Polynesia of the plant in the Cook Islands have been radiocarbon-dated to 1000, and current thinking is that it was brought to central Polynesia c. 700 and spread across Polynesia from there, possibly by Polynesians who had traveled to South America and back. Thor Heyerdahl proposed in the mid-20th century that the Polynesians had migrated from the northwest coast of Canada by large whale-hunting dugouts, and from South America on balsa-log boats. Many anthropologists have criticised Heyerdahl's theory, including Wade Davis in his book "The Wayfinders". Davis says that Heyerdahl "ignored the overwhelming body of linguistic, ethnographic, and ethnobotanical evidence, augmented
Anthony Smith (explorer) younger than 56) departed from La Gomera in the Canary Islands in a custom-built raft, with the intention of crossing the Atlantic Ocean within three months, eventually arriving in Eleuthera. The raft, which was given the name "An-Tiki" in reference to the "Kon-Tiki" raft used by Norwegian explorer and writer Thor Heyerdahl in his 1947 expedition from South America to the Polynesian islands, was assembled during November and December 2010. To find crew mates Smith placed an ad in the Telegraph in 2006, which simply read: ""Fancy rafting across the Atlantic? Famous traveller requires 3 crew. Must be OAP. Serious