waters surrounding them. Until 1778 the four hundred thousand people of the Hawaiian islands were not sure that they did not embrace all the inhabitants of the earth. From the eleventh century to the thirteenth their ancestors frequently visited and returned from the Marquesan and Samoan islands in their double canoes, bnt for more than five hnndred years thereafter all communication with the world beyond them had been suspended, and the conviction was prevalent that all the distant lands known to their fathers had been submerged.

Two reasons have been advanced for the abrupt cessation of intercourse between the Hawaiians and their southern kindred near the close of the thirteenth centnry. One is the possible disappearance of a guiding line of atolles leading southward, and the other the loss or destraction in battle of the great double canoes in which distant voyages could alone be made. They were not unfrequently a hnndred or more feet in length, with a carrying capacity of fifty tons. They were hollowed from the tranks of huge conifers, finding lodgment upon the windward sides of the islands after drifting down with the trade winds from the north vest coasts of America. These precious gifts of the sea were by no means abundant, and as none of the islands produced growths large enough to be hewn into long vovage canoes the loss would have been sufficient, perhaps, to put an end to seafaring beyond the gronp. But of the several distinct races occupying the remote

islands of the Pacific three centuries ago the Polynesians were by far the most advanced and intelligent. They were the latest to drift out from the peninsulas of Southern Asia, and still retained enough of the knowledge of their ancestors to en able them to construct temples and corded barges without metal implements, to sail the seas by the reckoning of the stars, and to trace back their lineage until it was lost in the mists of the Mesopotamian basin. No snch skill and enterprise were fonnd among any other of the island races. If, therefore, there are unknown islands and unknown people hidden away in the trackless wastes of the Pacific, their lack of skill or of materials required in the construction of canoes or barges capable of withstanding the fierce lashings of the open seas may, in part, account for their isolation. And here let the curtain fall. The opinion is not expressed that snch islands exist, since there is no direct evidence to sustain it. The possibilities of their existence have alone been discussed, with no purpose more serious than of presenting to the thoughtful reader a pleasant theme for speculation.