he shores of a harbour are apt
to present a melancholy scene of ruin and desolation, their shores
strewn with the wrecks of gallant ships which lately rode there at
anchor, their pennons streaming to the wind. So it happened in the
harbour of Apia on March 16th, 1889. Before the tempest burst, there
were many ships of various nations anchored in the bay, among them five
or six American and German warships. When it was over, all were wrecked
and their shattered fragments littered the reefs. One vessel alone, the
British man-of-war, _Calliope_, was saved by the courage and skill of
the captain, who, seconded by the splendid seamanship of the crew,
forced his ship, in the very teeth of the hurricane, out into the open
sea, where he safely weathered the storm.[13]

[13] Ch. Wilkes, _Narrative of the United States
Exploring Expedition_, ii. 72; Violette, "Notes d'un
Missionnaire sur l'archipel de Samoa," _Les Missions
Catholiques_, iii. (1870) p. 72; F. H. H. Guillemard,
_Australasia_, ii. 504; J. B. Stair, _Old Samoa_, pp. 38-41.

A special interest attaches to Samoa in so far as it is now commonly
believed to be the original seat of the Polynesian race in the Pacific,
from which their ancestors gradually dispersed to the other islands of
that vast ocean, where their descendants are settled to this day.
Polynesian traditions point to such a dispersal from Samoa as a centre,
and they are confirmed by the name which the various branches of the
race give to their old ancestral home. The original form of that name
appears to have been Savaiki, which through dialectical variations has
been altered to Hawaiki in New Zealand, to Hawaii in the Sandwich
Islands, to Havaii in Tahiti, to Havaiki in the Marquesas, and to Avaiki
in Rarotonga. In the Samoan dialect, which of all the Polynesian
dialects alone retains the letter S, the word presumably appears as
Savaii, the name of the largest island of the group, which accordingly
may be regarded, with some probability, as the cradle-land of the
Polynesians in the Pacific; though native traditions indicate rather
Upolu or Manua as the place from which the canoes started on their long
and adventurous voyages. On the other hand in favour of Savaii it has
been pointed out that the island holds a decided superiority over the
other islands of the group in respect of canoe-building; for it
possesses extensive forests of hard and durable timber, which is much
sought after f