When the English navigator and explorer James Cook entered the far Pacific in the late
1700s he found that nearly all the islands were already inhabited by people
whose language and culture were remarkably uniform. He appreciated their skills
in building, sailing and navigating large canoes over oceanic distances, and he
offered his ideas as to how they were able to reach the distant islands. Since
Captain Cook's time, many people have questioned how these people traveled great distances out of sight of land to colonize new, unknown islands. What
scholars have realized is the fact that the true "discovery" of Polynesia
occurred long before the arrival of the first Europeans.