The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 52
The Emigration of Manaia
The Emigration of Manaia.
"The cause which led Manaia to come here from Hawaiki was his being very badly treated by a large party of his friends and neighbours, whom, according to the usual custom, when a chief had any heavy work to be done, he had collected to make spears for him, for they violently ravished his wife Rongotiki." Fighting ensued, and Manaia resolved to emigrate. He fitted up a canoe called Tokomaru belonging to his brother-in-law, embarked with his wife, children, and dependants, sacrificed his brother-in-law as an offering to the gods, caught the dog of the victim, and sailed away "in search of a new country for himself." They reached land; it was this island, Aotearoa. "There were some other canoes coming close after the canoe Tokomaru, which presently made the land too, and reached the shore just where the Tokomaru had been drawn up on the beach." The usual quarrelling followed, and Manaia again put to sea, doubled the North Cape, and thence "made a direct course to Taranaki," landed at Tongaporutu, and left their god Rakeiora there. After visiting Mokau the party returned to Tongaporutu, where they left their vessel, and commenced an exploring expedition inland. At the mouth of the Waitara they found people living, the aborigines of these islands, but Manaia and his party slew them all. At Waitara Manaia finally settled and became the ancestor of the great Ngatiawa tribes.
Mr. John White's publication contains allusions to or accounts of other canoes which made these islands from Hawaiki. There are the Mamari, commanded by Nukutawhiti, and the Riukakara, which sailed in search of Tuputupuwhenua, and peopled the northern parts of New Zealand with tribes, since called Ngapuhi, from the name of an ancestor. There was the Mahuhu, from whose crew are descended the Ngatiwhatua tribes; the Takitumu, commanded by Tata, which landed at the place called Nelson in the Southern Island, and peopled that country; the Tuwhenua, whose passengers were afflicted with leprosy; the Kurahaupo, under Ruatea, which colonised Wellington; and the Matatua, which reached the Bay of Plenty under the captains Ruauru and Toroa. The construction of these two last named is mentioned in Sir G. Grey's legends, but their history is not given.
There is no necessity to pursue the tracks of the wanderers, as they finally apportioned amongst themselves the territory they had discovered and occupied. The accounts of their land quarrels are abundant, and on the whole very consistent. There are contradictions and inconsistencies in the legends above abstracted, but not of sufficient importance to affect the generally reliable character of the traditions, and many apparent difficulties disappear on careful examination and comparison. For instance, if the Manaia who is said to have been lost in the storm at Motiti is the same person as the Manaia who settled ultimately at Waitara, we must suppose that the incantations of Ngatoro were less potent than he boasted, that some of Manaia's expedition were lost, and that the rest got safely away. It will be remembered that the only persons on the island were Ngatoro and his aged wife, and they would be much tempted to exaggerate the deadly effect of the old priest's charms when recounting the disappearance of the hostile host to their own people. In fact, as the storm occurred in the night, and it was not until the morning that the old woman perceived the effects of it upon the hostile fleet, she could not have known how many vessels sailed away during the night. All that remained for her observation were the bodies of the enemy and the pieces of the broken canoes that were washed ashore on the beach of Motiti.
* It is said of only one canoe, the Takitumu, that the passengers were compelled to prey upon each other.
The only parts of the legend which suggest serious doubts as to their reliability are the causes which led to the exodus. I confess that I am not satisfied that quarrels about women, and affronts to personal dignity by curses, could have produced such serious results as the desertion of their country by large bodies of men, and the incurring of the dangers of long voyages in search of a land, of the existence of which, on the first expeditions, they had no knowledge. It appears to me much more reasonable to suppose that the movements were caused by the severe pressure of hostile invasion, and that the people fled in large numbers, simply because the uncertain dangers of the sea were preferable to the certain dangers of remaining on the land; and that, in order to conceal this humiliating circumstance, national pride caused the priests, when telling the story of the migrations to a new generation, to invent the histories of internal commotions, which would be rather flattering than otherwise to their dignity.
* It is to be regretted that the ordinary maps and the Admiralty charts contain ew native names of the innumerable islands which dot the Pacific Ocean.
