1859 - Thomson, A. S. The Story of New Zealand [Vol.I] - Part I. The Country and its Native Inhabitants - CHAPTER III. MIGRATION OF THE ABORIGINES TO NEW ZEALAND.

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MAP SHEWING THE ROUTE BY WHICH THE MALAYS MIGRATED FROM SUMATRA TO NEW ZEALAND.
Published by John Murray, Albemarle St. 1860. W.West lith.

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CHAP. III.

MIGRATION OF THE ABORIGINES TO NEW ZEALAND.

THE first human inhabitants of New Zealand were the ancestors of the present aborigines, or the Maori, as they call themselves. Whence these men sprung, how and when they migrated to the country, it is now requisite to narrate.

Two races of human beings, a brown and a black-skinned, inhabit the islands scattered over the Pacific Ocean. The brown race occupy all the islands from the Sandwich group in the Northern hemisphere to New Zealand in the Southern, and from the Tonga group in the west to Easter Island in the east. The black race people the islands extending from the Fejees to New Guinea both inclusive.

Certain physical features distinguish each race. Those with brown complexions have generally lank hair and scanty beards, and speak essentially the same tongue, although divided into many dialects; while the black race, numbering several varieties of men and speaking several distinct languages, have frizzly but not woolly

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hair, and abundant beards. French naturalists call the islands the black race occupy Melanesia, or the islands of black men, while Polynesia is applied to the islands peopled by the brown race. Intermixture has occurred between the black and brown races at their points of junction; 300 miles across the trade wind, from the Fejee Islands to the Tonga Islands, being a voyage of no difficulty to a maritime people.

The Polynesians, or brown-skinned race, have been again subdivided into Micronesians and Polynesians Proper. The former occupy the Pelew, Caroline, Marianne, and Tarawa Islands; and the latter the Sandwich, Navigators', Marquesas, Tonga, Society Islands, the Dangerous Archipelago, Easter Island, and New Zealand. The Micronesians are distinguished from the Polynesians Proper by their low stature, their language Mongolian conformation, and absence of the system of Tapu. Between the Micronesians and the Polynesians Proper there is as much difference as there is between Dutchmen and Englishmen.

Ethnologists have clearly established that the Polynesians Proper are sprung from the Malay family of the human race, 1 and Mr. Hale, the best authority on the migrations of the Polynesians, is of opinion that the Samoa or Navigators' Islands were first occupied, and that from them all the other Polynesian islands were peopled. 2

It is easy to comprehend how the Malays moved from one island in the Indian Archipelago to another, but

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their migration to the more distant Navigators' Islands appears beset with physical impediments, which difficulties vanish, however, on a close examination into the subject.

Sumatra was the birthplace of the Malays, and at present they are living everywhere on the islands in the Indian Archipelago, and seldom on the continent of Asia. The Malays are universally known as a bold, piratical, maritime, commercial, and partially industrious race. In A.D. 1160 they issued out of Sumatra and founded Singhapura, and a century afterwards Malacca. 3 These migrations were made in ships, as the Malays at an early period possessed extensive fleets. 4 For ages Malay fleets have habitually resorted to Australia, and at the present day 200 Malay proas, according to Captain King, annually frequent the northern coasts of that continent to fish. On these expeditions the Malays, accompanied by their wives and children, were prepared to take up their permanent or temporary abode on any favourable locality.

Let the mind wander to the tropical island of Sumatra, and imagine a hundred Malay proas setting out at the commencement of the westerly monsoon upon a fishing and migratory expedition. On board the fleet are women and children, food to eat during the voyage, and seed to plant in any country where the people may land. Dogs, man's constant companions in every part of the world, jump on board, and rats have taken up their habitation in the proas without leave. A few days' sail brings the fleet to Borneo or some part of Java. From Java to Timor on the northern coast

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of Australia the transition is easy; and from Timor to the Navigators' Islands the distance is 3000 miles in almost a due east direction, with several resting-places on the route.

It is now ascertained that the wind generally blows from the east in the Pacific; but the trade winds are so modified in the Southern hemisphere, that from October to April a north-west wind blows from the line to south lat. 15 deg., which wind occasionally extends into the Pacific Ocean. 5 Mr. Williams, a missionary, sailed 1600 miles due east to the Navigators' Islands in a few days, 6 consequently this north-west trade wind would be a fair breeze from Timor, through Torres Straits, to those islands.

As the Malays were ignorant of the very existence of the Navigators' Islands, the question naturally arises, what induced them to steer their fleet so far from land as to come into contact with that group? The explanation of this question is simple and probable. The Polynesians have an idea, which probably originated among their Malay ancestors while living in the Indian Archipelago, that the ocean is dotted over with islands; they therefore imagine they have nothing to do but launch their canoes, select a course, and steer boldly forward, to arrive at land; for, although ignorant of the compass, the Polynesians have names for the cardinal points, and steer by the stars. It was this grand principle of selecting a course which brought the Malay fleet to the Navigators' Islands; for grant that the proas took a due east course from the southern extremity of the island of Timor, placed in south latitude 10 deg., the

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island of Guinea would stop their progress. Finding it peopled, the fleet would coast along to its southern extremity, whence the proas would again resume their voyage in the same due east course upon which they started; steering on which line kept the fleet clear of the New Hebrides and Fejee Islands, and brought it direct on the Navigators' Islands.

This Polynesian custom of selecting a course before sailing is still adopted in the present day. Mr. John Williams searched in vain for the island of Rarotonga until he took his vessel to the native starting-point for Rarotonga in the island of Mauke; here he looked at the compass, when the natives called out, from observing the landmarks, the direction Rarotonga lay, and he found the course thus given as accurate as if it had been laid down by a skilful navigator.

From the Malay and Polynesian custom of giving new places similar names to those from which they came, evidence is furnished that the Malay route to Polynesia just given is the correct one. New South Wales and New Zealand derive their civilised names from a modification of this law. It will be observed that several places in the Indian Archipelago have analogous names to Samoa or Savii, the Polynesian name of the Navigators' Islands; Sama in Malay signifies "like as," Samoa "all together." Thus in close proximity to Timor, there is a small island called Samoa; the southern extremity of Timor is called Sammow, and there is a Sumbava, Sama, Java, and other names in the Archipelago resembling Samoa in sound. Even the birthplace of the Malays, Suma-tra, the derivation of which term is unknown, cannot fail to strike both the eye and the ear. The migration of the Polynesians from one island to

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the other in the Pacific Ocean, may be traced by their adherence to this custom of giving new places old familiar names.

The date of the migration of the Malays to Polynesia is not entirely buried in oblivion. From the remains of some Hindoo and Jewish customs among the New Zealand branch of the Polynesian race, and the entire absence of anything like Mahomedan customs, it is inferred that the Malay migration from the Indian Archipelago to Polynesia took place after the Hindoo influence began to prevail there, and before the arrival of the Mahomedan traders and settlers from Arabia. Indian colonies were established in Java in the first century after Christ. 7 According to Javanese annals, the first arrival of the Hindoos in the Indian Archipelago from Western India occurred about A.D. 800, 8 and the Mahomedan migration to the Archipelago began in A.D. 1278. The date of the last migration is probably correct, that of the Hindoos being more distant is uncertain. From these two great events, it is inferred that the Malay ancestors of the Polynesians left the Indian Archipelago soon after the commencement of the Christian era, and certainly before A.D. twelve hundred and seventy-eight.

The great difference between the Malay and the Polynesian languages would lead to an inference that a much longer separation than ten or twelve centuries had occurred; but the modern Malay dialect is very different from the ancient one, because the Mahomedans introduced among the Malays an Arabic alphabet and many new words. This introduction of an alphabet has

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an important bearing on the subject, as the Malay settlers in Polynesia must have been entirely ignorant of it; for no Polynesian' race, judging of the past generations from the present, would have forgotten the art of writing had they ever possessed it. That the Malay emigrants to Polynesia were destitute of an alphabet is supported by the fact, that the highest antiquity assigned to any proper Malay literary work is the advent of the Mahomedans to the Archipelago; and Sir James Brooke found Malays in Borneo entirely destitute of an alphabet. The conversion of the Javanese to Mahomedanism took place in the thirteenth century, and the old religion was abolished in 1478. 9

There are still to be found in the language, customs, physical appearance, and character of the present generation of New Zealanders proofs of their Malay origin. Long separation from the parent stock, and the circumstances just related, have rendered their languages very different. But between the roots and structure of the Malay and New Zealand dialects resemblances can still be detected in words expressing the simplest states of life, such as relationship, numbers up to ten, sensations of taste, sight, pain, and the most obvious natural objects.

All over New Zealand, the aborigines state that their ancestors migrated to the country from a place called Hawaiki. "The seed of our coming is from Hawaiki, the seed of food, the seed of men." Allusion is also made by the natives, in their traditions on this subject, to a distant and larger Hawaiki, and a nearer or smaller Hawaiki. European-inquirers have differed in opinion as to the situation of this country, because there are several islands in the Pacific Ocean to which the term

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Hawaiki bears a strong resemblance. Thus there occur the names of Savii in the Navigators' Islands, Hawaii in the Sandwich Islands, Habai in the Tonga Islands, Atukaki in the Harvey group, and of Hevava and several somewhat similar names in the Marquesas and other groups.

A careful examination into this interesting question has led me to infer that the New Zealanders' Hawaiki is the Savii of the Navigators' Islands; a conclusion supported by a considerable amount of evidence. In one tradition of the New Zealanders it is related that Waerota, Rarotonga, Waeroti, Parima, and Manono are islands near Hawaiki. 10 New Zealanders of the present generation pronounce these names mechanically in reciting the tradition, and are ignorant of the geographical position of these places and of everything relating to them. It is therefore left for the curious to fill up this blank in traditional history; and, fortunately, there is not much ingenuity required in doing so. Rarotonga is one of the largest islands of Harvey's group, but it is not the New Zealanders' Hawaiki, because the inhabitants of Rarotonga state that their ancestors also came from Awaiki. 11 The situation of Waerota and Waeroti are unknown; but Parima and Manono are the native names of two islands in the Navigators' group, the inhabitants of which have no tradition like the New Zealanders and the Harvey islanders that their ancestors originally came from Hawaiki, although they admit having sprung from the neighbouring island of Savii. There are other proofs. The ancestors of the New

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Zealanders brought with them dogs and rats. In the island of Manono there are wild dogs 12 resembling the domestic dogs seen by Captain Cook on his arrival in New Zealand; and the almost extinct New Zealand rat is like the rats found in the Navigators' Islands and Rarotonga. In addition to which, the small finger-shaped sweet potato, the gourd, and the taro, the seeds of which the ancestors of the New Zealanders brought with them to New Zealand, are indigenous in the Navigators' Islands.

For these reasons it is inferred that the ancestors of the New Zealanders migrated from the Navigators' Islands through Rarotonga, because the latter island is still denominated the road to Hawaiki, and is described as lying on this side of it. In support of this opinion tradition states that some of the New Zealanders' canoes were built at Rarotonga, at which island the New Zealanders may have remained for some generations; because the natives of Rarotonga declare that their ancestors arrived from Hawaiki twenty-nine generations ago, 13 which is several generations longer than the New Zealanders have occupied New Zealand.

No light is thrown on the origin of the New Zealanders from the name Maori which they call themselves. This word rendered, by linguists "native," is used in contradistinction to pakeha, or stranger.

The motives which caused the New Zealanders to migrate from Hawaiki are not forgotten. There is a tradition that a civil war in Hawaiki caused a chief named Ngahue to flee from the country, who after a long voyage reached New Zealand, and returned to Hawaiki with pieces of greenstone, and the bones of a

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gigantic moa slain near Tauranga in New Zealand. Received by his kindred as one risen from the dead, Ngahue was held in high estimation, and like other travellers he spread abroad glowing accounts of the fertility of the soil in New Zealand, the excellence of the fish in the sea, the immense size of the eels in the rivers, and the number of birds and plants suitable for food in the woods. Strife had not ceased when Ngahue returned to Hawaiki, and the weaker party, in order to save their lives, determined to migrate to this newly discovered land. 14 Other traditions make Kupe the Columbus of the country.

No sooner was the migration determined upon than canoes suitable for the voyage were built. By some traditions this was done at Rarotonga. All were double canoes, and were named the Arawa, Tainui, Matatua, Takitumu, Kurahaupo, Tokomaru, Matawhaorua, and Aotea, but there were six or seven other canoes whose names have not come down to us. Everything being ready, the emigrants put on board the canoes seeds of the sweet potato, karaka berries, gourds, taros, rats, parrots, pukekos, dogs, and a quantity of sacred red paint. All the fleet started together, and as the canoes were pushed off an old chief cried, "Depart in peace, and when you reach the place you are going to, do not follow after the deeds of Tu the god of war; depart and dwell in peace with all men, leave war and strife behind you." When night came, a storm arose, the fleet was scattered, and each canoe proceeded on its own course. Quarrels and incidents which occurred during the voyage in several of the

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canoes are still remembered. Most of those disputes originated about women, while discussions arose whether the canoe should be steered "towards the quarter in which the sun flares up, or proceed towards that quarter in the heavens where the sun sets." During the voyage some of the fleet sighted islands, where the canoes were dragged on shore, the old seam-lashings ripped out, and the vessels refitted.

The Hawaiki fleet reached New Zealand when the pohutukaua and rata trees were covered with blossoms. It was consequently summer, and the emigrants, like the survivors of a wreck, scattered themselves over the country. To appease the spirit of the land for their intrusion humiliating prayers were said; one uttered by a chief on this celebrated occasion is still preserved as a modern charm: --

Several families on board, captivated with the beauty and fertility of certain bays seen as the canoes coasted along, landed and settled before the great chiefs disembarked, and others went on shore to examine the country. There were then no human inhabitants on the islands; conflicts which occurred several centuries ago have been magnified by tradition into combats between the first emigrants and the original inhabitants of New Zealand; but there is no truth in these accounts. As the crews of all the canoes landed at different places, every tribe has its own ancestral story on this subject, and several of these legends are not destitute of interest.

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The Tainui canoe brought to New Zealand the ancestors of the now powerful Waikato and Thames nations. This vessel first touched land at Wangaparaoa, a peninsula in the Hauraki Gulf, near Auckland; it was paddled up the Tamaki river to Otahuhu, and thence it sailed round the North Cape, touching at Kaipara and Manukau on the west coast. The beautiful harbour of Kawhia at last tempted the commander to land, and here the canoe was dragged on shore. The names of twenty-three chiefs brought in the Tainui canoe from Hawaiki are still remembered, and the present generation resident at Kawhia point out a limestone rock as the remnant of this famous vessel. One tradition states the Tainui canoe was dragged across the portage at Otahuhu to the west coast.

The Arawa emigrant canoe was beached at Maketu, in the Bay of Plenty, and the spot where this was done is still sacred. The Arawa sighted New Zealand a little to the north of Auckland; it touched at the Great Barrier and Mercury Islands, and at Tauranga. Some of the emigrants in the Arawa settled at Maketu, others at Rotorua, and thence they extended to Wanganui. The natives sprung from this canoe have the character of possessing the thievish propensities of their ancestor, Tama te Kapua.

The Kurahaupo canoe first touched the East Cape, and was dragged on shore at Turanga. In this vessel arrived the ancestors of the Poverty Bay tribes, and the natives occupying the country around and to the north of the Bay of Islands.

The Matatua canoe was beached at Whakatane, in the Bay of Plenty, and from her crew sprung several of the east coast tribes. The descendants of this canoe have the reputation of keeping their words.

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The canoe named Aotea was commanded by the illustrious Turi, and it brought to New Zealand the ancestors of the Wanganui tribes. This canoe, after sighting the east coast of the North Island, rounded Cape Palliser, sailed through and touched at several places in Cook's Straits, coasted along the west coast, and was beached at Aotea, whence the settlers marched along the sea shore to Wanganui, and Turi made an excursion to Wairarapa, during which he named all the places he passed.

The Tokomaru canoe first made the Great Barrier, sailed round the North Cape, and coasted along, and entered the Waitara river near Taranaki. In this vessel the ancestors of the west coast Atiawas, or Ngatiawas,; came to the country. Tradition states that New Zealand was first discovered in this canoe by the barking of a dog on board.

It would serve no useful purpose to give the history of the other canoes. The North Island was first peopled, and as a proof of this, the South means up, and the North down. Every tribe remembers the names of the chiefs among the emigrants, and some of these men are deified. It is only necessary to mention the names of Tainui, Turi, Kupe, Manaia, Horturoa, Ngahue, and others, to perceive the high estimation in which these emigrant leaders from Hawaiki are still held in the hearts of the people.

These stories concerning the migration and advent of the natives of New Zealand, denuded as they are of their traditional absurdities, bear the stamp of truth, for the ancestors of the New Zealanders possessed greater knowledge of geography and navigation than the present generation. Tried by the test of probability there was nothing to prevent the Polynesians

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migrating from the Navigators' Islands to New Zealand. Double canoes, admirable sea-boats now almost forgotten by the New Zealanders, were the means of transport. From Parima or Manono in the Navigators' Islands the voyage to Rarotonga could be easily accomplished, for between these islands there was formerly much intercourse. At Rarotonga, the emigrants evidently stopped, and probably several tribes settled on that island, as the Rarotonga and New Zealand dialects are wonderfully alike. Even if the traditions of Ngahue and Kupe having discovered New Zealand before the sailing of the emigrants were untrue, the Polynesian idea that the ocean is covered with islands would encourage a maritime people uncomfortably placed at home to migrate. The Middle Island of New Zealand, the Chatham Islands, and the Auckland Islands, owe part of their inhabitants to this cause. It is therefore probable that the canoes of the emigrants at Rarotonga were placed in the direction of New Zealand, to avoid the Tonga and Fejee Islands, the situation of which they knew, and to obtain the aid of the trade wind which always blows 30 deg. south of the line, and occasionally extends to New Zealand. Three thousand miles separate Rarotonga from New Zealand, a distance which might be easily sailed over in less than a month. When New Zealanders are asked where Hawaiki is, they point in the direction of Rarotonga; and that this is the true direction in which the island whence they last came lies, is confirmed by every emigrant canoe having first sighted the east coast of New Zealand.

Captain Beechy relates a modern instance of Polynesian migration which gives to the foregoing narrative the air of reality. When old Pomare, the king of Ta-

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hiti, one of the Society Islands, died, some of the natives of Anaa, an island 300 miles to the eastward, wished to pay, in the year 1824, a visit of congratulation to his son and successor. Three large double canoes were got ready for the voyage, and in each about fifty persons embarked, with provisions for three weeks. In only one canoe is the proportion of the sexes given, and in it there embarked twenty-three men, fifteen women, and ten children. On departing, the islanders assembled to bid them farewell. The canoes were placed with scrupulous exactness in the direction of Tahiti, and the bearings of the course were marked by certain stars. The wind was fair when they sailed; but unfortunately that year the monsoon began earlier than usual, and a storm arose which scattered them, and drove them, off their course. One battered canoe reached Barrow's Island, where thirteen months were spent in repairing it, and in drying fish for the completion of the voyage. On reembarking a westerly course was taken, but on reaching Byam Martin's Island the crew were again obliged to stop to repair the canoe, and here Captain Beechey saw them, eight months after their arrival. They then numbered forty souls, were living in huts, and the canoe was drawn on shore in good repair. Eight persons had already perished since starting, and the other two canoes were never heard of. This voyage shows the principle and spirit of Polynesian navigators, when on a long voyage. 15 Other European navigators have met Polynesian canoes, filled with both sexes, passing from island to island in the Pacific Ocean.

My own inquiries have led me to conclude that New

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Zealand was peopled from one source and at one time; but the Rev. Mr. Maunsell thinks the New Zealanders have sprung from different islands, in consequence of three lingual peculiarities. 16 The Ngapuhi nation, living in the neighbourhood of the Bay of Islands, pronounce h as if it were sh, and Hongi is rendered by them Shongi. The Taranaki natives do not pronounce the h at all, but supply its place by a curious jerk in the voice; hei becomes ei, and hohoro, orra in their mouths. Some tribes in the Bay of Plenty do not give Ng the singular nasal sound of good-Maori linguists, and in its place use Na.

These and similar peculiarities of language are slight when contrasted with the manner in which English is spoken in different counties with us, and are not sufficient, in my opinion, to prove that the New Zealanders have sprung from different sources.

Mr. Hale 17 states that about the year 1740 a party of Polynesians arrived at the Bay of Islands from Hawaiki; and, if this were true, the inference is that the emigration to New Zealand from Polynesia has been going on until very lately. Careful personal inquiry, in the year 1850, on the spot where Mr. Hale received his information, enables me to state that he has been misinformed, for no modern migration from Polynesia to New Zealand has occurred. About the year 1830 a canoe-load of emigrants sailed from the Mayor Island in the Bay of Plenty for Hawaiki, and they have never since been heard of.

Time has blotted out from the mind of the New Zealanders the number of years which have elapsed

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since the arrival of their ancestors, but information on this interesting subject has been obtained from an indirect source. It was the custom of the priests of several tribes to keep nominal lists of their hereditary chiefs, and for this purpose sticks were fashioned upon which a notch was made as each warrior died. These sticks were preserved by the priests and called Papatupuna, and it was the duty of these holy men to preserve this ancestral knowledge in the people's memories, in order to accomplish which they occasionally repeated before the assembled multitude the names of the tribe's dead chiefs.

From a careful examination of several of these genealogical trees, I conclude there have been about twenty generations of chiefs since the arrival of the first settlers from Hawaiki. Seeing that in England, from the days of William the Conqueror to William the Fourth, thirty-five sovereigns reigned in 771 years, it follows that including those who died of violent deaths, 22 1/35 years, was the average period of each reign. Giving to each New Zealand chief the same length of rule as the English sovereigns, it results that the Polynesians arrived in New Zealand 440 years ago, or about A.D. 1419, a date corresponding with that of the arrival of the gipsies in Europe.

Much confidence has been placed in this inquiry on two genealogical trees relating to tribes in the Bay of Plenty and Rotorua, called Ngaiterangi and Ngatiwhakaue, because the ancestral records of these two tribes were carefully investigated before the resident magistrate of Rotorua, in order to ascertain which had a right to the island of Motiti; and the statements of each party were carefully inquired into by the opposite as

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regards their accuracy. It requires an event like this to excite the New Zealanders to tax their memories about their ancestors. Delicacy, or a fear of saying what might produce mischief, makes them avoid the subject unless specially pressed upon them.

Traditionary evidence there is none regarding the number of immigrants which disembarked in New Zealand from Hawaiki. As the settlers arrived in ten or fifteen large canoes it is not difficult to estimate their probable numbers. If it be admitted that each canoe contained about fifty people, the number in the canoes which sailed from Anaa for Tahiti, then the early settlers would have been about 800 souls, and if they increased at the moderate rate of doubling themselves every fifty-five years, the population of New Zealand when Captain Cook landed in it would have been about 100,000, the number Dr. Forster then rated the people at. 18

It is requisite here to state that the traditions of the New Zealanders about most things are so vague and uncertain that it is often difficult to separate truth from error. There is, however, sufficient resemblance amongst the stories of different tribes on this subject to entitle them to credibility. Doubts about their historical truth are not, however, mentally derogatory to the New Zealanders, as true traditionary knowledge is rare among all races of men. Generation after generation has asked who built the Pyramids of Egypt, the Round Towers of Ireland, and the Ruins of Salisbury Plain. The Goths were more unacquainted with their migration from Scandinavia, and the European nations are more ignorant of the origin of the gipsies, than the New Zealanders are about the abode of their ancestors.