Statewide County HI Archives History - Books .....Pages 3 - 6:  An Historical Outline Of The Hawaiian Islands 1925
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Book Title: The Story Of Hawaii And Its Builders

Builders page 3-6

The Story of Hawaii

An Historical Outline of the Hawaiian Islands

By Howard D. Case

Chapter I.

AS IT WAS IN THE BEGINNING

  Hawaii?Polynesia?islands reminiscent of a lost Eden in 
the childhood of time; golden brown men and women with 
misty memories of mighty gods; the mystery of the Pacific, 
the riddle of dark origins in the dim antiquity of ?Kane?s 
Land of the Yellow Sea.?
  Where did the Hawaiians come from? Who are they? What 
restless urge of flight or curiosity or conquest drove them 
forth in frail canoes upon the vast Pacific? What following 
of mystic stars led them to these islands in the middle of 
that wide water? How did the early Polynesians themselves 
explain their origin and wanderings?
  Some of these questions may never be answered. None of 
them, perhaps, can be answered conclusively. The legends 
are dim with the mists of age, obscure with hidden 
meanings; no two scholars agree definitely upon the 
significance of what they tell. But the mystery remains, 
fascinating and intense, and the scholars and scientist 
puzzle over the fragments of an unwritten but mighty 
literature, and turn over the leaves of legend in the 
endless search for the elusive key.
  Scientists generally agree that the Polynesian race, of 
which the Hawaiian is a part, had its origin in 
southeastern Asia many thousands of years ago. The theory 
has been advanced that the people were forced gradually to 
the coasts and that finally the pressure of stronger tribes 
from the interior compelled them to migrate to the Pacific 
islands.
  But what actually happened in those ancient days, what 
caused the haphazard distribution of the Polynesians over 
the broad stretches of the Pacific, and as far north as 
Hawaii, probably will never be known with any degree of 
authenticity. Only the legends and meles, or chants, 
similar to the sagas of the Norsemen, remain to provide 
scientists with the vague outlines of what may have 
occurred before the known history of Polynesia began to be 
recorded.

FORNANDER?S THEORY OF ORIGIN

  A. Fornander, the historian, has endeavored to prove that 
the Polynesian race originated from a common white root. 
He, too, advanced the theory that the race was cradled in 
southeastern Asia. The similarity in the geographical names 
of Polynesia indicates strongly that the migrations of 
these wanderers on the Pacific extended to Sumatra, Java, 
Borneo, and the Philippines; then eastward to New Guinea, 
the Carolines, the Solomons, the New Hebrides, Fiji, Samoa, 
Tahiti, the Marquesas, and thence north to the Gilbert and 
Marshall island groups.

Page 4
  
  There still is some question as to the exact route or 
routes followed in reaching finally the Hawaiian group. One 
theory is that a northwesterly course was taken, and that 
the island of Guam was reached first, and extensively 
settled, before the migrations were continued to Hawaii. 
Elaborate traces of early human habitation on Guam, and 
specimens indicating a cultivation similar to that which 
existed in Hawaii, have been revealed by scientists of the 
Bishop Museum in Honolulu.
  Still another theory is that the migrations to the 
Hawaiian group were almost northward from Tahiti. However, 
it is evident that there was considerable intercourse 
between the peoples of the two groups, for the legends are 
replete with stories of long voyages north and south. It is 
said that on the island of Kahoolawe, one of the Hawaiian 
group, two great pillars, some distance apart, arise out of 
the sea along the perpendicular surface of a cliff which 
faces almost due south. When the Hawaiians desired to make 
a journey to Tahiti, they strung their canoes out in a line 
directly in front of this cliff and waited for nightfall, 
when they picked out a star in the south. Setting their 
course by this star, they started on their voyage. This 
illustrates but one method which the ancient navigators had 
of finding their way about on the trackless Pacific with a 
precision that has amazed those skilled in modern 
navigation and astronomy.