Judge Fornander has been fortunate enough to meet with a very clear account of the wanderings of that portion of the Hawaian nation that peopled the Marquesas Islands (Nukuhiva). As this tradition has preserved the names of the places at which stoppages were made, I have thought it well to insert it verbatim, extracting it from Mr. Fernander's interesting book, "An Account of the Polynesian Race." It is important as showing a general consensus of tradition amongst the Polynesians, that the origin of their race was from the west, and that their ancient home bore the name of Sabaii or Hawaii.
Atea Account. | Tani Account. |
---|---|
From Take-hee-hee to | From Take-hee-hee to |
From Ahee-tai to | From Ahee-take to |
From Ao-nuu to | From Ao-nuu to |
From Papa-nui to | From Papa-nui to |
From Take-hee to | From Take hee to |
From Ho-vau to | |
From Nini-oe to | |
From Ao-ewa to | |
From Ani-take to | From Ani-take to |
From Ho-vau to | |
From Hawaii to | From Vevau to |
From Tu-uma to | From Tu-uma to |
From Mea-ai to | From Mea-ai to |
From Fiti-nui to | From Fiti-nui to |
From Mata-hou to | From Mata-hou to |
From Tona-nui to | From Tona-nui to |
From Mau-ewa to | From Mau-ewa to |
From Pi-ina to | From Pi-ina to |
Thence 'over the ocean' to
Ao-maama | Ao-maama, |
Their name for the Marquesas Islands.
"Take-hee-hee, or Ahee-tai, as another legend calls it, was the oldest original home of which the Takes had any remembrance. It is described as a mountain-land, with a settlement or inhabited district at Tai-ao, another at Meini-taha-hua, and another near the water (lake or river) of Nuu-teea. Wars and commotions having arisen among themselves, the people were driven out of this land, and migrated to—
'He henua hiwaoa mei Ahee-tai,
He henua hiwahiwa Ao-mai.'
'A beautiful country, far from Ahee-tai,
A beautiful country is Ao-mai.'
"Papa-nui, which seems to have been reached by sea; for a legend relates that the chief Tiki-Matohe and his wife Hina left Aonuu, with their followers and outfit of pigs, fowls, and fruit, in a double canoe, and thus with a favourable wind arrived at Papanui. This land is described as a high tableland, surrounded by the sea. It appears also that the Tani branch of the family arrived at Papa-nui after Atea; for one of the chants mentions his cordial reception as one of the same family as Atea, and how, for his entertainment, pigs were brought from Ao-tumi, and turtle from Ono-tapu, and fowls from below Ii-Hawa and Nuu-teea.
The next stopping-place was—
"Take-hee, which is said to—
'Tu hiwaoa eeke eeke i te hee.'
'Tai mamao uta-oa tu te Ii.'
'The distant sea or region; far inland stand the volcanoes.'
The hupe kohanui, mio, and temanu trees are said by one chant to have been growing there in abundance. It is also said to have been subject to tremendous hurricanes, followed by famines. Two of the chants give rather particular descriptions of the Hawa-ii remembered by the Marquesans. One mentions five headlands or capes, Fiti-tona-tapu, Pua, Ao, Ao-ena, and Ao-oma, and one mountain, which it calls Mouna-tika-oe. The other chant, of evidently later origin, mentions a mountain called Mouna-oa, which is said to have been raging, burning (Ii) on top, and served as a landmark for Tupaa when he left Hawa-ii, with his family and followers.
"The order in which this Hawa-ii appears on the Marquesan carte de voyage, and other considerations, make it impossible to identify it with the North Pacific Hawaiian group, or even with the Sawa-ii of the Samoan group. The constant and emphatic expression of all these legends, that the wanderers came from 'below'—mei, iao, mai—from the direction towards which the wind was blowing, and were always going 'up,' iuna, in the direction from which the wind was blowing, makes it evident that the Hawa-ii to which they refer must have been situated to the westward, or 'below' the Fiti, Viti, Fiji group, from which, with one intermediate station, whose name I am not now able to identify, they proceeded to the Tonga group, Tona-nui, and thence to the Society group, or Mau-ewa, which name I consider to be the same as Ma-ewa, a district on the island of Huahine; thence to Pi-ina, now not known by that name; and thence the wanderers, still going on up the wind, crossed the ocean—una te tai—to the Marquesas, or Te Ao-maama.
while the situation of the other, Mea-ai, is not indicated.'Te Tuuma i Hawa-ii tata ae,'
"We thus find ourselves again in face of a western Hawa-ii, far west of the Fiji group; but whether it is the same Hawaii to which the Hawaiian legends refer, there are no means to decide. Probably it was not. The Hawa, Sawa, and Djawa name, and its composites, were not uncommon appellations of island places and districts throughout the Asiatic archipelago, and some one of these may have been the Hawa-ii in question.
