206 
All this seems to justify the supposition that the traditions 
of the migration of the Maoris contain historical reminiscences; 
and much pain has been taken to ascertain from the genealogical 
trees, from the number of ancestors registered, the approximative 
time of the first immigration. Most writers on New Zealand are 
of opinion, that the ancestral records prove about eighteen to 
twenty generations, and that consequently the arrival of the first 
settlers from Hawaiki took place 500 or (300 years ago, somewhere 
about the year 1300 A. C. , and that their number may have amounted 
to about 800 souls. As to the situation of Hawaiki , the inquirers 
differ in opinion, because there are several islands in the Pacific 
Ocean, to which the term Hawaiki bears a strong resemblance; 
first of all Ilawai, the well-known island of the Sandwich group. 
Mr. H. Hale, however, the ethnologist of the United States Ex- 
ploring Expedition under Captain Wilkes, is of opinion, that 
Sawaii 1 in the Samoa group (Navigator Islands) had a far stronger 
claim to be the Hawaiki of the tradition , and that from this cen- 
tral island all the other Polynesian Islands were peopled. He 
traces the first immigration to New Zealand and Tahiti as far 
back as 3000 years, whereas the Hawaii of the Sandwich Islands 
is said not to have been populated before about the year 450 A. C. 
Hence according to one hypothesis New Zealand was first populated 
from the Sandwich Islands 1300 A. C. , and according to the 
other, from the Samoa Islands about the year 1300 B. C. 
mouth of the Mokau the stone-anchor of the canoe Tokomaru is to be seen in the 
cliff Punga-a-Matori. 
1 Sawaii and Hawaii are identical. The Maoris so pronounce the II at the 
beginning of a word, as hardly to lie distinguished from S or Sh. 1 merely refer 
here to the different ways of spelling some well-known New Zealand names, 
Hongi or Shongi; Hauraki or Shauraki; Hokianga or Shokianga. The dialect of the 
Samoa Islanders deviates so little from the Maori language, that people from Sawaii, 
who occasionally come to New Zealand with whale-fishers understand the Maori 
without difficulty. There is moreover upon Sawaii a place, Mata Atua, of quite the 
same name as that of one of the canoes mentioned in the tradition. All these cir- 
cumstances tend to support Malfs views. Some other names might, however, be 
adduced as synonymous with Hawaiki, such as Avai , with the adjective poere = 
tt dark night”, a spot on the eastern peninsula of Tahiti; Habai, an island North of 
Tonga; Hvnga tonga halai, also in the Tonga-group. 
