INTRODUCTION. 
7 
Tahaiti and Hawaii, in which, traditionally, some of their 
ancestors came. It is now nearly 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 re¬ 
puted ancestors, they made cloth from the bark of trees; the 
name is preserved, hut the manufacture has ceased. There 
are remains also in their language, which would lead us to 
suppose, that like the inhabitants of Tonga, they once pos¬ 
sessed a kingly form of government, and though they have 
now no 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, its richness, its close affinity not only 
in words but grammar to the Sanscrit, carry us back to a 
time when literature could not have been unknown. 
To what then can we refer their subsequent deterioration ? 
They tell us they came from a distant land ; 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 habitation ; they met with several, 
which, either being too contracted, or being inhabited by 
people averse to their stay, they again embarked, and finally 
a few, reduced to the greatest straights, at last reached New 
Zealand. These repeated emigrations must have diminished 
the original stock of knowledge ; like a vessel in a storm 
which is compelled to be lightened, the richest wares are 
thrown overboard, one bale follows another, the least required 
for the preservation of life go first, and those only which are 
essentially necessary are preserved. Again, one tribe is driven 
away by a more powerful one; weakened in numbers, and 
disheartened by constant defeats, it continually retires from 
its foes, until, at last, without means of preserving its first 
state, it sinks lower and lower in the scale of existence : this 
will account for the degraded state of the original inhabitants 
of the Chatham Isles; driven from the mainland, they fled to 
* Tlie word How in Tonga signifies king ; in Maori, Waka-hau is to command. 
