Page:Hawaiki The Original Home of the Maori.djvu/36

24 attempt to apply this method will be found in Vol. II. of the "Journal of the Polynesian Society," where the question is fully dealt with. Here it will be only necessary to quote results. Maoris, Rarotongans, Tahitians, and Hawaiians had many ancestors in common. Amongst them were persons named Whiro, Hiro, Iro (according to the dialect) and Hua. The descent from these two persons is preserved by each branch of the race named, who moreover have had no communication with one another from a few years after the period of these two men until last century. Now the results of comparing the genealogical tables from each branch down to 1850, are as follow:—

This conformity of record from four different sources shows that a considerable amount of agreement is to be found in the genealogical tables as preserved by different branches of the race, and clearly demonstrates their common ancestry. From the above figures we may—by allowing twenty-five years to a generation—arrive at an approximate date in Polynesian History, which can be utilized as a basis for others. We may therefore say that Whiro and his brother Hua flourished A.D. 1250 to 1275, and as will be seen later on, this is a very important date in the history of the race—it is during this period that Tangiia, the great ancestor of the Raro-tongans, flourished, and about 100 years afterwards the fleet left those parts to settle in Ncav Zealand.

It must now be shown how the principal lines of ancestry of the Polynesians join, and the agreement, or otherwise, must be pointed out.