FIJI-NEW ZEALAND EXPEDITION 247 
Hawaiki, and its later colonization is an epic worthy of a Homer. 
As related below, I have used the sources mentioned at the be- 
ginning of this chapter, but find that these disagree as to the in- 
terval between the first discovery ‘‘about forty generations ago’’ 
by two chiefs and their followers; and as to the exodus of some 
thousand men, women and children in ten or twelve double canoes. 
Mr. Best thinks that there was an interval of some twelve gen- 
erations between the two, while Stokes, in his ‘‘New Zealand,’’ 
represents the exodus as having been led by the discoverers who 
first visited the new land, and on returning to Hawaiki organized 
the emigration of their friends who became the ancestors of the 
present Maori of New Zealand. 
I will adopt for my purpose the view of Mr. Best, whose author- 
ity on all matters concerning the Maoris and their traditions is 
hardly to be questioned. 
Before Columbus sailed on his famous voyage to discover a New 
World, a certain tribe, probably in Rarotonga, found itself con- 
quered in war and in danger of extermination. In desperation 
they counseled as to how to escape utter destruction, and one 
heroic chief proposed to his friend that they sail away in their 
big canoes, or two of them lashed together, into the vast unknown 
of the South Pacific, away to the West and South in the path of 
the setting sun. The annual migrations of certain birds, notably 
the godwit, suggested that there was an unknown land in that 
direction, but no one knew how many hundreds or thousands of 
miles away. 
So this small band of adventurers said good-bye to their families 
and friends and set their course in the path of the setting sun. 
Long study and the experience gained in numerous shorter voyages 
had made them familiar with the steady trade winds of that ocean 
world, and they knew much about the stars and their courses. 
Day after day they sailed over the blue sea; or, the wind fail- 
ing, took to their paddles and plodded wearily onward. The days 
multiplied into weeks, perhaps months. They suffered hunger and 
thirst, heat by day and cold by night as the Southern Cross rose 
steadily towards the zenith in the heavens. Their boats were 
simply two big canoes lashed together, entirely shelterless from 
the rain-squalls and blinding spray in stormy weather. Hope long 
deferred had sickened their hearts as, reduced almost to skeletons, 
they plied their paddles and the scoop-shaped bailers. 
At last they sighted land, a veritable paradise it must have 
