Untitled

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 255, 27 October 1928, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE EARLY MIGRATIONS.

BXR GEORGE GREY'S STORY.

CANOES OF THE VOYAGERS.

; ( B y Sm GEORGE GREY, ex Governor of C&pe Colony, South Australia and New Zealand.

[Thlfl le the third Instalment of Sir i George Grey's interesting summary , his investigations into the origin end migration of the two great racrcofthe Pacific, Polynesians and MelanesianiT The second instalment gave an account of their culture and referred to their migrations.] r

Their long voyages were made in double canoes, formed of two large canoes with an interval between them. The canoes were decked over in part and were united by a platform rather forward of the centre of the canoes. On this a low house was built, which covered the platform and the canocs to their outer gunwales.

An idea of the size of these canoes may be formed from i canoe, not an exceptionally large one, which is now at Auckland, in New Zealand, and is formed from the trunk of a single tree It is 84ft long, oft (sin in breadth at the centre, and 2ft llin deep. It is probable from descriptions given that some of the large double canoes were 6ft deep, and that they could have carried upwards of one hundred people, made up of the freemen and their families, and the male and female slaves whom they took with them.

In these fragile vessels they explored the Indian and Pacific Oceans, making discoveries, which in _ extent far surpassed those at that time made by civil* ised nations who possessed far superior vessels, facilities, and knowledge to enable them to traverse the great oceans of the world.

But the voyages of these so-called undvilised people were attended with any peculiar circumstances. They were not made for the purposes of commerce, or the exchange of commodities, or of establishing a lasting beneficial trade between two countries remote from each other, nor were they undertaken with a view of founding colonies which were to remain in constant intercourse with the state. On the contrary, they were either entered upon unwillingly by families blown off by gales or hurricanes from their own villages, and who, lost upon an unknown ocean, were compelled to seek for new homes, or else they were undertaken by portions of a tribe who., from an island having become too densely populated in proportion to its extent and produce, started to find a new . location, or by persons who, having inflicted some deadly injury upon neighbours more powerful than themselves, sought safety in a rapid flight, and abandonment of territories on which .their forefathers had for generations resided; or by young people flying from abhorred marriages, or parents saving children from being sacrificed to the gods. Such, or other causes which can be readily conceived, made them seek for new islands, which the traditions of centuries had taught them were abundantly scattered throughout the great seas. Had not indeed their heroic ancestor, Maui, even fished up an island from ocean depths? Were not-new islands by volcanic action constantly belched up from the ocean? Might not s |Utey therefore confidently anticipate the discovery of a new home}

/•'; ■ Seeking fertile lands. In all these cases, however, the fcativss were limited in the objects of ' their voyage; they did hot,' as before wmarked, seek a lucrative commerce 01 wealth. The crew or crews of each expedition were, comparatively speaking, few in number, some few families and their ■laves. They possessed no arms which would put them in a position of superiority to any nation Wluch they might fell in with. They therefore woifld not, if they could avoid it, attempt to land or remain upon any continent. A« agriculturists they required fertile land tram which they might derive an ample •übsistence, also a soil which might be easily worked, for they were ignorant, or had forgotten how to smelt iron, and had nothing but wood or rough stone agricultural implements. Further, as fish formed a principal article of their diet, they required to be near a eea abounding with fish and shell fish. Of the latter they were particularly fond. Islands evidently, therefore best met the requirements of such races, and with rare exceptions, which were unavoidable, they fulfilled their manifest destiny in fSis Each island, as it was successively occupied by newcomers, appeared to fulfil what hrfd become, as before stated, a tradition of these people, that the ocean abounded with unoccupied islands where newcomers might rest in peace, and found new homes. No doubt the example of each set of occupante of a new country was handed down by them to their descendants as a successful exemplification of this truth, thus furnishing a stimulus to them to •nter upon similar adventures whenever -.a necessity arose. And, indeed, there was good reason for this belief. Notwithstanding the vast lapse of time during which the Polynesians and Melanesisns had been exploring the great oceans, and the numerous islands they had occupied, it was not until near the middle of the nineteenth century that all the islands in those oceans were occupied by human beings, and singularly enough, each group of those uninhabited islands, one in the Atlantic, one in India, two Ist least in the Pacific Ocean, were taken possession of by civilised men, who were •mitten with the eame yearning for t> retired aqd tranquil Ih&me which so •often stimulated the Polynesian and Melanesian races to undertake their adventurous voyages. The enterprise and adventures of these latter day occupants of remote islands would, if collected, prove not less interesting and exciting than those of the earlier occupants of similar islands, and would prove a valuable chapter in history, showing how identical are the feelings, motives and hopes which stimulate to action and nerve to endurance both barbarous and Civilised men.

