Best. — Maori Voyagers and their Vessels. 451 



outriggers. This was done in order to expedite his return passage. In the 

 original we find : " Ka tahvri a Nuku ki te mahi i ona ivaka ; ka marohitia 

 anake nga ivaka nei, kna kore e unuatia, kia mamd ai te hoki ki tona wJienua." 

 Manaia pursued his way to Wliaingaroa, thence to Kaipara, to Whaka- 

 tane, to Tokomaru, a place named after his vessel, finally returning to 

 Whaingaroa, where his career as a Maori voyager ends. His further 

 adventures consisted of fighting with the aborigines of Taranaki, the feats 

 of a landsman, which concern us not. Ngati-Awa, of Taranaki, claim him 

 as an ancestor. 



The Outrigger Canoe. 



We have now to treat of the single canoe furnished with an outrigger. 

 Concerning the small coastal outrigger seen by Cook on our shores we 

 have no precise details. D'Urville, who left us the only diagrams drawn 

 to scale that we possess of Maori canoes, affords us no help with the out- 

 rigger or double canoe. Apparently he saw neither of these forms. We 

 have, however, something of much interest in a description, preserved 

 by oral tradition, of an outrigger canoe that arrived on these shores from 

 Tahiti about five hundred years ago. This was " Takitumu," one of the 

 old-time deep-sea craft of the ancestors of the Maori, and which brought 

 hither the forbears of Bast Coast and South Island natives. 



On a fair morning, nearly a hundred years before Columbus felt his 

 way across the Western Ocean, a large concourse of brown-skinned folk 

 gathered on the hill called Puke-hapopo, whence they could look down 

 upon the waters of Pikopiko-i-whiti. Those waters were of calm appearance, 

 being protected from the ocean by a rocky reef, and girdled the shores of 

 an island known as Hawaiki. These folk had assembled in order to witness 

 a canoe race, in which two vessels known as " Horouta " and " Te Pu- 

 whenua " took part, and also others, as " Tainui," " Te Arawa," and 

 " Matatua." In this contest " Te Piiwhenua " distanced all others. As 

 she sped over the placid waters Kua-wharo cried, " Tena a Te Puwhenua 

 te horo na i te wlienua ! " (There is Te Puwhenua speeding past the land). 

 And Te Rongo-patahi said, " Koia ra ana he ingoa mo to waka, E Paoa ! " 

 (0 Paoa ! now there is a name for your canoe). And that was how 

 " Horouta " gained her name and " Te Puwhenua " received her per- 

 manent name of " Takitumu." 



Owing to severe intertribal wars, many people were at that time leaving 

 the isles of eastern Polynesia, and the above vessels, with many others, 

 brought a considerable number to New Zealand. These isles had, already 

 long been known to Polynesians, and a number of migrants and rovers 

 had settled here, intermarrying with the aborigines. A number of voyagers 

 had also visited these shores and returned to northern isles, as shown in 

 the traditions of New Zealand, Mangaia, Rarotonga, and Manihiki. In 

 some cases these voyagers called at Sunday Island, known to the Maori 

 of Aotearoa and Rarotonga as Rangi-tahua. 



Omitting a great amount of detail, we give some part of the story of 

 " Takitumu," from the tree-stump to the Waiau River of our South 

 Island : When the dugout hull had been roughly dubbed out, as also the 

 haumi, or pieces to lengthen it, the top strakes, and other timbers, all these 

 were placed in a huge trench and covered with earth, there to remain for 

 months. This was a seasoning method, said to have the effect of expel- 

 ling sap from green timber, without danger of warping or splitting. The 

 timbers were then taken out of the pit, placed on a scaffold, and covered so 

 as to be protected from the sim. When seasoned, the final adzing reduced 

 them to the desired form and finish, and the construction of the canoe com- 



15* 



