Adventurous Vikings.

The Marquesans of eastern Polynesia have retained the names of a number of lands in which their ancestors sojourned in times long past. Porter learned, early in last century, that double canoes, manned by adventurous men, had frequently left that group in order to search for other lands mentioned in tradition. The grandfather of a chief living in Porter's time had so left the Marquesas with a party in four vessels, well stocked with sea stores, as also hogs, poultry, and young food plants, in search of other lands whereon to settle. This shows how the islands of Polynesia were settled by the restless rovers of pioneer times, and how breadfruit, coconut, laro, yam, and other food-yielding trees and plants were distributed over the vast area of the Pacific.

“In the Marquesas Groups,” says Fornander, in his admirable work The Polynesian Race, “numerous expeditions have from time to time, up till quite lately, been started in search of this traditional land of mystery and bliss, and their course was invariably to the westward. As late as the commencement of this century the Nukuhivans were every now and then fitting out exploring expeditions in their great canoes in search of a traditional land called Utupu, supposed to be situated to the westward of their archipelago, and from which the coconut was first introduced.” This land spoken of was the original homeland of the Marquesans, said to be situated in the north-west.

Again, of four canoes that left the Marquesas on one occasion and reached Robert's Island, one remained there, and the other three ran on before the wind. The party on the island eventually decided to return to their former home, save one man and his wife, who remained on the island. Of the maroons, the man died; the woman was found still living there by voyagers some time later. The canoe that had started to return to the page 15 Marquesas was never heard of again. Porter remarks that Marquesan native priests would, after an expedition had left, tell the people that the voyagers had reached a fine land abounding in hogs, breadfruit, and coconuts, thus encouraging others to go forth and do likewise.

When Cook was making his first voyage, Tupaea, a Tahitian, drew for him a rough chart showing the Society, Austral, Paumotu, Marquesas, Samoan, Cook, and Fiji Groups, thus covering a large area of the Pacific. From the Tongans Cook obtained the names of over one hundred and fifty islands. in 1839 a native of the Paumotu Group gave Wilkes, the American explorer, the names of sixty-two isles of that archipelago, marking their relative positions on the deck.

Turner tells us that in the Mitchell Group, as also at Ellice and Hudson Islands, the penalty for theft, murder, and adultery was banishment, the culprits being turned adrift in a canoe to take their chance of reaching some other land. At Nukufetau the expelling party made assurance doubly sure by making holes in the canoe-hull prior to turning it adrift.

There is a tradition among the Hawaiians that one of their remote ancestors in his voyages reached a land inhabited by a folk with upturned eyes, and that, after further explorations, he returned to his home bringing with him two white men. The east coast natives of New Zealand have preserved a legend concerning a curious people with whatu ngarara (oblique or restless eyes) who dwelt in a land near the original home of the Maori race. Such traditions as these were probably brought into the Pacific by migrating Maori seafarers of long-past centuries.

Ever the Polynesians, according to their location, place the original homeland of the race in the far west or north-west. In past times numerous expeditions left the Marquesas in order to search for that land. These Marquesans are also known to have visited the Sandwich or Hawaiian Isles. Again, Ellis, a keen inquirer, tells us that the Hawaiians used to visit the Marquesas and Society Groups, and that one old-time Hawaiian seafarer made four voyages to Tahiti, 2,300 miles distant. In such expeditions as these the vessels would doubless recruit at some of the intermediate islets, but there was ever the danger of being blown out of their course, or of missing the small—the very small—objective points. Many an expedition has been so lost in Pacific waters.

A statement made by Quiros, and quoted by Fornander, is to the effect that when the expedition of Mendana was at Santa Christina, Marquesas, in 1595, the natives told him that there was a land to the south inhabited by black men who fought with bows and arrows. This description could apply to no land nearer than the Fiji Group, about 40 degrees distant. It is not, however, clear to us how early voyagers could so readily acquire the knowledge of foreign tongnes as would, from a perusal of their works, appear to have been the case.

Missionary J. B. Stair tells us that one of the earliest bodies of immigrants to Samoa came from Atafu, in the Union Group, page 16 north of Samoa, and that intercourse was kept up between the two groups in former times. Another tradition is to the effect that Atafu was peopled in much earlier times by a people who offered human sacrifices to the sun. This writer states his belief that many of the isles of Polynesia were settled from Samoa, and the oral traditions preserved show that the ancestors of the Samoans visited the Sandwich Islands to the north, the Marquesas and Society Groups to the east, and also the Cook and Fiji isles to the south-east and south-west. It would appear, however, that some of the voyages mentioned by him were not actually made by the Samoans, although chronicled by them. The Rev. Mr. Stair gives traditionary accounts of many such voyages made athwart the Pacific in former times. The twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries seem to have been marked by much voyaging to all quarters of the Pacific, as far south as New Zealand, to which latter place many seafarers came in those far-off days. Mr. Stair, in his account of Samoan voyages, tells us that one Maru and certain members of his family visited Tonga, Fiji, Uea, Rotuma, and many other isles: while Tangihia seemed to stroll round eastern and central Polynesia as though he owned that region. Iro accompanied a party of settlers to Rarotonga, and afterwards reached the Marquesas, Tahiti, Rapa, and other isles. In the legend of Tangihia that adventurer is said to have found a dwarfish folk of ugly appearance dwelling at Tahiti; they were known as Manahune, and were subdued by Tangihia. As Polynesians were certainly living at Tahiti long before the time of this voyager, it seems possible that these mysterious Manahune folk were dwelling there in a kind of vassalage. They are usually spoken of as a people of inferior position. Colonel Gudgeon states that a people known as Manahune formerly lived in Mangaia, in the Cook Group. The name “Manahune” is also known at Rapa Island.

As an illustration of what these adventurous Polynesian voyagers were wont to do in days of yore we will give the movements of one Uenga, who flourished about the twelfth century, omitting two such movements that are not made clear. He started from Savaii, in the Samoan Group, and sailed to Tonga (480 miles south-south-east), thence to Vavau (150 miles north-north-east). On leaving there he was carried away by stormy weather to some isle not named, whence he reached Tongareva (900 miles north-east of Savaii), then sailed to Rimatara (780 miles south-south-east), thence to Rurutu (70 miles east-north-east), thence to Tupuai (120 miles south-east), thence to Fakaau or Greig Island, in the Paumotu Group (480 miles north-north-east). After strolling around this great archipelago he went to Tahiti (say, 200 miles), from which place he eventually found his way home again. And these were the men of whom certain writers have said that they possessed only frail canoes, and that they could not possibly make a deep-sea voyage! How then did the Polynesian reach every islet of his far - spread realm? What of the many voyages that we know took place from the Society Group, in eastern Polynesia, to New Zealand—many of these adventurers returning to the former place?