Note 15 — Chapter II

There are legends and evidence—such as shell heaps—in New Zealand indicating that the islands were first populated by a Papuan race akin to the peoples of New Caledonia and New Guinea. This is difficult of belief because of the isolated character of New Zealand and the exceedingly stormy seas which cut it off from other lands to the north and west. Yet the existence of a negroid element among the Maoris of New Zealand is undoubted. It may have been due to the earliest Polynesian invaders bringing with them slaves and captives from Fiji. That the Maoris kept slightly in touch with the world of Asia after their colonization of New Zealand is shown by the discovery some years ago in the interior of New Zealand of an Indian bronze bell dating from about the fourteenth century A.C., with an inscription on it in the Tamil language of southern India. It was a ship's bell belonging to a vessel presumably manned by Muhammadans, probably Malays. Either, therefore, a Malay ship or one from the south of India discovered New Zealand some six hundred years ago, or reached the Melanesian or Samoan islands of the western Pacific, and there left its bell to be carried off to New Zealand as a treasure. The Malays certainly traded to the New Hebrides. It should also be noted that in many other outlying Pacific islands besides New Zealand, there are traditions and even the remains of implements to suggest a former wide migration eastward of the Negroid type—even as far as Hawaii.