Here the Tani account of the migrations may offer an indication, at least, of the direction in which this Hawa-ii is to be sought for. Tracing that account backward from Ao-maama, and beyond the Fiji group, through places identical with the Atea account, we find that Vevau is the station just previous to Tuuma, and not Hawa-ii, as the other account calls it. I have already shown that the Vevau referred to in the earlier Marquesan legends corresponds, in all probability, to Timor of the Asiatic archipelago; and thus understood, the Tani account renders the journey both intelligible and credible. Whether Hawa-ii in those ancient times was another name for Vevau or Timor, or whether in the Atea account it is used as a representative name for the Asiatico-Polynesian area, and the eastern and last portion especially, it is now impossible to say.
"The current traditional belief among the southern Marque-sans, that they came from Hawaii, which in ordinary parlance has become synonymous with 'the regions below, the invisible world,' and the similarly current belief among the northern Marquesans, that they came from Vavao, an island 'below,' i.e., to westward of Nuku-hiwa, point to the earlier legend and its two migrations, that of Atea and that of Tani. And dialectical differences between the northern and southern portions of the group confirm the fact of a double origin; whether from two originally distinct tribes, or at two widely separate epochs, I am unable to determine. Mr. Hale, in the ethnographical portion of 'The United States Exploring Expedition' (p. 127), inclines to the conclusion that the Marquesans were colonists from Sawaii, of the Samoan group. I think it quite probable and very natural that a considerable portion of the Marquesans did come from the Samoa, either direct or via the Society group; but the legendary Hawa-ii and Vevau of the Marquesans lay unquestionably farther west than either the Samoan or the Tonga group.
"There is no time, or attempt at specification of time, connected with these Marquesan legends; and the conformity of names in the legends with those on the only Marquesan genealogy which I have seen will not even warrant a conjecture. A better acquaintance with, and a critical comparison of, the Marquesan genealogies still extant might furnish some approximative data for determining the period of these migrations.
"I am very little acquainted with the Samoan traditions and legendary lore, and am unable, therefore, to state what reference, if any, the ancient legends of that group may make to the Polynesian migrations into the Pacific, the time of their occurring, or whence they started.
"The name of the Samoan group, however, affords, in my opinion, some indication of the extraction of the people who named and inhabit it. The group is called by the natives Samoa; in the Tonga and other dialects, Hamoa. The early Spanish visits to the Molucca Islands give the ancient names of Gilolo as 'Mau rica' and 'Bato-chine,' and mentions the middle part of Gilolo as being called Gamoca-nora. The affinity or identity of Gamoca, as the Spaniards pronounced it, and Hamoa or Samoa, is intelligible, and will no doubt be unquestioned by Polynesian scholars; but the epithet nora I am unable to explain, unless it connects with the Polynesian (Hawaiian) noa, meaning 'constantly burning, un- quenchable as a volcano,' and thus referring to the former active state of the volcanoes on Gilolo.
"In the absence of positive evidence to the contrary, it is therefore extremely probable that the Samoans came from the Gilolo group, and to the north of the Papuan Archipel; and with them, or by the same route, came the Hawaiians, possibly also the Society islanders; while the Marquesans and the Tongans came by the same route and Torres Straits, the former from Timor, the latter from Buru. From what has been already said, it is equally probable that some portion of the Fiji group was the primary rendezvous of these two, three, or more streams of migration; and that, whether expelled or leaving voluntarily, a new division took place there, according to tribal, dialectical, or other affinities and predilections; some seeking new homes in the north-east, others in the east and south-east. And it has been shown by one genealogy at least that this ethnic movement embraced a period of from seven to thirteen generations previous to the forty-third recognised and generally considered as authentic ancestor of the present Hawaiian chief families.
