154
9 Exploration Strategies, Settlement Sequence and the Evolution of Canoe Design
traders, anxious to secure control over spice resources, possibly promoting intertribal conflict. Conflict and unrest undoubtedly triggered migration from the Spice
Island region for defeated tribes both then and later as surely as conflict and unrest
triggered multiple migrations in tropical Polynesia from about AD 900. There, as
we shall show in Part II, conflict over land and resources followed on the heels of
El Niño-driven drought and starvation and drove migrations both within tropical
Polynesia and south to New Zealand.
9.5 Settlement Sequence: The Problem of Settling
on Long-Inhabited Continental Coasts
It seems likely that Spice Island trading colonies would have been established where
the lands with which they traded were distant from the traders’ home base. One
would expect trading bases to be established in southern Japan and America, though
a settlement on Madagascar was perhaps close enough to have made the establishment of a trading base in Rhapta unnecessary. Colonizing an uninhabited, easily
defensible off-shore island would have avoided the dangers of establishing a trading
colony on a long-inhabited continental coast.
Madagascar, as an uninhabited island, possessed a defensive advantage which,
along with its great size (over half a million square kilometres), made it an attractive colonizing target. The early traditional histories mentioned in Chapter 5 make
clear the problem of trying to establish a colony in an already inhabited country.
The quoted example in the whare wananga tradition of New Zealand of an ancient
discussion by leaders of a defeated tribe forced to migrate to Borneo, of how to build
a pa to defend themselves against attack, makes clear migrants’ awareness of their
initial vulnerability. There is only very meagre evidence that Spice Islanders ever
attempted to establish colonies on the long-inhabited continental coasts to which
the major currents they followed drew them: the west coast of America, the east
coast of Africa and the east and west coasts of Australia. It is clear that Spice Island
mariners explored and may have established a relationship with indigenous peoples on these coasts (teaching the construction of sewn-plank boats to the Chumash
and Gabrielino of southern California, for example, and for millennia trading spice
through the east African coastal entrepot at Rhapta). Perhaps it was thought too
difficult for migrants who were trying to establish permanent colonies to defend
themselves initially against indigenous populations on long-inhabited continental
coasts.
It seems possible that New Zealand Maori knew of the existence of prehistoric Australia and called it Ulimaroa. There is some traditional evidence for the
attempted establishment of at least one New Zealand colony in Ulimaroa. Andrew
Kippis, whose The Life of Captain James Cook [1] was printed in 1788, had access
to Cook’s and Banks’ journals. He records that Cook, through the Tahitian navigator and interpreter Tupaia, asked Maori in the Bay of Islands if they knew of any
other lands. They replied that some of their ancestors had sailed a long time ago to
9 Exploration Strategies, Settlement Sequence and the Evolution of Canoe Design
traders, anxious to secure control over spice resources, possibly promoting intertribal conflict. Conflict and unrest undoubtedly triggered migration from the Spice
Island region for defeated tribes both then and later as surely as conflict and unrest
triggered multiple migrations in tropical Polynesia from about AD 900. There, as
we shall show in Part II, conflict over land and resources followed on the heels of
El Niño-driven drought and starvation and drove migrations both within tropical
Polynesia and south to New Zealand.
9.5 Settlement Sequence: The Problem of Settling
on Long-Inhabited Continental Coasts
It seems likely that Spice Island trading colonies would have been established where
the lands with which they traded were distant from the traders’ home base. One
would expect trading bases to be established in southern Japan and America, though
a settlement on Madagascar was perhaps close enough to have made the establishment of a trading base in Rhapta unnecessary. Colonizing an uninhabited, easily
defensible off-shore island would have avoided the dangers of establishing a trading
colony on a long-inhabited continental coast.
Madagascar, as an uninhabited island, possessed a defensive advantage which,
along with its great size (over half a million square kilometres), made it an attractive colonizing target. The early traditional histories mentioned in Chapter 5 make
clear the problem of trying to establish a colony in an already inhabited country.
The quoted example in the whare wananga tradition of New Zealand of an ancient
discussion by leaders of a defeated tribe forced to migrate to Borneo, of how to build
a pa to defend themselves against attack, makes clear migrants’ awareness of their
initial vulnerability. There is only very meagre evidence that Spice Islanders ever
attempted to establish colonies on the long-inhabited continental coasts to which
the major currents they followed drew them: the west coast of America, the east
coast of Africa and the east and west coasts of Australia. It is clear that Spice Island
mariners explored and may have established a relationship with indigenous peoples on these coasts (teaching the construction of sewn-plank boats to the Chumash
and Gabrielino of southern California, for example, and for millennia trading spice
through the east African coastal entrepot at Rhapta). Perhaps it was thought too
difficult for migrants who were trying to establish permanent colonies to defend
themselves initially against indigenous populations on long-inhabited continental
coasts.
It seems possible that New Zealand Maori knew of the existence of prehistoric Australia and called it Ulimaroa. There is some traditional evidence for the
attempted establishment of at least one New Zealand colony in Ulimaroa. Andrew
Kippis, whose The Life of Captain James Cook [1] was printed in 1788, had access
to Cook’s and Banks’ journals. He records that Cook, through the Tahitian navigator and interpreter Tupaia, asked Maori in the Bay of Islands if they knew of any
other lands. They replied that some of their ancestors had sailed a long time ago to