THE LEDGEND OF HAWAIILOA

  The ancient Polynesian legend relates that the Hawaiian 
islands were discovered by Hawaiiloa, a famous fisherman 
and navigator in his day. Some historians, however, are 
inclined to doubt the veracity of this legend, although the 
name Hawaiiloa is mentioned in the centuries-old 
genealogical table, which includes the names of Wakea and 
Papa, said to be the progenitors of the Hawaiian race, and 
of whom Kamehameha the Great, the mighty warrior-statesman 
of much later day, is said to have been a descendant.
  It seems to be more or less definitely settled that the 
Island of Savaii, in the Samoan group, was the chief center 
of the dispersion of the Polynesian race. There is a 
tradition among the Marquesans that their ancestors came 
from a place to the west of Hawaii, and that while en route 
they stopped at Fiji, Vavau and Tonga. Also, there is a 
very close resemblance between the Hawaiian and the 
Marquesan dialects. The Maoris of New Zealand, who resemble 
the Hawaiians closely, have a tradition that their 
ancestors migrated from Hawaii-iki, which is the same word 
with Savaii and Hawaii. The discovery of human bones under 
coral beds and lava flows that are centuries old indicates 
that the first settlers arrived in Hawaii in very ancient 
times. Fornander estimates that the first settlement 
occurred as early as 500 A.D. Some of the legends indicate 
that it may have been before the birth of Christ.
  But, as almost all of the historians have stated, there 
have been handed down from generation to generation 
practically no traditions of any value concerning the first 
period of migrations of the Polynesians. The legends say 
that Wakea and Papa founded a line of chiefs. And yet for 
some thirty generations after Wakea there are no traditions 
concerning voyages to the Hawaiian group. The absence of 
such traditions indicates that for a period of hundreds of 
years the people who had settled in the Hawaiian group 
lived secluded from the rest of the world, and that at the 
end of this period, probably during the eleventh or twelfth 
century of the Christian era, they renewed their 
intercourse with the Polynesians far to the South.

TALES OF MIGHTY NAVIGATORS

  History dwells upon, and the island legends sing the 
praises of, many famous navigators of those ancient times?
sturdy men who braved the 

Page 5
perils of the mighty Pacific in search of new lands, in 
much the same way that Columbus set out. There was Paao, a 
priest of Upolu in the Samoan islands, who brought a large 
number of followers with him to the Hawaiian group; Kaulu 
of Oahu, who is said to have visited many foreign lands in 
his wanderings; Paumakua, an Oahu chief who visited the 
southern islands and brought back to Hawaii several 
priests, from whom some families of the island of Oahu 
claim descent; Moikeha, who sailed from Waipio, on the 
island of Hawaii, to Kahiki (Tahiti) and became a chief in 
the Society Islands; Laa-mai-kahiki, who accompanied 
Moikeha, and who returned to Hawaii with a large following.
  Another navigator and adventurer, Kahai, is said to have 
traveled to southern islands and brought back with him to 
Hawaii many young breadfruit trees. With the cessation of 
Kahai?s wanderings, there came, apparently, another 
cessation of migrations, for in the legends, songs and 
genealogies for a period of approximately 500 years 
thereafter there is no further evidence of activity. 
Communication ceased, and Kahiki (Tahiti) came to mean to 
the Hawaiians nothing more than a foreign country. The 
memories of the ancient Hawaiians became vague and 
indistinct, and the several generations which followed set 
themselves to the task of building up their own 
civilization. Crude as it must have been at that time, it 
became, as the centuries rolled by, the civilization of the 
greatest of all island groups of the Pacific.

GIANTS OF ANCIENT HAWAII

  What may be termed the real ?ancient history? of Hawaii 
began probably in the thirteenth century. Kauai is the 
oldest island of the Hawaiian group, Hawaii the youngest. 
The presence of active volcanoes on the latter island 
furnishes scientific evidence that the island of Hawaii is 
still ?in the making.? The physical characteristics of the 
Hawaiians appear to have undergone marked changes as the 
centuries have passed, for some years ago, on the island of 
Hawaii, there were dug up from beneath many layers of coral 
and lava formation the skeletons of men which, from skull 
to heels, measured approximately seven feet in this 
connection it is interesting to note that, according to 
historians, none of the warriors in the army with which 
Kamehameha the Great brought all of the islands under one 
sovereignty, was less than six feet in height.
  Fornander?s theory concerning the origin of the 
Polynesian race, including the Hawaiian, is probably best 
set forth in these paragraphs:
  ?I have found a vague, almost obliterated, consciousness 
in some of their (Polynesian) legends that the head and 
front and beginning of the Polynesians lay in a white (the 
Aryan) race; and I found this consciousness confirmed by 
referring to the language, probably the oldest Aryan form 
of speech, and to the Aryan numeral system, as well as to 
some customs and modes of thought exclusively Aryan. I 
found in their legends proofs, many and distinct, that at 
this remote era the Polynesians must have come into long 
and intimate contact with the early Cushite, Chaldeo-
Arabian civilization, of which so many and so exceedingly 
interesting fragments yet remain in their folklore. I found 
that during or after this period of Cushite contact the 
Polynesians must have amalgamated, as greatly as their 
Vedic brethren did afterwards, with the Dravidian peoples 
south of Chaldea in India.
  ?I next found that whatever the manner of the occasion 
for their leaving India, though they probably followed in 
the wake of the great Chaldeo-Arabian commerce of that 
period, they had occupied the Asiatic archipelago from 
Sumtra to Luzon and Timor.
  ?I have found no time of their arriving in the 
archipelago, but I have found from their own genealogies 
and legends that, approximately speaking, during the first 
and second centuries of the Christian era, many and 
properly organized migrations of the Polynesians into the 
Pacific

