Who are the peoples of the Pacific Islands? How and when did they get there? Where did they come from? How did they overcome the obstacles of crossing water and of surviving in the new places? In this book a leading anthropologist uses the most recent discoveries of anthropology, archaeology and linguistics to answer these questions. More particularly, the author reviews the settlement of Australia by the Aborigines -- modern man arriving over 30,000 years ago, about the same time as modern man arrived in Europe -- and then the gradual movement of a similar people, the Melanesians out of Indonesia and into the islands, bringing with them an early form of horticulture. The special story of the Polynesians, beginning about 3,500 years ago, is now beginning to clear ; and the remaining problems of Polynesian and Micronesian prehistory are outlined. Using the wealth of new information available to scholars, this is the first synthesis of the latest facts and interpretations from physical anthropology, archaeology, and language studies to give a picture of the past of the entire Pacific ...." -- Inside front cover.