A REMARKABLE MAORI MANUSCRIPT. 283 



were an educated people, and had numerous libraries; 

 but when the British took possession of their islands, hav- 

 ing heard that they were devourers of books, their great 

 ariki made a decree that all books and manuscripts should 

 be totally destroyed, with the view of starving the Brit- 

 ish and driving them back to their own islands. The 

 decree was faithfully executed, but this one document 

 seems to have escaped destruction; and this old Maori re- 

 luctantly lent his aid in translating it into English. 



It will be noticed that the ancient civilization of the 

 Maories was exceedingly analogous to that of the modern 

 United States -many of the facts stated presenting a 

 most astonishing parallel. This circumstance gives new 

 plausibility to Mr. A. H. Keane's recently propounded the- 

 ory that the Polynesian race is really a modification of 

 the Mediterranean.* 



The British have a forebodine^ that the New Zealander 

 will one dav stand on the ruins of London Bridsfe and 

 moralize over the mafrnitude of the civilization efone to 

 decay; but here the visitor from London Bridge maj^well 

 contemplate with astonishment these traces of a vanished 

 Maori civilization, which only by a mere chance has es- 

 caped from absolute oblivion. 



.The sfovernor of New Zealand havino; sent me the 

 translated document, I have the honor of being the first 

 to bring it to the attention of the world. It possesses 

 great archaeological and ethnological interest. It reads 

 as follows: 



*0n this, sec Journal of the Anthropolocjical Institute, London, February 

 1880, Nature xxiii, 199-203 et seq. 



