And what are we to say to the tale of another leader, whose canoe was upset in the South Seas, and who swam all the way to New Zealand?
The traditions say that the Maori Pilgrim Fathers left the island of Hawaiki for New Zealand about the beginning of the 15th century.
Hawaiki is probably one of the "shores of old romance." Other Polynesian races also claim to have come thence.

Mr.Percy Smith gives good reasons for the suggestion that the ancestors of the Maoris migrated from the Society Islands and from Rarotonga, and that their principal migration took place about five hundred years ago.

It seems likely enough, however, that previous immigrants had gone before them.
One remnant of these, the now almost extinct Moriori, colonised the Chatham Islands, whither they were not followed by the conquering Maori until the present century.

The two most famous of the great double canoes of the Maori settlers were the Arawa (shark), and the Tainui (flood-tide).

On board thereof, with the men, women, and children, were brought dogs, rats, the gourd and taro root, and the invaluable kumara or sweet potato.