Historical evidence suggests that Howland Island was the site of prehistoric settlement, which may have extended down to Rawaki, Kanton, Manra and Orona of the Phoenix Islands 500 to 700 km southeast. This settlement might have taken the form of a single community utilising several adjacent islands, but the hard life on these isolated islands, together with the uncertainty of fresh water supplies, led to an extinction of or dereliction by the settled peoples, in such a way that other islands in the area (such as Kiritimati and Pitcairn) were abandoned.[35] Such settlements probably began around 1000 BC, when eastern Melanesians travelled north.[36]