Voyage of "Kura-hau-po" to New Zealand

We left Whatonga and his companions as castaways on the Island of Rangiatea, at which place they made a long sojourn, but eventually managed to return to their homeland. On their arrival there Whatonga found that Toi had sailed westward in search of him, and had not returned. Hence he resolved to go in search of him, and procured a deep-sea canoe named "Te Hawai," apparently an outrigger, for his voyage. This craft he renamed "Kura-hau-po." It is said that its hull was composed of four pieces—that is, it had one haumi at the bow end and two at the stern end. It was fitted with twenty-six thwarts and with pairi (side boards or washboards), and page 393was provided with two anchors and two bailing-places (puna wai). The vessel was treated with some vegetable gum, then dressed with shark-oil, after which it was painted with a preparation of red ochre. The paddles, bailers, and other gear all had special names assigned to them, as was usual in such cases. The crew consisted of fifty-two paddlers (two to each thwart), four caretakers of the vessel (whose duties are not explained), two anchor-tenders, four sail-tenders to attend to the ropes of the sails, two steersmen at the stern, and two fire-tenders, making sixty-six in all.

There appear to be no records of the wanderings of "Kura-hau-po" westward of the Society Group until she reached Rarotonga, in the Cook Group, where Whatonga learned that Toi had sailed for Aotea-roa in search of him. He therefore prepared for a long voyage, for he intended to follow Toi across the ocean to New Zealand. "Kura-hau-po" sailed for New Zealand in the month of Tatau-urutahi (?October), steering a course to the south-west, and made her landfall at Muriwhenua (North Cape district). She then ran down the western coast and landed at Tonga-porutu (northern Taranaki). Here Whatonga learned that Toi had reached this island, and was living in the Bay of Plenty. This information he obtained from the aborigines—which looks as though the Maori-speaking Polynesians understood their tongue. Whatonga then determined to sail northward, double the North Cape, and reach the Bay of Plenty. This he did with a reduced crew, for some members of it settled among the Mouriuri folk of Tonga-porutu. Eventually Whatonga reached the Bay of Plenty and landed at Maketu, where the aborigines directed him to Whakatane, the home of Toi. At that place met the two bold voyagers who had navigated their primitive vessels across thousands of miles of the vast Pacific.

In the crews of these vessels of Toi and Whatonga we see the first Maori settlers of New Zealand. One of Whatonga's companions, Tama-ahua, is said to have returned to eastern Polynesia. Prior to his return to the homeland he headed an expedition to Arahura, South Island, in order to obtain greenstone (nephrite), so highly prized by the Maori. Three canoes, named "Qtauira," "Potaka," and "Whatupurangi," took part in this expedition, ths first-named being the vessel of Tama-ahua.

From this time onward for several centuries many Polynesian voyagers reached New Zealand. In many cases the crews remained here, in others they returned to the northern islands: thus voyages to and fro between the isles of Polynesia and New Zealand took place. Those who settled here intermarried with the aboriginal Mouriuri and produced the mixed folk known, as the Tini o Toi— page 394the Toi tribes found here by the late-coming immigrants from eastern Polynesia about the fourteenth century. As the mixed folk became more numerous and powerful they attacked and destroyed the aborigines, who were exterminated; but the Maori of to-day is of double descent, and in many cases shows his Mouriuri ancestry in his features, hair, and skin-colour.

We will now pass on to the next voyage made by Polynesians to these shores, as recorded in Maori tradition.