Message #210091

[Jennifer Murdoch]

The primitive Polynesians, like their contemporaries, the Incas of Peru, may be judged in regard to their condition and history, by the monuments, they have left, for with the exception of Easter Island, there is no trace of their having possessed a written language. Tribes flourished, were conquered and passed out of existence, without leaving a trace behind them except perhaps, a shadowy tradition. The natives in this genial climate have always dwelt in rude structures of thatch and cane, which after a few years of abandonment would decay and leave no sign behind, unless it be a few broken implements lying about. Among

p. 540