CHAPTER II. MIGRATIONS OF THE MAORI RACE.
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CHAPTER II.
MIGRATIONS OF THE MAORI RACE.
MAORI tradition in mentioning Hawaike as the place from which they emigrated, further indicates that many other migrations took place, from other and further off Hawaikes, and it is very possible that such may have been the case, inasmuch as all the Polynesian Islands, from Easter Island, and Hawaii, in the east, to far Ponape, in the west, name Hawaike as the place from which their remote ancestors sailed; and thus the name of their much loved ancestral home has been preserved, in almost all the islands of the Pacific, whether in the form of Hawaii, Savii, Habau or Hapai, according to the dialects spoken. Chapters have been written by able men to prove that the stalwart Polynesian is a descendant of the morose and diminutive Malay of Sumatra, forgetting that the Polynesian may be found living on a few islands of the Eastern Archipelago with the Malay, but distinctly apart, as a race. Polynesians also still occupy a large portion of New Guinea and Papua (or the Land of Birds), which is known by tradition to the old Tohungas of the South Pacific as one of the islands at which in their migrations they generally sojourned for a time, and from which they again sailed, ever in search of new lands, until, after centuries of sea-roving, they reached the ultima Thule of the Maori race--New Zealand.
On the other hand, quite as many writers have proven to their own satisfaction that the Maori is a descendant of the lost Toltic tribe of Central America, a theory depending chiefly on a certain resemblance between the Teocallis of Palenque, Copan, and Uxmal, and those of Polynesia; and, above all, the fact that on Easter Island, the land nearest America, may be found gigantic stone idols, or memorial statues, some of which are
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twenty-seven feet high, and which appear to be not altogether unlike the more finished idols of Central America. This, however, may be a mere coincidence, as the American language is totally unlike that of the Polynesian, and the people still more so. That the Marae of the Pacific should resemble the Teocallis of the Mexican is probably due to a similarity of religion, as a certain vague resemblance does exist at Tongatapu and the other westerly islands, as, for instance, structures almost identical with the Teocallis are to be found at Samoa, while remains of a like nature occur at Opolu, such as Druidical circles, built of black basalt, the stones at least twelve feet high; and in the Marian Group, in the far west of Polynesia, gigantic remains of hewn stone may be seen. But it is at Ulan that these works of antiquity attain their greatest perfection; for here we have quadrangular enclosures over one hundred feet square, the walls from twenty to thirty feet high, built of hewn basalt, beautifully finished. Thus we find that the architectural character of the ancient and cyclopean remains of the South Seas does, in many cases, closely resemble the more perfect and elaborate structures of America, for the Teocalli of Pachacama, in Peru, is a duplicate of that at Nukuhiva, in the Marquesas; but the overwhelming evidence of language and race prevent our accepting the theory that the two races were identical, or even remotely connected. Equally may we dismiss the idea that the gigantic Polynesian, tallest of all the races of men, could by any possible means have descended from the morose and diminutive Malay. It would seem rather more probable that they were a people peculiar to the Eastern Archipelago, who had at one time occupied Java and Sumatra, and who, driven out by the conquering Malay, emigrated in different directions, the majority sailing eastward and occupying portions of New Guinea, whilst others sailed westward, reaching Madagascar. If this hypothesis is untenable, then we must accept that of Judge Fernandez, who asserts that the Polynesian is a branch of the great Indo-European family, who, by successive migrations, have found their way from, or even beyond, India, through the Eastern Archipelago, leaving small colonies along their route, by which they may, to a certain
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extent, be traced even at the present day. Many reasons may be found for these continual migrations of the Polynesians, such as over-population, but the chief reason was undoubtedly war. Mr. Gill, in his excellent work on "Savage Life in Polynesia," gives us undoubted proof of this in one of his traditions of Mangaia, in which it is related that some 250 years ago the sacred tribe of Ngariki, having quelled a rebellion of the Tonga tribes, ordered two chiefs named Te Karaka and Tanai, with their adherents, to leave the island; that two double canoes were made seaworthy and laden with provisions, and the party put to sea in search of new lands. Nothing definite has ever been heard of them, but they are supposed, not without reason, to have reached New Zealand, for many of the names common in Mangaia are to be found here, such as Mongonui, Waitotara, Waikato. The same writer also mentions that some fifty years after this migration the Tonga tribe again rebelled, and the chiefs Iro and Tuawera of that tribe, together with their followers, were expelled, and succeeded in reaching Rarotonga, where their descendants were found living some 150 years after by members of the same tribe from Mangaia. There is also another way by which the colonisation of these islands may have been aided, viz., by castaways; and of this we have many instances on record, some of which have occurred in our own days, and others are recorded by tradition. The inhabitants of the Ellice Group have a tradition that they were wanderers from Samoa, 600 miles distant, and Mr. Rankin, in his paper on Mahori migrations, gives many interesting details of this event. Capt. Beechy found a canoe, containing 26 men, 15 women, and 10 children, who had sailed from Chain Island for Tahiti, and who had been blown 600 miles east of their starting point. Kotzebue found an errant canoe 1,500 miles from the point from which it had started; and Capt. Cook relates that at Tongatapu he found people who had drifted from Tahiti. Thus it is possible that some of the canoes mentioned in tradition may have reached New Zealand accidentally, after months of wandering. But most of the Maori traditions point specially to war as the cause of leaving Hawaike.
