6 
INTRODUCTION. 
progressive development theory were true,, aboriginal races 
should have progressively advanced ; every successive genera- 
tion should have added some improvement to the one which 
preceded it ; but experience proves the contrary. A remark- 
able instance of this may be adduced in the fact, that the 
New Zealanders have retrograded, even since the days of 
Captain Cook ; they then possessed large double canoes, 
decked, with houses on them, similar to those of Tahaiti and 
Hawaii, in which, traditionally, their ancestors arrived; it 
is now more than half a century since the last was seen . 
Tradition also states, that they had finer garments in former 
days, and of different kinds ; that, like their reputed ances- 
tors, they made cloth from the bark of trees; the name 
is preserved, but the manufacture has ceased. There are 
remains also in their language, which would lead us to sup- 
pose, that like the inhabitants of Tonga, they once possessed 
a kingly form of government, and though they have now nt> 
term to express that high office, still they have words, which 
are evidently derived from the very one denoting a king in 
Tonga.* Their traditions, which are preserved, also establish 
the same fact, and perhaps one of the strongest proofs is their 
language ; its fullness, richness, and close affinity not only in 
words but grammar to the Sanscrit, carries the mind back to 
a time when literature could not have been unknown. 
To what then can their subsequent deterioration be 
referred ? They state they came from a distant land ; that 
the cradle of their race was an island of narrow limits ; 
insufficient to maintain its population, one portion thrust 
out the other, a fleet of canoes left to seek another abode; 
they found several, from which, being either too contracted, 
or inhabited by people averse to their stay, they again em- 
barked, and finally a few, reduced to the greatest straits, 
reached New Zealand. These repeated emigrations must 
have diminished their original stock of knowledge ; like 
a vessel in a storm which is compelled to be lightened, 
* The word How in Tonga signifies king ; in Maori, Waka-han is to command ; 
the Kaiwhakahati is the man who stands in the centre of a war canoe to direct 
the movements of the crew. It also signifies the one who commands in war. 
