EuTLAND. — History of the Pacific. 7 



America, where it was extensively cultivated, it being in 

 accordance with Polynesian custom to preserve foreign names, 

 merely altering them to suit their mode of speech. But the 

 question arises, Why did not the introduction of New- World 

 cultivated plants go further, several species being as well 

 adapted to the Polynesian region as the kumara, while others 

 would have supplied the wants of the New Zealand agri- 

 culturists? To this question I shall again return. 



The exact distribution of the kumara in the Pacific 

 at the commencement of the sixteenth century cannot 

 be determined, but we learn from Fletcher, to whom 

 we are indebted for an account of Drake's celebrated 

 voyage, that when the " Golden Hind " reached the 

 Caroline Islands, in 1579, the inhabitants brought off to 

 the vessel " cocoas, fish, potatoes, and certain fruits to 

 small purpose."''' Drake and his followers having been in the 

 West Indies previous to this voyage of circumnavigation, must 

 have been acquainted with the sweet potato (C batatas) ; we 

 may therefore safely conclude that the root referred to by 

 Fletcher was the kmnara, and that it had been transported 

 without the direct or indirect intervention of Europeans to the 

 north-western extremity of Polynesia, though it had not made 

 its way across the intervening sea to the Philippines. f 

 Moresby and Strachanj found the kumara in New Guinea 

 amongst people that had never previously come in contact 

 with Europeans, and to whom the use of metal was unknown. 

 As Moresby also discovered maize in the D'Entrecasteaux 

 Islands, possibly the kumara may have made its way into 

 New Guinea through the Malay Archipelago. 



From the axUe, the taro, and the hue we gather that the 

 inhabitants of the Pacific must formerly have been in com- 

 munication with the Malay Islands or some other part of the 

 Old World. From the kumara, on the other hand, w^e learn 

 that during a long period preceding the advent of Europeans 

 this intercourse was suspended, though at the same time the 

 inhabitants may have had access to the New World : this 

 evidence of isolation wall be frequently confirmed in the course 

 of this investigation. 



Haeakekb, or New Zealand Flax-plant (Phormkwi 

 tenax). — When the missionaries commenced their labours in 

 New Zealand the natives had in cultivation several varieties of 

 the P. tenax, from the fibres of which their finest description 

 of clothing was manufactured ; fibres obtained from the wild 

 harakeke and the leaves of the ti {Gorchjlinc australis), every- 



* " The World Encompassed," by Sir F. Drake. Fletcher, 

 t " Discoveries in New Guinea and Polynesia," by Captain J. Moresby. 

 \ " Explorations and Adventures in New Guinea," by Captain J. 

 Strachan. 



