Rarotonga

“ The difference of three generations is not too much as between Maori and Rarotongan history. On Mr. Hongi's table will also be found the following names in the order given; Ru-tapatapa-awha, Ueuenuku, Ueuerangi. Now the same names are shown in the same order on the general table of Rarotonga ancestors at the end of this work, but very far back in time, which bears out what has been said to the effect that the names given on this particular Rarotongan line (Iro's) are misplaced. ”

“ As there is no other island in the Pacific named Rarotonga, we must assume that this is the island known to Maori tradition. It is true there is a marae at Manu'a Island, Samoa, called Rarotonga, that formerly belonged to the Karika family of Rarotonga, but it certainly is not the one known to Maori History. ”

“ After spending another five years on Anaa, during which time he had heard nothing of the missing men, he determined to settle on Rarotonga, where there was an excellent opportunity of making money. His eldest boy by this time was almost a grown man, and was earning his living as a supercargo of a trading vessel, running between Auckland in New Zealand and the various groups of islands in the South Pacific. ”

“ Apparently the Rarotogans trace no descent from Tawhaki, though many Maoris do. I have already pointed out that Rarotonga history makes Taaki to have flourished forty-six generations ago, whilst the Maori table published in the Journal Poly: Soc: vol. vii, p. 40 makes him to have lived forty -eight generations ago, by taking the date of Turi as twenty generations ago. We may therefore fix the date of Tawhaki as about the year 700. ”

“ Korekore-akaoti. Tangaroa. Tangaroa-roto. Tangaroa-akaoti. Otane. Rongonui. Mauri. Omutu. Otire, Otireo, or Otire-o-Avaiki. A certain amount of displacement is noticed in the above list, and the two series of Korekore nights is a new feature. The Rev. W. Gill writes: "At Rarotonga the 13th is Maitu instead of Atua; otherwise this account of the changes of the moon is equally good for Rarotonga. Allowing for the difference of dialects it is the same in the Tahitian Islands." In his Jottings from the Pacific he remarks: "Polynesians invariably counted by nights, not by days. ”

“ All the time that Tamate was in Rarotonga he was longing to be at more dangerous work amongst those who lived to fight and kill each other, and who had no one to teach them.
His thoughts were so much with these wild tribes that he made others think of them too. Many of his students had caught his spirit, and longed, as he did, to go to the island of New Guinea, where very wild men lived and fought. Some of the teachers he had trained went before him. They knew it was dangerous, but they went with joy, [Pg 29] because they too had learned how great and glad a thing it is to live for others. ”

“ Then Makea, the king of Rarotonga, a man of magnificent stature, who had accompanied Mr Williams, addressed the people, and explained how wonderful had been the change wrought in his own isles since they embraced the lotu; [7] how, in old days, they had been for ever fighting and murdering one another, till at length they had hearkened to the voice of the teachers, and, in fear and trembling, had brought their idols to be burnt, and had watched from afar while those daring men had cooked their bananas on the embers. ”

“ In Rarotonga bread-fruit and plantains are the staple food; in Mangaia it is taro. On the atolls the coco-nut palm flourishes, but no planting can be done, as the soil consists of sand and gravel thrown up by the sea on the ever-growing coral. The inhabitants of the atolls live contentedly on coco-nuts and fish; they are expert fishermen, having little else to do. But fresh fish are also eaten in large quantities on most of the islands. [7] In some of the islands the planting was done by the women, but in others, including Rarotonga, the taro was both planted and brought home by the men. ”

“ Putting about ship he sails north, and finally sights the east coast of Rarotonga, and lands at Nga-tangiia, where like a good and true Polynesian, he at once proceeds to build a marae for his gods at Te Miromiro, close to the present church there. ”

