Bougainville's name for the Samoa group, the "Navigator Islands," is used by the missionaries until about 1845 and in official dispatches until about 1870.

This term is applied to the island groups east of long. 180° with the Ellice and Gilbert Islands and Rotumah, whose inhabitants belong racially to the Polynesian stock, light brown and intelligent Malaysian type of which the Samoans are typical.

This term is applied to the island groups south of the equator to lat. 30° S. and between about 130° and 180° E. The inhabitants are a black, frizzy-haired negrito type far inferior to Polynesians in intelligence.

This term is applied to the island groups north of the equator to lat. 20° N. between about 130° and 170° East longitude. The inhabitants are of a mixed race with certain Polynesian and certain Japanese characteristics.