"Of these thirteen names borne on most of the Hawaiian genealogies, very little is known that throws any historical light on that period. David Malo, an Hawaiian gentleman educated by the earlier missionaries, states in his 'Hawaiian Antiquities,' that many well-informed people of the olden time maintained that the six first generations after Wakea still lived in O-lolo-i-mehani. Be that as it may, it is evident that the Tahiti mentioned in these earlier legends—to and from which Papa, Wakea's wife, made so many voyages, where she took other husbands, and had other children, from whom the Polynesian Tahitians claim their descent, and where she finally died—could not have been the Tahiti of the South Pacific, but must be sought for in some of the islands of the Asiatic archipelago. It is presumable that when, in after ages, the intercourse between the Polynesian tribes was renewed, the scenes of those early legends were shifted and modified to suit the requirements of the new area which they then occupied; and thus O-lolo-i-mehani became located on Oahu of the Hawaiian group, while the Tahiti of the legend was transposed to Tahiti of the Georgian or Society group."
The number of Polynesian names of places still existing in the islands of the Malay Archipelago is very considerable. Mr. Fornander has selected a number of them which the Hawaians carried with them in their migration and reproduced in their new homes in the Pacific Islands. To his list I have added a few names. In reading this list, the observations previously made as to the altered appearance which names will present in consequence of the loss or the mutation of the consonants of the different dialects now spoken in the Pacific Islands must be borne in mind.
Java, Sawai, Saibai, reappear as Hawaiki in New Zealand, Sabaii in Samoa, Havaii in Tahiti, Avaiki in Rarotonga, Havaiki in Nukuhiva, Habai in Tonga, Hawaii in the Sandwich Islands.
Mariere, one of the Molucca Islands; Morioris, the name of the Chatham Islanders.
Oahu, one of the Hawaian group; Ouahou, a tract of country in south-east Borneo, and to Ouadju in Central Celebes.
Molokai, of the Hawaian group; Morotai, one of the Moluccas, north-east of Gilolo. Also Borotai, a village in Borneo.
Lehua, Lefuka, and Levuka, of the Hawaian, Tonga, and Fiji groups respectively, and Lefu, one of the Loyalty Islands Labouk, in Borneo.
Niihau, one of the Hawaian group; Lifao, a place in the island of Timor.
Morea, one of the Society group, and a village in New Zealand; Morea, a name of a mountain range in Java.
Borabora, one of the Society group, and Polapola, name of places in Ewa, Oahu, in Koolau, and many other islands, and Purapura, places in New Zealand; Pulo-pora, an island near Sumatra.
Vavao, one of the Habai group in the Friendly Islands, and Mature-Wawao, or Acteon Island, of the Paumotu group; Babao, an ancient name of the Bay of Coupang, Isle of Timor; also of a village and district there, and probably the name of the whole island before the Malays conquered it and called it Timor.
Namuka, one of the Tonga (Friendly) Islands, also one of the Fiji group, and Ngarauka, a place in New Zealand; Namusa, one of the Menguis group in the Moluccas.
Kauai, one of the Hawaian group; Tawai, one of the Batchian Islands, west of Gilolo; also Kawai, south-west of Sumatra.
Pangai, one of the Tonga Islands; Pagai Island, west coast, Sumatra.
Pangopango, harbour and village on island of Tutuila, Samoa group, and a village in New Zealand; and Paopao, a land in Kohala, Hawaian group, and Paopao, or Cook's Harbour, on island of Eimeo, Society Islands; Papango, a district of Luzon, Philippine Islands.
Puna, name of districts in Hawai and Kauai, Hawaian group, and many other varieties of this name in New Zealand and in other islands; Puna, the name of a mountain tribe in Borneo.
Kapapala, name of a land in Kau, Hawai; also a district called Papara in Tahiti, Society group; Papal, a name of district in Borneo inhabited by Dyaks.
Anahola, a land in the district of Koolau, Kauai, Hawaian group; Ankola, district of Batta, Sumatra.