“ This recitation describes the route of the migration to which both Maori and Rarotongan belong, the last named place being the little island from which Makea Karika emigrated to Rarotonga circa 1250.
The Samoans have no "official log-book" of their migrations so far as I am aware, and the names of ancient dwelling-places of their ancestors are very few. The name of their "spirit land," as of the Tongans, is Pulotu, which is not known to other branches of the race—except indeed in Fiji, where it is found under the variant "Mbulotu." ”

“ The people rapidly became Christianized and adopted many of the habits of civilization. Williams was fairly liberal for his age, and the results of his labours among the Pacific Islands were essentially beneficial. He travelled unceasingly among the various island groups, planting stations and settling native missionaries whom he himself had trained. From the Society Islands he visited the Hervey group, where he discovered, and stayed for a considerable time on, the island of Rarotonga. ”

“ Their system of fighting—with few exceptions, was always hand to hand; and this was so much ingrained in the race, like other customs, that they never used the bow—only useful in fighting at a distance. It was against the custom of their ancestors of India and Indonesia, and hence improper in them. They did, however, use the sling stone of which mention is often made in the Rarotongan history, but it is probable that they did not learn this from the Melanesians—it was an old custom. The Rarotonga and Niuē name for a sling-stone, is maka, the Maori word
People of Tonga, Polynesian type. ”

“ After Taaki's adventures above we hear no more of him in Rarotonga story, and then the genealogical table gives the name of Karii's son Karii-kaa, and his grandson Turi, who married Varavara-ura, the sister of Papa-neke, There is an inconsequential story about Turi, but not worthy of note, and then the history is silent as to the descendants of Papa-neke for five generations, when we again come on Maori history in the person of Apakura. ”

“ But I do not propose to detail this lengthy war; it belongs to the history of Rarotonga alone. It resulted in the death of Tu-tapu, and a great number of his warriors from Iva. During the progress of it, the supremacy was delivered over by Tangiia to Karika, and it has descended to his living representative, Queen Makēa-Takau, the chief of the Government of the Cook Islands, at the present day.
Tangiia's counsel to his people at the end of this war is worthy of record. "His words to the body of Priests and to all Ngati-Tangiia (his tribe) were: 'Let man be sacred; let man-slaying cease ”

“ A great destruction followed—the houses were burnt, much booty was obtained, and many were killed. Apopo-te-akatinatina and Apopo-te-ivi-roa fled before Vakatau's brother, Tama-te-ura-mongamonga, until they reached the far side of the island, where, hastily lading a canoe, with a few of their people they took to the sea, and eventually made their way to Rarotonga, where they were the first inhabitants, or tangata-uenua, whose descendants were found there 375 years after by Tangiia in the year 1250. ”

“ He always wanted more. As long as those wild tribes of the Fly River fought and hated each other he could not rest. He wished to do more for them than to bring peace amongst them. He hoped that some of the men of those tribes at the mouth of the river, who had learned to love his Master, would go to live inland amongst the swamps and marshes, where even his Rarotongan teachers could not live. So he began to train a band of these natives, as he had trained the men of Rarotonga and Port Moresby before. ”

“ From the plain, unvarnished, and effective chronicle of his “Missionary Enterprises” we glean much interesting information respecting the idolatrous ways of the islanders, revealing their identity with the superstitions that from all times have dominated over uncivilised man. In Rarotonga as in Mexico, for instance, the gods were supposed to be propitiated by human sacrifices; and in many of the islands cannibalism existed in its most disgusting form and under the sanction of a religious ordinance. ”

“ Their clothes were torn to tatters by the ferocious Rarotongans. All would have been over with the Christians, had not Tapairu, [20] a brave Rarotongan woman and the cousin of the king, opposed the chiefs and even fought with her hands to save the teacher's wife. ”

“ Before they had gone six miles, the natives let slip the foresail, which, straining in the wind, broke the foremast, and with some difficulty they returned to land. Having repaired the damage, they started again, reached Aitutaki, and returned thence to Rarotonga with a cargo of pigs, cats, and cocoa-nuts. The two first, but especially the pigs, were invaluable in ridding the island of rats; but a cargo of cocoa-nuts suggests coals to Newcastle, till we learn that in native warfare the cocoa-palms and bread-fruit trees were invariably destroyed, so that the fruitful isles were utterly ravaged. ”