Civilisation cannot obliterate those natural instincts which led to the occupation of all parts of the globe, and the distribution of its innumerable products amongst all mankind. Nor can the benevolent mind approve of the policy of the ruling few of a nation, which grasps and holds almost boundless unoccupied territories,, and yet refuses to laid its half starving and miserable millions in their wishes to form new homes of plants and beauty for their (perishing little ones in those fertile and unoccupied countries. The Polynesians and Melanesians accomplished their long voyages with very inadequate means, the difficulties and dangers thev overcame, the patience with which hunger, thirst, and incessant toil must have been endured by persons of all ages naturally excite our admiration. They fended manifold possessions, some of; ■kfefr ttof post have oocafM tor tfcou-

sands of years. These they endowed with a civilisation adapted to a rude state of society in which, although there was no great wealth, yet abject poverty was unknown, and which promoted agricultural industry and secured much happiness. i I

The islands of the Pacific are generally of two kinds, those of; the coral formation, and volcanic islands. The coral islands arc firstly atolls or low islands, having generally a lagoon within them, or they form elevated tablelands. The elevated coral islands are almost always healthy. The islands of volcanic formation are too generally subject to malaria. As a rule those lying eastward of and including the Fiji group, possess a healthy "climate, whilst those lying to the westward of the Fiji Islands arc all subject to malaria, and are principally inhabited fy the Melanesian race, who likewise occupy islands in the Indian Archipelago and parts of New Guinea. The Polynesian race is found in Madagascar, on some islands in the Indian Archipelago, in Formosa, North-Western and Eastern Polynesia, as also in New Zealand and the Chatham Islands. Both races, as will presently be shown, also probably occupied portions of Central! America.

Changed Habits. Necessarily the habits of these races were in some respect changed, from the climate and nature of the island on which they voluntarily or of necessity, settled. Darwin make* eome valuable remarks on this subject in his "Descent of Main," VoL.v., page "When we compare the differences in 'stature between th 4 Polynesian chiefs, and the lower orders witbin the same islands, or between the inhabitants of the fertile volcanic and low barren coral islands., of the same ocean . . . it is scarcely possible to avoid the conclusion that better food and greater comfort do influence stature." Thus variety of climate and soil and the consequent variations in animal life and vegetable products, in almost each island or group of islands, as they were successively occupied, created new habits and changes in the mode of life, of plothing, of habitations, and even in the aspect of the people, from which sprung what appeared to the early voyagers almost different nations.

[ Those who saved themselves on a 'small island devoid of timber could build no new canoes. In process of time the inhabitants of such an island would have lost ah knowledge of navigation. As population increased in a longer 01 shorter period of time, proportioned to the extent of the island, the produce of the land would become insufficient to support the people on it, and fierce and constant contests for the possession 01 fertile spots would take place. Cruel and barbarous murders would be often committed. And from these causes the population would be maintained at about the number the island could support. For centuries on a small spot of land in a vast ocean, some few hundreds'of persons or even a less number, would live isolated from all the rest of mankind, shut out from knowledge of every sort that could stimulate to discovery or arouse mental energy, and constantly at war with the few individuals that they knew. Under such circumstances all improvement in civilisation appears to have been impossible. In other cases the discoverers might occupy larger islands of a mountainous character, the mountain ranges being intersected by fertile valleys; each group of valley# would under such circumstances be occupied by various families related hy marriage, and probably bearing one tribal name. The mountains, in general sterile, and incapable of cultivation by wooden implements, would be of little value for agricultural purposes, and constant disturbances were certain to break out between the isolated families occupying the different groups of valleys, separated by rugged mountains, who would thus have but little intercourse with each other.

Tha darkest of the two-races, the socalled Melanesians, who have of the two by far the strongest affinitv to the negro races of Africa, appear to have inherited constitutions which render them less subject to fevers than the Polynesians are, and they occupy those islands which are most unhealthy, and most subject to fever. They are the less skilful navigators of the two. races, although in some other respects they are the superior race. They appear to have carried with them the constitution and arts of the Srogenitors from whom they descended, ut whatever may be the c&use, the fact remains that in the Pacific Ocean they do inhabit the western and most unhealthy islands, whilst the Polynesian race occupy chiefly the north and eastern part* of the Pacific* and when sent to the western islands as missionaries have often shown themselves unable to support the alimate, and have shortly succumbed to it. It is quite possible that before the arrival of the Melanesians in the Pacific, parties of the Polynesians may have once, or oftener, attempted to found settlement or settlements upon these western islands, and have dud out in conssqogKeot the unhjalthy na&jg jjg the