Page 6

Ocean took place from various points of the archipelago. I 
have shown that that branch of the Polynesian family from 
which the oldest ruling line of Hawaiian chiefs claims 
descent arrived at the Hawaiian group during the sixth 
century of the Christian era.?

ARABIA HINTED AS SOURCE

  To return for a moment to the most ancient of all the 
legends, Hawaiiloa, held to be the discoverer of what is 
today the Hawaiian group, was known also as Kekowaihawaii, 
and was one of the four children of Anianikalani. The other 
three children were Ki, who is said to have settled in 
Tahiti, Kanaloa and Laakapu. In those ancient days, so the 
legend runs, the Pacific Ocean was called Kaiholokaia, and 
it was so called by Hawaiiloa.
  At the time of Hawaiiloa?s legendary discovery of the 
Hawaiian group, the islands were uninhabited, and the 
followers of Hawaiiloa became the first residents. 
According to the legend, Hawaiiloa and his brothers were 
born on the east coast of a country called ?Ka-aina-kai-
melemele-a-kane,? or ?The land of the yellow sea of Kane,? 
probably Arabia. Hawaiiloa became a distinguished 
personage, and was noted for his long voyages, during which 
he roamed the ocean in his great double canoe. His 
navigators, even at that early date, were skilled 
astronomers. His principal navigator was Kakalii, and in 
his honor the red stars in the circle of Pleiades were 
called ?Huhui-a-Makalii.? Hawaiiloa and his followers, 
after reaching the Hawaiian group, remained there for a 
long period, and a permanent settlement was established. 
The legend says that before his death, he made numerous 
voyages to the south, each time bringing back with him more 
people for settlement in the new-found land.
  Hawaii?s real ancient history, insofar as authentic 
records are concerned, begins, as already explained, at 
about the end of the thirteenth century, when a warlike and 
ambitious chief named Kalaunuiohua, residing on the island 
of Hawaii, set out to conquer the entire group. He invaded 
the island of Maui, where he met and defeated the army of 
the leading chief, whom he captured. He then proceeded to 
Molokai, where he was again victorious, and on the island 
of Oahu he defeated and captured the chief of the districts 
of Ewa and Waianae. Elated by his continued success, he 
sailed with his fleet to the island of Kauai, where he met 
crushing defeat at the hands of Kukona, a chief, and a 
large army. The island of Kauai, it appears, continued to 
maintain its complete independence until the nineteenth 
century, when it accepted, without contest, the sovereignty 
of Kamehameha the Great after the latter had conquered all 
the other islands of the group.  Of the period from 1450 
A.D. to the era of Kamehameha the Great, Fornander has said 
that it was a time of strife and war on all islands, ?with 
all their deteriorating consequences of anarchy, 
depopulation, social and intellectual degradation, loss of 
liberty, and loss of arts.? The common people became more 
and more oppressed, with the result that in Hawaii, as well 
as in Tahiti, they began slowly decreasing in numbers 
before the end of the eighteenth century.
  Tradition relates that about the end of the thirteenth 
century a vessel called ?mamala? arrived at Kahului, Maui. 
It is said that the captain and the crew were foreigners 
with light complexions and bright eyes, and that they 
intermarried with the Hawaiians and became the progenitors 
of a light-colored stock. It is possible that they were the 
crew of a Japanese junk that had been driven out of its 
course, as there were no Europeans in the Pacific Ocean in 
the thirteenth century.


Additional Comments:
The Story of Hawaii and Its Builders. With which is Incorporated 
Volume III Men of Hawaii. An historical outline of Hawaii with 
biographical sketches of its men of note and substantial achievement, 
past and present, who have contributed to the progress of the 
Territory, edited by George F. Nellist. Published by Honolulu Star 
Bulletin, Ltd., Territory of Hawaii, 1925.


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