“ There is not much chance of checking these lines from outside sources, but it may be well to see if any correspondence exists. Fornander quotes the line from the first man named in Hawaiian genealogies, Kumuhonua who possibly may be identified with the Rarotonga Te Tumu {the "origin or root") who married Papa ("earth, foundation") as being most reliable. From him to the present day are 93 generations, which as Te Tumu was the father of Te Nga-taito-ariki, is exactly the same as the Rarotongan. ”

“ Williams, differed in essential respects from that which prevailed at the Tahitian, Society, and other Polynesian groups. [Pg 220] They had neither maraes nor temples, nor altars nor offerings; and consequently none of the barbarous and sanguinary rites to which we have alluded. They shed no human blood; they strewed no maraes with the skulls and bones of their victims; they dedicated no sacred groves to brutal and sensual observances. Hence the Rarotongans denounced them for their impiety, and “a godless Samoan” was a proverbial phrase. ”

“ Jarwin hesitated, but reflecting that there was no chance of his seeing the missionary at all if he did not give this promise, he consented.
A week after that all the preparations were made, and four large canoes, full of well-armed men, set out for Raratonga.
At the time we write of, the island of Raratonga had been recently discovered by the missionary Williams. The success of the labours of that devoted man and his native teachers, is one of the most marvellous chapters in the history of the isles of the Pacific. ”

“ With the docility of the true Polynesian, he did his best to comply. It was not his fault—and not, one must fairly say, the fault of the missionary either, save in a minor degree—that the effort meant death to him.
There are not nineteen hundred Raratongans living now in the fertile little country that used to support six thousand of their ancestors. There are not enough babies in the island to carry on the population at half its present level, in the future. Not one of the “chief” families, of whom there are a dozen or so, has any living children at all. ”

“ Ratnodbhava became a merchant, and in the way of traffic made many long journeys by land and sea. The other sons, after their fathers' death, succeeded to their offices, according to the custom of the country. When Râjahansa had reigned some years, war broke out between him and the king of the adjoining country of Mâlwa, the haughty and ambitious Mânasâra, whom he marched to encounter with a numerous army, making the earth tremble with the tread of his elephants, and disturbing even the dwellers in the sky with the clang of kettledrums louder than the roar of the stormy ocean. ”

“ The tomtoms beat furiously, and more guns were fired.
"You gave me Rogala, your faithful slave," I continued; "I bring him back to you. There are Shinshooko and Alapai also, your faithful slaves, who love you. They with their wives and children have been kind to me. There is Akenda-Mbani, whom we found in the forest. Now, Rotembo, you are my friend." (All shouted, "He is your friend!") "Never let one of these men or their wives be sold." ”

“ Rotorua is a place of early "calls" and early breakfasts; then away, in whirling clouds of dust, in horse and motor coaches, to Whakarewarewa's geysers, to the infernos of Tikitere, to buried Wairoa, to steaming Rotomohana and suffocated Waimangu; or away to sparkling Hamurana or the bosoms of trout-infested lakes. Every morning for a fortnight there is something different to see; then ho! for the geysers of distant Taupo and Wairakei or to restful Te Aroha and its wooded mountain.
Steam heat, boiling mud, and baths are not the only attractions Rotorua offers its visitors. ”

“ At Radama’s death, not only the English, but all European influence ceased. His first wife, Ranavola, succeeded him on the throne, and added to her name the regal title “Manjaka.” This cruel, bloodthirsty woman began her rule by the execution of seven of the nearest relatives of the late king; indeed, according to the account given by a missionary, Mr. William Ellis, not only were all killed who belonged to Radama’s family, but those nobles also who stood{137} near the throne, some of whom Ranavola feared might advance a claim to it. ”