Page:Hawaiki The Original Home of the Maori.djvu/125

Rh The people called by A. R. Wallace, Galela, and who live on the northern shores of Gilolo, are, in all probability, remnants of the Polynesian race, Mr. Wallace describes them ("The Malay Archipelago" p. 325) thus: "They are a very fine people of light complexion, tall, and with Papuan features, coming nearer to the drawings and descriptions of the Polynesians of Tahiti and Hawaii than any I have seen."

We cannot, however, at the present time settle when the Polynesians left Indonesia. All that can be said is that, so far as the Hawaiian and Rarotongan branches (including the Maoris) are concerned, they left between the first and fifth centuries. From the want of any direct traditions amongst the Samoans and Tongans, it is probable that they had preceded the others and were the first to enter the Pacific. They have been so long in their present homes that all tradition of their arrival is lost, and hence they have come to look on themselves as autochthones. The very vague references in Samoan history to arrivals from without the group have little value for historical purposes.

Starting from Avaiki-te-varinga, which is probably Java, the route followed by the migrations would be via the Celebes, Ceram and Gilolo where, no doubt, there were colonies of their own people, to the north shores of New Guinea. Finding this country already occupied by the Papuans, they would coast along to the south-east end, where, it would seem, a very early migration settled, which is now represented by the Motu and cognate tribes. This same route was probably followed by the ancestors of the Rarotongans, until they branched off past New Britain and the Solomon Islands on their way to Fiji, probably leaving a colony at Hikiana, or Steward's Island, off the coast of the Solomons, where the people speak a dialect of Maori or Rarotongan, and are Polynesians. Whether Howe's