Samoa Islands were the original home of the Polynesian race, from which colonists peopled the other Polynesian islands of the Pacific. Ethnologists, now believe that two separate waves of immigrants populated the islands, the first group likely originating in southeastern Asia. The later migration displaced the original Samoans, who then began to colonize the more easterly islands of Polynesia. The first European to visit the islands in 1722 was Jacob Roggeveen. In 1768 Louis Antoine de Bougainville, a French explorer, named the group the Navigators Islands. During the 19th century Germany, Britain, and the United States accomplished commercial posts on the islands. In 1878 the United States annexed Pago Pago for use as a naval coaling station.