Laie, a land in Koolauloa, Oahu, Hawaian group, and a land in Kula in Maui Island; Laye, a place in Sumatra.
Mana, a district of Kauai, Hawaian group, and Mana, an island in New Zealand; Mana, a district near Bencoolen.
Kipu, name of lands on Molokai and at Kona, Hawai; Tibu, south-west point, Island of Buru.
Taioa. name of place and bay in Nukuhiwa, Marquesas, and Kaioa, a land in Koolau, Oahu; Kaioa, Island, west of Gilolo.
Lawai, a land in Kauai, Hawaian group; Lawai, river and land of Borneo, inhabited by Dyaks.
Gilolo is mentioned in legends, and appears as Hihifo in the Friendly Islands.
Fatu-hiwa, one of the Marquesas; Batou, a place on the south side of Timor.
Halawa, name of several islands in Hawaian group; Salaway north-east cape of Jilolo.
Kepa, a village on Kauai; Tepa, a village on the island of Baba.
Manoa, valley in Oahu; Manoa Islands, off south-east prong of Celebes.
Besides these references—and their number could be greatly increased—there are numerous places on all the principal Polynesian groups which preserve names still known in the Indian Archipelago, such as Waikapu, Wailuku, Waipa, Waipipiha, Waigama in Mysol, Waiputi and Waiapo in Bouru and New Zealand, Waikui in Timor Waikio an island. And the Indian Archipelago abounds in names which will be at once recognised as belonging to the Polynesian dialects.
In Sumatra, Moera-dua.
In Ceram, Sawai, Wahai, Teluti, Hoia, Makariki, Ruatau, Awaia, Awahei, Hatorua, Warenama, Batuassa (Patuaha), Kiriwaru, Waipoti.
In Celebes, Tondano, Tomohou, Rurukau, Pangu, Kakahi.
In Bouru, Waiapo, Waiputi.
In Papua, Oetanata, Lakahia, Kowaihi.
Then we have islands: Aru, Saparua, Haruka, Waikio, Motu, Kaioa, Tomore, Amahei, Uta, Kiriwaru, Te Anate, Tanakaki, Muka, Ke.
It would be satisfactory if an examination could be made of the grammar of the languages now spoken by the Harapuras and Moris of the Indian Archipelago; but we must await the time when missionaries will furnish the means of making such an investigation. A grammar or dictionary of the Mahri dialect of South Arabia exists, but, as stated before, I have been unable to obtain a copy. Notwithstanding the absence of such valuable documents, I venture to think that the identity of the Polynesian people with the so-called aborigines of the Philippines, Moluccas, and Sunda Islands is sufficiently established, and that their origin has been further traced from the Cushite tribes of South Arabia, and ultimately from their congeners in the Euphrates Valley.
It is noteworthy that the Polynesian race have preserved no ethnic designation for the whole people. They call themselves mostly after the islands in which they live. New Zealand and the Hawaian islands furnish exceptions. In both these groups the natives are known by the term Maori or Maoli. Although the word Maori is used as an adjective signifying indigenous, or sound, healthy or useful, as rakau maori, or wai maori, as distinguished from salt water, yet there is no doubt that it is (as Dr. Shortland shows) a true ethnic title. This view is confirmed by the fact that the Chatham islanders, who arrived by a distinct migration, bear the same name, Morion. This absence of a general national name affords strong corroborative evidence that the view taken that the people maintained their tribal formation, and migrated in tribes, is the correct one. The tribal names may be traced through all the wanderings of the Maori people. We can recall the Moors, or Moris, of Luzon, the vernacular word no doubt being Maori, as in Mauritania, whose people we call Moors; * also Pulo Mariere, the Indian island; also the Maruts, the indigenes of Amboyna; also the Amharic language, which Rawlinson says greatly assisted him in translating the Babylonian cylinders; and above all, the Homeritæ, the principal tribe of the Sabaians in South Arabia, represented now by the Mahri, which was probably, even in the classical times, the vernacular word.
* Nec eget Mauri jaculis nec arcu.— Horace, Ode xxiii. The early Spanish voyagers called Gilolo, the Island of the Indian Archipelago so often mentioned, 'Maurica.'
* Sec Gen. xxxi. 47.