Traditionary Voyages. 



DURING the jKM'iotl in Hawaiian History designated as that of Alaweke and I'au- 

 niakua, wliich was about tlie conimencement of tlie nth centnr\-, or from twenty- 

 eight to thirty generations ago.' after a period of comparative quiet and obscurity, 

 the Polynesian folk-lore in all the principal groups becomes replete with the legends and 

 songs of a number of remarkable men, of bold expeditions, stirring adventures, and voy- 

 ages undertaken to far-ofif lands. An era of national unrest and of tribal commotion 

 seems to have set in from causes not now known. A migratory wave swept the island 

 world of the Pacific, and left its traces on the genealogies of the chiefs, in the disuse of old 

 and substitution of new names for places and landmarks, in the displacement of old, and 

 setting up of new tutelar gods with enlarged rites of worship and stricter kapus. Chiefs 

 from the southern groups visited the Hawaiian group, and chiefs from the latter visited 

 the former, accompanied by their relatives, priests and retainers. Where this ethnic 

 movement originated, — in the southern groups or in the northern, — it is now hardly 

 l)ossible to determine. That the Hawaiian group was known at that time to the southern 

 chiefs and priests, may be shown from the legend of Paao, who, by every concurrent 

 tradition was a southerner from the Society group, a high-priest of princely blood, and 

 the founder of one of the high-priest families on Hawaii. In that legend occurs the 

 song of Paao's companion, Makuakaumana, a portion of which is still preserved, urging 

 upon Lonokaeho, another southern chief, to come with them and take possession of 

 Hawaii. Lonokaeho declined however and sent Pili in his place. That the Hawaii 

 mentioned in this song is not the Samoan Hawaii, but that of this (Hawaiian) group, 

 becomes evident by comparing the description of Hawaii in this song with the descrip- 

 tion given by Kamahualele, the high-priest of Moikeha, a Hawaiian chief of the same 

 period, who had resided for many years on the southern groups, but returned to Hawaii 

 and died on Kauai. 



That the memory of the northern Hawaii should in process of time, and after 

 the cessation of this period of intercourse, have faded from the minds of southern chiefs 

 and bards, or been confounded with that of the Samoan Sawaii, is natural enough; 

 though I think it possible, were Tahitian, Tongan and Samoan legends — if yet exist- 

 ing — properly compared with each other and with the Hawaiian, that many proofs 

 may yet be drawn from that side of the frequent intercourse, hostile, or friendly, of 

 those days between the northern and southern groups of the Pacific. 



Though the northern Hawaii was apparently unknown to the Tonga and Society 

 Islanders in Cai)tain Cook's time, yet the Marquesas retained the memory of former 

 intercourse with that northern Hawaii whose burning mountain, INIounaoa (Mauna- 

 loa), is referred to in some of their songs, but these reminiscences are apparently 



'Written probably about 1870. 

 (.138) 



