POLYMATHY denotes the knowledge of many arts and sciences. The word is derived from the Greek, πολύ, multum, and μαθημα, disco.
Polynesia. POLYNESIA is a name given by several early writers on geography, but first, we believe, by De Barros, to the numerous islands scattered over the Pacific Ocean, or, as it was usually called, the Great South Sea. It is the name which is now applied by most modern geographers to the sixth great division of the earth's surface; a division which will probably appear, on examination, less arbitrary than some others; for whether we consider it in a political, physical, or moral point of view, the separation from America on the one hand, and from Australasia and the Asiatic islands on the other, is marked by very strong and distinct features. A considerable portion of the two last, for instance, have, ages ago, been invaded and taken possession of by foreigners, and many of them have more recently been colonized by Europeans. No colonies have yet been planted in Polynesia, with the exception of that on one of the Ladrones Islands by Spain. Of late, however, many of these islands have been visited by European missionaries, for the purpose of spreading amongst the natives the light of the gospel; and in many cases their efforts have been so far successful that they have established permanent settlements in these islands, and have instructed the natives, not only in the doctrines of the Christian religion, but in all the mechanical arts and other improvements of civilized society. The inhabitants have no political connection with any of the other divisions of the earth, and little or none exists between any two of its groups or separate islands, each being governed by its own chiefs, and confining its friendships or hostilities to some neighbouring group or island.
Physically considered. Physically considered, the line of separation is almost as distinct as their political seclusion. If a line be drawn in a south-easterly direction along the eastern extremity of the Philippine Islands, Mindanao, Papua or New Guinea, New Ireland, and Solomon's Archipelago, and from thence continued southerly along the eastern shores of the New Hebrides and New Zealand, this line will mark with sufficient precision the separation of the Asiatic islands (mostly to the northward of the equator) and Australasia (to the southward of the equator) from Polynesia. Besides, the geological structure of the islands which constitute the last-mentioned divisions is, generally speaking, essentially different, consisting chiefly of lofty mountains of primary or secondary formation, partaking of the same structure as those on the continent of Asia, with which some of them indeed may probably have once been connected, their rugged sides presenting as it were a broken barrier to the Great Pacific; whereas Polynesia exhibits a series of low, flat islands, scarcely rising above the level of the sea, which, with the exception of a few of the larger groups of volcanic formation, are the labours of minute sea animals, and are usually distinguished by the name of Coral Islands or Reefs.
Morally considered. In a moral point of view, the distinctive character of the Polynesians is as strongly marked as the physical structure of the islands which they inhabit. In the Eastern Archipelago, or the Asiatic islands, and in Australasia, two distinct races of men have been traced, the black and the brown. In the archipelago, and more particularly in the Philippine Islands, a few individual families of the negro race were discovered by the early European visitors; in New Guinea and the Papuan Islands the whole population appears to consist of this race. They differ in some respects from the negroes of the western coast of Africa, resembling rather those which are found on the eastern coast, particularly in the hair, which is strongly twisted into small tufts, and very different from that of the negro of Guinea. None of these negroes have been discovered on any of
the islands of Polynesia, all the inhabitants being of the brown race, and evidently derived from the same common stock to which the Tartars, the Chinese, the Japanese, and the Malays, owe their origin. In this opinion Sir William Jones, Dr Buchanan, Dr Hunter, Mr Marsden, and Sir Stamford Raffles, unanimously concur. This race, modified, of course, by the circumstances of climate, occupations, and habits, may thus be described:—Their persons short, squat, and robust; their lower limbs large and heavy; their arms fleshy; hands and feet small; face somewhat of a lozenge shape, the forehead and chin rather sharpened, but broad across the cheek-bones, which are high, and the cheeks hollow; the eyes black, small, narrow, and placed obliquely in the head, the external angle being the highest; nose broad, but not flat, and nostrils open and circular; mouth rather wide; hair harsh, lank, and quite black.
Dispersed as the Polynesians are, and rarely and purely accidental as any communication between distant islands must be, it is perfectly certain that the different dialects spoken, from the shores of India and Africa to those of America, are the derivatives of one common language, which, according to Marsden, still forms the primitive portion of the Malay language, mixed as it now is with Sanscrit and Arabic. "The Malayan," says this learned and accurate writer, "is a branch or dialect of the widely extended language prevailing throughout the islands of the archipelago to which it gives name, and those of the South Sea, comprehending, between Madagascar on the one side and Easter Island on the other, both inclusive, the space of full two hundred degrees of longitude. This consideration alone is sufficient to give it claim to the highest degree of antiquity, and to originality, as far as that term can be applied."
Not less remarkable is the general accordance of the Polynesians in manners, superstitions, and religious observances. The conversion of the Malays of the archipelago to Mahomedanism has obliterated nearly their ancient faith, but enough still remains on some of the Asiatic islands, and still more on the Asiatic continent, to trace the source whence the Polynesians have derived their notions and practices on matters of this kind.
These preliminary observations on the physical form, features, language, and religion of the Polynesians, are made with a view to assert their common origin, and may be taken as a general description of the natives of the various groups of islands which are scattered over the surface of the vast Pacific Ocean. These groups are exceedingly different in their extent, both as to number and size, as well as in their composition. Sometimes single islands are met with, surrounded by rocky reefs. These islands and reefs are dispersed, as already observed, over the whole of the Pacific Ocean, but chiefly between the thirtieth degree of northern and the thirtieth degree of southern latitude. The following classification will be found to embrace the greater part of those islands which are comprehended under the geographical division Polynesia: