Transcriber's Note:
Italics are indicated by _underscores_, "oe" ligatures have been
removed, and small capitals have been converted to full capitals.
Discrepancies between the detail of the list of illustrations, and the
text accompanying the illustrations themselves, have been retained.
The list also omits the table of Te Rauparaha's wives and children,
that has been inserted at the end of the book before the map of his
and Te Puoho's raids. It has been transcribed in this version.
Apparent typographical errors have been corrected. Inconsistencies in
hyphenation have been retained.
AN OLD NEW ZEALANDER
[Illustration: TE RAUPARAHA.
After a drawing in the Hocken Collection, Dunedin.
Frontispiece.]
AN OLD NEW ZEALANDER
OR, TE RAUPARAHA, THE NAPOLEON OF THE SOUTH
BY
T. LINDSAY BUICK
AUTHOR OF "OLD MARLBOROUGH," "OLD MANAWATU"
[Illustration]
WHITCOMBE & TOMBS, LIMITED
LONDON MELBOURNE
CHRISTCHURCH, WELLINGTON AND DUNEDIN, N.Z.
1911
To
S. PERCY SMITH, ESQ., F.R.G.S.
"A WELL-DESERVING PILLAR" IN THE TEMPLE OF POLYNESIAN LEARNING,
I GRATEFULLY DEDICATE THIS BOOK
PREFACE
I have been constrained to write the story of "An Old New Zealander"
largely to gratify the frequently expressed desire for a more
comprehensive sketch of Te Rauparaha's career on the part of many
readers of my former books, in which fitful glimpses of the old chief
were given. These references have apparently awakened some
considerable interest in the life and times of the great Ngatitoan,
and although this period of New Zealand's history is by no means
barren of literature, I am hopeful that there is still room for a
volume in which much heterogeneous matter has been grouped and
consolidated. There may be some amongst the reading public who will
question the need, or the wisdom, of recording the savage and
sanguinary past of the Maori; but history is always history, and if
this contribution serves no other useful purpose, it may at least help
to emphasise the marvellous transformation which has been worked in
the natives of New Zealand since Te Rauparaha's time--a transformation
which can be accounted one of the world's greatest triumphs for
missionary enterprise. It may be, too, that some critics will not
subscribe to my estimate of the chief's character, because it has been
the conventional view that he who refused to part with his own and his
people's heritage was destitute of a redeeming feature. Owing to the
misrepresentation of the early settlers and traders he has been
greatly misunderstood by their successors; and they have further added
to the injustice by sometimes seeking to measure one who was steeped
in heathen darkness by the holy standard which was raised by the
Founder of Christianity. As in the careers of most conquerors, there
is much in the life of Te Rauparaha that will not bear condonation;
but in every British community there is a wholesome admiration for
resourcefulness, indomitable will, and splendid courage; and, if the
succeeding pages serve to balance these high qualities of the chief
against his failings, they may assist in setting up a more equitable
standard whereby future generations will be able to judge him.
In compiling this work I have necessarily had to draw upon many of the
existing publications on New Zealand, and I now desire gratefully to
acknowledge my obligations to their authors. I have also to thank Mr.
S. Percy Smith, F.R.G.S., for the kindly interest he has displayed in
the progress of my work, and in no less degree must I pay my
respectful acknowledgments to Mr. H. M. Stowell and to Mr. J. R.
Russell for their judicious criticisms and suggestions, whereby I have
been assisted in arriving at a correct historical perspective. To Mr.
T. W. Downes, of Whanganui, who has enthusiastically co-operated with
me in procuring some of the illustrations, and to Mr. J. W. Joynt,
M.A., for his careful revision of the proofs, I am equally indebted,
and now beg to tender to these gentlemen my sincere thanks for their
assistance.
Humbly acknowledging the force of Carlyle's dictum that "Histories are
as perfect as the historian is wise and is gifted with an eye and a
soul," I now present the result of my last year's labour to the reader.
THE AUTHOR.
VICTORIA AVENUE, DANNEVIRKE, N.Z.,
_May 23,_ 1911.
CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER I
WHENCE AND WHITHER? 1
CHAPTER II
ARAWA AND TAINUI 16
CHAPTER III
A WARRIOR IN THE MAKING 29
CHAPTER IV
THE LAND OF PROMISE 62
CHAPTER V
THE SOUTHERN RAIDS 121
CHAPTER VI
THE SMOKING FLAX 189
CHAPTER VII
WAKEFIELD AND THE WAIRAU 235
CHAPTER VIII
THE CAPTIVE CHIEF 293
CHAPTER IX
WEIGHED IN THE BALANCE 331
ILLUSTRATIONS
PORTRAIT OF TE RAUPARAHA _Frontispiece_
_After a drawing in the Hocken Collection, Dunedin_
FACING PAGE
DEPARTURE OF "THE FLEET" FOR NEW ZEALAND 16
_From a painting by K. Watkins, Auckland.
By kind permission of the Artist_
POMOHAKA PASSAGE, KAWHIA 32
_From a photo by Jonston_
BURNING OF THE "BOYD" 48
_From a painting by W. Wright, Auckland.
By kind permission of the Artist_
TE ARAWI PA, KAWHIA 64
_The Point from which the Ngati-Toa migration commenced_
THE MEMORIAL TIKI, KAIAPOI 128
_Erected on the site of the pa destroyed by Te Rauparaha_
GILLETT'S WHALING STATION, KAPITI, 1842 144
_By kind permission of Miss Gilfillan.
From a sketch by her Father_
MONUMENT ON MASSACRE HILL, WAIRAU 256
_Erected by public subscription, 1869.
Photo by Macey_
TAUPO PA, PORIRUA 288
_After a drawing by G. F. Angas_
TE RANGIHAEATA 304
_After a drawing by C. D. Barraud, Esq._
MAP DELINEATING JOURNEYS OF TE RAUPARAHA AND
TE PUOHO _At end_
LAMENT ON THE CAPTURE OF TE RAUPARAHA
_Composed by Hinewhe, and supposed to be sung by Te Rangihaeata._
I
Alas! my heart is wild with grief:
There rises still
The frowning hill
Of Kapiti, in vain amid the waters lone!
But he, the chief,
The key of all the land, is gone!
II
Calm in the lofty ship, O ancient comrade, sleep,
And gaze upon the stillness of the deep!
Till now, till now,
A calm was but a signal unto thee
To rise in pride, and to the fray
Despatch some martial band in stern array!
But go thy way,
And with a favouring tide
Upon the billows ride,
Till Albion's cliffs thou climb, so far beyond the sea.
III
Thou stood'st alone, a kingliest forest tree,
Our pride, our boast,
Our shelter and defence to be.
But helplessly--ah, helplessly wast thou
Plucked sword-like from the heart of all thy host,
Thy thronging "Children of the Brave,"
With none to save!
Not amid glaring eyes;
Not amid battle cries,
When the desperate foes
Their dense ranks close:
Not from the lips of the terrible guns
Thy well-known cry resounding o'er the heath:
"Now, now, my sons!
Now fearless with me to the realms of Death!"
Not thus--not thus, amid the whirl of war,
Wert thou caught up and borne away afar!
IV
Who will arise to save?
Who to the rescue comes?
Waikato's lord--Tauranga's chief,
Thy grandsons, rushing from their distant homes,
They shall avenge their sire--they shall assuage our grief.
While you, the "Children of the Brave,"
Still sleep a sleep as of the grave,
Dull as the slumbering fish that basks upon the summer wave.
V
Depart then, hoary chief! Thy fall--
The pledge forsooth of peace to all--
Of Heaven's peace, so grateful to their God above,
And to thy kinsmen twain, by whom
Was brought us from the portals of the "land of gloom,"
This novel law of love--
This law of good:
Say, rather, murderous law of blood,
That charges its own crimes upon its foes--
While I alone am held the source whence these disasters rose!
An Old New Zealander
CHAPTER I
WHENCE AND WHITHER?
Probably no portion of the globe is so pregnant with the romance of
unsolved problem as the Pacific Ocean. For thousands of years before
Vasco de Balboa, the friend of Columbus, stood upon the heights of
Panama and enriched mankind by his glorious geographical discovery,
this great ocean and the islands which its blue waters encircle had
remained a world in themselves, undisturbed by the rise and fall of
continental kingdoms, unknown even to the semi-civilised peoples who
dwelt on the neighbouring continental shores. But although thus shut
out from human ken and wrapt in impenetrable mystery, we are entitled
to presume that during all this period of time Nature, both animate
and inanimate, had been there fulfilling its allotted part in the
Creator's plan, though no pen has fully told, or ever can tell, of the
many stupendous changes which were wrought in those far-away centuries
either by the will of God or by the hand of man. That vast and
far-reaching displacements had been effected before the Spanish
adventurer's discovery of 1513 broke this prehistoric silence, there
is little room to doubt, for the position and configuration of the
island groups are as surely the results of geological revolutions as
their occupation by a strangely simple and unlettered people is
evidence of some great social upheaval in the older societies of the
world. Precisely what those geological changes have been, or what the
cause of that social upheaval, it would be imprudent to affirm, but
there is always room for speculation, even in the realm of science and
history, and there is no unreasonable scepticism in refusing to
subscribe to the belief that the Pacific Ocean always has been,
geographically speaking, what it is to-day, nor rash credulity in
accepting the ruined buildings and monolithic remains which lie
scattered from Easter Island to Ponape, as evidences of a people whose
empire--if such it can be called--had vanished long before the
appearance of the Spaniards in these waters.
But even if the opinion still awaits scientific verification that the
islands and atolls which sustain the present population of the Pacific
are but the surviving heights of a submerged continent, there is less
room to doubt that the dark-skinned inhabitants of those islands can
look back upon a long course of racial vicissitude antecedent to the
arrival of the Spaniards. What the first and subsequent voyagers found
was a people of stalwart frame, strong and lithe of limb, with head
and features, and especially the fairness of the skin, suggestive of
Caucasian origin.[1] Although of bright and buoyant spirits, they were
without letters, and their arts were of the most rudimentary kind. Of
pottery they knew nothing, and of all metals they were equally
ignorant. For their domestic utensils they were dependent upon the
gourd and other vegetable products, and for weapons of war and tools
of husbandry upon the flints and jades of the mountains. Their
textiles, too, were woven without the aid of the spindle, and in much
the same primitive fashion as had been employed by the cave-dwellers
of England thousands of years before. In the production of fire they
were not a whit less primitive than the semi-savage of ancient
Britain. They thus presented the pathetic spectacle of a people
lingering away back in the Palæolithic period of the world's history,
while the world around them had marched on through the long centuries
involved in the Bronze and Iron Ages.
But though devoid of these mechanical arts, the higher development of
which counts for much in national progress, these people were no
sluggards. They were expert canoe-builders, and their skill in naval
architecture was only equalled by the daring with which they traversed
the ocean waste around them. They were bold and adventurous
navigators, who studied the flow of the tides and the sweep of the
ocean currents. They knew enough of astronomy to steer by the stars,
and were able to navigate their rude craft with a wonderful degree of
mathematical certainty. Whether their wanderings were in all cases due
to design or sometimes to accident, cannot now be definitely affirmed;
but there is abundant proof that their voyages had extended from
Hawaii in the north to Antarctica in the south, and there was scarcely
an island that was not known and named in all their complex
archipelagos.
Of literature they, of course, had none, but they revelled in oral
traditions and in a mythology rich in imagination and poetry, which
accounted for all things, even for the beginning of the world and for
the ultimate destiny of the soul. Being deeply religious and as deeply
superstitious, they interpreted natural phenomena in a mystic sense,
and Pope's lines on the poor Indian would have been equally applicable
to the ancient Maori in Polynesia--
"Lo! the poor Indian, whose untutor'd mind
Sees God in clouds, or hears Him in the wind:
His soul proud science never taught to stray
Far as the Solar Walk or Milky Way.
Yet simple Nature to his hope has given
Behind the cloud-capt hill an humbler heaven;
Some safer world in depths of woods embraced,
Some happier island in the watery waste,
Where slaves once more their native land behold,
No fiends torment, no Christians thirst for gold."[2]
The cradle of the Polynesian race was undoubtedly Asia; and to arrive at
a clear understanding as to how it became transported from a continental
home into this island world it will be necessary to carry the mind back
probably more than 200,000 years. At that time the dominating section
of the human family was the Caucasian--fair-skinned, blue-eyed, and
revelling in the glory of long, wavy hair. Their civilisation,
however, like their weapons of chipped stone, was of the most
primitive character; but they had advanced sufficiently in the
ascending scale of human progress to show that they valued life by
paying pious respect to their dead. They preserved the memory of the
departed by erecting over their burial-places huge blocks of stone,
many of which monuments stand to-day to mark the course of their
migrations. And, except possibly a flint axe-head or a rude ornament
found deep in some ancient gravel-bed, these megalithic monuments are
amongst the most convincing evidence we have of the wide diffusion of
the human race in prehistoric times. From the most westerly point in
Ireland, across the European and Asiatic continents, they stretch by
the shores of the Atlantic and the Mediterranean in the former, and
the plains of Siberia in the latter, until they reach the waters of
the Pacific. Even this wide expanse of ocean proved no insuperable
barrier to the onward march of wandering man; for it is by the
presence of his stone-building habit in so many of the Pacific Islands
that we are able to construct a probable hypothesis of the process by
which Polynesia first became inhabited.
In the light of modern knowledge, the theory which finds most ready
acceptance is that in Palæolithic times the Caucasian race, being more
or less a maritime people, had obtained possession of the coastal
districts of Europe. As they multiplied and spread, they followed the
ocean's edge to the northward, and, as the Arctic regions were then
enjoying a temperate climate, there was a plenteous and pleasant home
for them even in the most northerly part of Siberia. But later a
drastic climatic change began to take place. The great ice-sheet,
which is known to have twice covered northern Europe and Asia, began
to creep down upon the land, driving man and beast before it. Impelled
by this relentless force, there began a momentous migration of
Palæolithic man, who swept in hordes southward and eastward in search
of a more hospitable home. In course of time a section of these
fugitives, travelling across the Siberian plains, reached the Pacific
coast, and here their old maritime spirit reasserted itself. With the
pressure of climate behind them, and in their breasts the love of
adventure, the sea soon became as much their domain as the land.
At first their canoes were of the frailest character; but experience
and unlimited opportunity soon taught them the art of constructing
safe sea-going craft, which could carry considerable numbers on a
course of discovery. The tales of new lands found, and their warm and
genial climate, no doubt stimulated the spirit of exploration, so that
gradually, and almost imperceptibly, the tide of migration which was
flowing from the centre of the continent was drawn across the sea to
the region of eternal summer.
From somewhere in the vicinity of the Japanese archipelago, fleets of
canoes set off at various times carrying with them a freight of
humanity destined to found a new people in a new land. But, in order
to account for the transportation of large numbers of women and
children on vessels which, at the best, must have been mainly
constructed of reeds, we must assume smaller intervals of ocean than
exist now. There are evidences of other kinds that startling
geological changes have occurred in this portion of the globe; and
this assumption would help to explain feats of travel otherwise
apparently impracticable to a rude and poorly equipped people.
For how many centuries this stream of venturesome humanity flowed
southward no one can tell; but it is safe to assume that great numbers
must have taken the plunge into the unknown, some resting by the way,
others pushing on to a point beyond the furthest preceding colony,
until the main groups of islands were occupied, and outpost after
outpost was firmly established. With them these people carried their
simple mode of life, their primitive arts and customs, not the least
of which was their stone-building habit, which, as already shown, had
originated in their desire to perpetuate the memory and preserve the
bones of their dead. Hence arose in their new home those strange
structures of uncemented stone which astonished the early discoverers,
and which stand to-day, broken and decrepit relics, like ghostly
wraiths from a long-forgotten past.
But, whatever its duration may have been, two causes operated to bring
this period of migration to a close. The first of these influences was
the dispersion of the Mongolian race from Central Asia; the second,
the subsidence of the land along the Asiatic coast. Either of these
events would have been in itself sufficient to cut off the supply of
emigrants to the islands. The descent of the more warlike Mongols from
their high plateau would effectually close the inland route across the
north of Asia to the gentle Caucasians; while the sinking of the
land-bridge, along which they had been wont to pick their way, would
so increase the hazard of the journey that none would care to risk a
voyage across the greater stretch of sea. Thus the first stratum of
the Polynesian race was laid by an invasion of European people
embarking from Asia; and these light-skinned, fair-haired Vikings,
who were driven out of their ancient home by the descent of the giant
glaciers, plunged into the abyss of uncertainty, little dreaming that
from their stock would arise a people whose life-story would be, as it
still is to some extent, one of the world's unsolved problems.
Amongst the many features which have seemed to intensify the shroud of
mystery enveloping these people is the combination of a dark skin with
tall and stalwart frames and a head-form usually belonging to fair
races. Also the strange stratification of their customs discloses a
social condition so contradictory as to amount almost to a paradox.
Why a dark-skinned race should possess features which find their
counterpart in the whites of to-day, or why the most primitive method
of obtaining fire--by friction--should be found side by side with
highly scientific methods of warfare, especially displayed in the art
of fortification, seemed difficult of explanation, until the idea of a
second invasion, comprised of dark-blooded people, had been conceived
and had taken root.[3]
The theory of a grafting of a dark race on to the Caucasian stem which
had already been planted in Polynesia explains much. It would account
for the olive-coloured skin of the present-day natives, and it would
provide the reasonable supposition that, being later comers, they
would import with them newer ideas and more modern customs, some of
which would be adopted in their entirety, others in a modified form.
With the advantage of many centuries of contact with neighbouring
peoples, they had necessarily learned much of the art of war, which
had been quite unknown to the islanders in their isolation. These dark
invaders were therefore able to come in the spirit of conquerors; and
consequently the masculine arts, such as the making of weapons and the
building of forts and canoes, received an impulse which placed them
considerably in advance of anything of which the original people had
ever dreamed. But the domestic arts would be but little changed, for
the reason that the invasion, being one of warlike intent, would be
comprised largely of males, the women who were taken to wife after
their lords had been vanquished being allowed to retain their old
modes of life. Hence the methods of twisting threads of fibre, of
weaving mats, and of making fire, would remain the same as had been
practised by them from time immemorial, while there would be a
distinct advance in those arts which came more exclusively within the
domain of the males. In two respects, however, these newcomers did not
better the condition or raise the standard of art amongst the people
with whom they were about to mingle their blood. They introduced
neither pottery nor the use of metals. It is therefore clear that the
section of the human family to which they belonged had not advanced
beyond the Stone Age when their invasion took place; and this fact
helps us to some extent in our inferences as to the period when this
second migration commenced and when it terminated.
For the direction whence these dark-skinned invaders came we have to
rely on a careful comparison of the traditions and genealogies of the
present-day people, who have preserved in a remarkable way certain
leading facts, which serve as landmarks by which their journeys can
still be traced. By the aid of these, the thread of their history has
been followed back to a time at least several centuries before the
birth of Christ, when a dark-skinned people dwelt upon the banks of
the river Ganges. Here, by contact with other races, probably the
Egyptian and Semitic, they acquired that smattering of mythology
which, as preserved by the ancient Maori, resembled so closely the
beliefs still prevalent in many parts of the Old World. But although
versed in the mysterious philosophy, if such it can be styled, of
their time, they were entirely ignorant of the principles of the
Buddhist religion; and from this circumstance it is fair to deduce
that they had left India before Gautama, who died in 477 B.C., had
commenced his teaching of "Nirvana and the Law."
But when we come to inquire into the causes which operated to inspire
this migration, we get little information beyond the explanation
commonly given as the root of all Polynesian movements, that "great
wars prevailed." If this be the true reason why a whole nation should
move _en masse_, then it is not unreasonable to suppose that the
future Polynesians were the defeated people, and were forced by
irresistible waves of invasion to abandon their home in India. Slowly
they were pushed southward and eastward by the more warlike tribes who
came down from the north; and as they made their way along the coasts
of the Malayan Peninsula, circumstances, climate, and assimilation
with other peoples continued the process of racial modification which
had commenced before they abandoned the valley of the Ganges. For
three hundred years or more they drifted from point to point. We know
little more, for there occurs a comparative blank in the story of
their journeyings as they moved along the coast of Sumatra and down
the Straits of Malacca.
In the year 65 B.C., however, we again get a glimpse of them
on the island of Java. From this point, although their movements are
often vague and shadowy, they are never entirely lost to sight.
Tradition, at this period, speaks of a renowned personage named Te
Kura-a-moo, who "went to the east, to the rising sun, and remained
there." To precisely what spot in the east he journeyed is uncertain,
but his objective is generally supposed to have been the island of
Java, which was then known as Avaiki-te-Varinga. This is the first
suggestion of migration which we have in Polynesian tradition; and as
it corresponds in date with other large ethnic movements which are
known to have occurred in the Malayan archipelago, it is more than
probable that pressure from other invaders compelled the occupation
of Java, which thus became the parent Hawaiki, towards which the Maori
stands in much the same relationship as does his brother _pakeha_ to
the Garden of Eden.
But the same cause which drove these wandering Asiatics into Java, at
a latter period led to its evacuation. And still the movement was in
an eastward direction, towards the islands of Indonesia, the people as
they moved becoming more and more expert in the art of navigation and
sea-craft. In view of the scattered nature of the archipelago in which
they now found themselves, their voyages became gradually longer,
requiring larger canoes and more daring seamanship. They were
beginning to leave the beaten path which hitherto had been the common
course of the human race--the mountain, the river, and the plain. With
them the sea was gradually becoming the broad highway which had to be
traversed in order to find fresh resting-places, or to maintain
communication with established outposts in more advanced situations.
The spirit of the sea-gipsy, which led them to do and dare, was
rapidly developing within them, and the knowledge thus born of courage
and experience was shortly to prove invaluable to them in carrying to
a successful issue their own great policy of conquest.
Wars and rumours of wars are again heard of, and are given as the
underlying cause of the next movement southward from Indonesia, the
date of which is so uncertain that it cannot safely be defined more
strictly than as between the first and fourth centuries. It is
unfortunate that we are driven to this loose estimate of time for so
important a national event, because it was this final migration which
led to the actual entry into Polynesia of these dark-blooded
wanderers, and if our first hypothesis be correct, to their ultimate
fusion with the fair-skinned, stone-building people who had preceded
them by many centuries.
They had obviously come into contact with strange people and strange
animals, for the existence of the former has been preserved in their
traditions and the memory of the latter in their fantastic carvings.
Not the least interesting of their stories is the finding of a
fair-complexioned people, whom their fancy has elevated into the realm
of fairies, and from whom they claim to have learned the art of
net-making. Whether these mysterious people, who are said to have
laboured only at night and to have vanished when the sun rose, were
the original Caucasians who, we have supposed, set out from the
eastern coast of Asia, and who were about to be absorbed by the more
virile emigrants from India, or whether they were, as some suggest, a
few wandering Greeks or Phoenicians on the coast of Sumatra, we cannot
pretend to decide. But, in all its vagueness and fanciful setting, the
tradition is interesting, as indicating the existence on their route
of a people fairer than themselves, and the fact that they must have
come into close personal contact with them. A careful reflection upon
the probable circumstances attending the story of how Kahu-kura
captured one of the fairy's nets inclines us to the opinion that it is
the first evidence we have of the contact of the Indian branch of the
Polynesian race with their whiter predecessors. These they would meet
in island after island as they moved down the Pacific towards Fiji,
which group they are believed to have occupied about A.D. 450.
Like all other dates connected with Polynesian migrations, this one
can only be approximate, for the people were without any mode of
reckoning time, except by reference to ancestral lines. But there is
traditional authority for supposing that their descent upon Fiji was
made in considerable numbers, and that for a time these islands
constituted one of their principal colonising centres. Whether Tonga
and Samoa were settled from this point seems doubtful; but it is
certain from the marvellous stories which find credence in the
traditions of this period that an era of extensive voyaging had set
in, and that the newcomers began to spread themselves with
considerable rapidity from atoll to island and from island to
archipelago. These excursions into new realms naturally gave promise
of an attractive home amongst the palm-covered islands; and,
simultaneously with their policy of conquest and colonisation, they
began the absorption and assimilation of the resident people. As the
defending warriors were driven out or annihilated, the women of the
vanquished were taken possession of by the victors, and their domestic
arts were taken with them. This blending necessarily, in the course of
many centuries, worked appreciable modifications in the physique and
customs of both races, and gave to the world the Polynesian people as
we know them to-day.
A race of stalwarts, long-headed, straight-haired, and brown-skinned,
warriors from birth, full of courage, and ardent for adventure, they
were not altogether devoid of those higher ideals which make for the
elevation of man. They were deeply imbued with a love of poetry, which
enabled them to appreciate in a rude way the beautiful in life and to
preserve in quaint song and fantastic tradition the story of their
wanderings and the prowess of their heroes. They were even
enterprising enough to attempt the solution of the marvellous natural
phenomena everywhere presented to them, which, to their simple minds,
could have no origin except in the intervention of the gods.
With a continuous stream of fresh immigrants flowing in from the north
to reinforce the southern outposts, the conquest and colonisation of
the islands was now only a matter of time. Before we come to the
period directly connected with our story, some seven hundred years had
elapsed, during which every trace and even the memory of the original
people had been effaced, and but for their stone monuments, which have
withstood alike the shock of invasion and the ravages of time, their
very existence would have remained as one of the problems of a
forgotten past. But long before this period had been reached, some
great ethnic or geographical event had occurred to terminate the
further inflow of these invaders from the north. Either the movements
of the nations upon the Asiatic continent supervened to make
continued migration unnecessary, or geographical changes in the
distribution of land and sea operated to make it more difficult, if
not impossible. Certain it is that the supply of warriors was
effectually cut off, and that at a time before the parent people had
learned the use of metals. From this period, down through the ages
until the day of their discovery by the Spaniards, the gulf which
separated them from the rest of the human family remained unbridged,
and the Polynesians were suffered to evolve their own racial
peculiarities and develop their own national spirit, untrammelled by
exterior influences. Isolated from the rest of the world, they lived
in total ignorance of the progress with which other peoples were
advancing towards a higher type of human development and loftier
ideals of national life. They knew nothing of the growth of science or
of art, and they derived no benefit from the stimulating effect of
competition, or from the bracing conditions of a strenuous life.
Nature was bountiful to them in the ease and abundance with which
their simple wants were supplied, for it required neither labour nor
ingenuity to provide for their daily needs. Hence there was little
incentive to depart from traditional customs, or to seek more advanced
methods than their fathers had learned and applied in that far-off
time when they lived on the banks of the Ganges. Had it been
otherwise, the Polynesians would not have been found still clinging to
their stone clubs and flint axes, while the continental peoples
surrounding them had acquired a written language, the use of metals,
and the arts of husbandry, pottery, and weaving. The complete absence
of these primary evidences of civilisation amongst the islanders gives
us the right to assume that they came into the South Seas before man
had acquired any knowledge of the metallic arts, and that their
migration ceased before pottery and the weaving spindle were known.
Polynesia must, therefore, have been occupied during the Palæolithic
and Neolithic periods of the world's history. From that time down to
the Spanish era all communication with the surrounding nations was
completely cut off, and the Polynesians were allowed to sleep the
sleep of centuries and to work out their own destiny in the midst of
their tragic isolation. As the evolution of the race progressed, there
was gradually developed a rude system of tribal government,
administered by acknowledged chieftains, who claimed and obtained
unquestioned obedience. So, too, victory or defeat became gradually
the chief factor in determining the home of each tribe. These tribal
boundaries were, however, by no means arbitrary lines of exclusion,
and, in fact, there were frequent visits of friendship between the
different sections of the race. These voyages necessarily led to a
wide knowledge of the Southern seas and their archipelagos, and often
contributed surprising results. While the sea-captains navigated their
canoes with wonderful accuracy, unaided as they were by chart or
compass, their vessels were not always under absolute control, and in
stress of sudden storm, or influenced by some unexpected current, they
were frequently carried far out of their intended course.
It is probable that in some such way the first canoes reached New
Zealand, for it is known that individual vessels had visited these
shores long before the historic migration known as "the fleet" left
Rarotonga in or about the year 1350 A.D. The stories brought
back by these pioneering mariners excited the cupidity and fired the
imagination of the islanders, and when a fleet of several great canoes
arrived at Rarotonga, and found that group already fully occupied,
they decided to set out in search of the strange land which had been
dragged from the depths of the sea by the miracle-working Maui, and
discovered by the great sea-captain Kupe.[4] Here they hoped to
capture the giant bird, the flesh of which Ngahue had preserved and
brought back with him, but more than all they were eager to enrich
themselves by the possession of the _toka-matie_, or much prized
greenstone, the beauty of which they had heard so much extolled.
The story of this migration is recorded amongst the classic traditions
of the New Zealanders: how the Arawa canoe came perilously near being
lost in a tempest, and descended into the mysterious depths of the
whirlpool, Te Parata; how the crew of the Taki-tumu suffered the pangs
of starvation; how the Kura-haupo suffered wreck; and how, on landing,
the crew of the Arawa practised the deceit upon the sleeping Tainui of
placing the cable of their canoe under that of the latter, in order
that they might, with some hope of success, set up a claim to first
arrival. One by one the canoes reached these shores, the major part of
them making land in the vicinity of East Cape, thence sailing to the
north or to the south, as the whim of the captain or the divination of
the _tohunga_ decided their course. In this way they spread to
almost every part of the North Island, which they found already
peopled with the remnants of prior migrations, who were living in
peaceable possession. With these the warlike Vikings from the Pacific
fought and contended until they gained undoubted supremacy, thus
giving a starting-point to New Zealand history by establishing
ancestral lines from which all Maoris love to trace their descent.
These tribes soon became the dominant power in the land. The weaker
_tangata whenua_[5] were subdued and absorbed. Their traditions,
arts, and customs disappeared, except in so far as they may have
unconsciously influenced those of their conquerors. The latter grew in
strength and numbers, extending their influence far and wide, as they
marched towards the development of their national existence and their
final consolidation into the Maori race.
Unto these people was born, about the year 1768, a little brown babe
who was destined to become the great Te Rauparaha, chief of the
Ngati-Toa tribe.
[1] "The distinguishing characteristic of the Marquesan Islanders, and
that which at once strikes you, is the European cast of their
features--a peculiarity seldom observable among other uncivilised
peoples. Many of their faces present a profile classically beautiful,
and I saw several who were in every respect models of beauty"
(_Melville_).
[2] "I found that the Natives had not formed the slightest idea of
there being a state of future punishment. They refuse to believe that
the Good Spirit intends to make them miserable after their decease.
They imagine all the actions of this life are punished here, and that
every one when dead, good or bad, bondsman or free, is assembled on an
island situated near the North Cape, where both the necessaries and
comforts of life will be found in the greatest abundance, and all will
enjoy a state of uninterrupted happiness" (_Earle_).
[3] "It is most certain that the whites are the aborigines. Their
colour is, generally speaking, like that of the people of Southern
Europe, and I saw several who had red hair. There were some who were
as white as our sailors, and we often saw on our ships a tall young
man, 5 feet 11 inches in height, who, by his colour and features,
might easily have passed for a European" (_Crozet's Description of
the Maoris at the Bay of Islands_).
[4] The knowledge which the Polynesians possessed of the Southern sea,
and their skill as navigators, was such that when "the fleet" set out
from Rarotonga, they did not go to discover New Zealand, but they went
with the absolute certainty of finding it.
[5] "Man of the land, native, aboriginal." Probably these people were
a mixture of the Melanesian and Polynesian types.