TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION B. 208 



often been contended for, being merely that of some of their 

 ancestors through Karika and his people, the discoverers of 

 Rarotonga. 



I have already made mention of the discovery of the Chat- 

 ham Islands — the native name of Avliich is Bekohua — situated 

 about five hundred miles to the south-east of Cook Strait. 

 At present we have not information sut!iciently precise to 

 indicate the period when this group was discovered, though it 

 evidently had been colonised long before the great Jieke to 

 New Zealand in about the year 1430. It is to be hoped, how- 

 ever, that its original discoverer may be known before long, 

 when Mr. A. Shand publishes his work on the Moriori people 

 and their traditions. At about twenty-seven generations ago 

 the Chatham Islands were visited by three canoes, which came, 

 as the Morioris say, from Hawaiki ; but previous to that KaJiu 

 had explored the group, and he found people living there even 

 then. Kalm returned to New Zealand, not liking the islands. 

 (See note No. 37.) The date of this voyage has yet to be 

 settled, and the genealogy .which gives the name of the 

 ruling chief at the time of his visit will require correction. 

 It is obviously wrong in some particulars. In its present 

 form it goes back for 151 generations, with, in addition, 

 thirty-one gods before man appeared on the scene — a longer 

 roll than can be counted by any of the Polynesians. It 

 is related in the tradition respecting the three canoes men- 

 tioned above as having come from Hawaiki that two of the 

 ■ captains, Maruroa and Bananga, visited the land of Tahiri 

 and Irea, from whence they obtained the information about 

 RekoUua, or Chatham Islands ; and, as the visit of these canoes 

 would be, according to my method of computing dates, about 

 the year 1300, it is obvious that the islands w^ere known at a 

 comparatively early period in Polynesian history. I feel little 

 doubt that the Moriori originally emigrated from New Zealand, 

 a voyage requiring a considerable amount of skill and seaman- 

 ship when we consider the prevailing boisterous weather that 

 obtains between the two places. 



To voyages leading to the discovery of many of che other 

 islands of the Pacific it would be tedious to refer, though many 

 might be quoted, but rarely with the minuteness of detail pre- 

 served in the Maori traditions. I have given sufficient examples 

 to show that the Polynesians were a maritime people even 

 before the nations of Europe had passed the stage of mei'e coast- 

 ing voyages. They had pretty well explored all the Pacific 

 before Columbus discovered America, and had made voyages 

 quite as adventurous as his, and were possessed of vessels per- 

 haps better able to cope with the dangers of tlie sea than the old 

 Spanish caravels. It is not at all improbable that they anti- 

 cipated Columbus in the discovery of America, as they almost 



