Statewide County HI Archives News.....Wiki Mo’olelo - Part 19. – Foreign Contact with Hawaii before Captain Cook. December 15, 2008
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Darlene E. Kelley donkeyskid@msn.com December 17, 2008, 6:06 pm

Keepers Of The Culture, A Study In Time Of The Hawaiian Islands December 15, 2008

Contributed for use in US GenWeb Archives
By Darlene E Kelley
donkeyskid@msn.com
December 15, 2008

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Historical Collections of Hawaii
Keepers of the Culture
A study in Time, of the Hawaiian Islands 
Wiki Mo’olelo - Part 19. – Foreign Contact with Hawaii before Captain Cook.

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Wiki Mo’olelo – Part 19.
FOREIGN CONTACT WITH HAWAII BEFORE CAPTAIN COOK

Most of the history books about Hawaii, assert that Captain James Cook
discovered the Hawaiian Islands, quite by accident, in January of 1778,
encountering a people who had evolved
In total isolation after communication with the rest of Polynesia had stopped
some time in the 
distant past.

Hawaii’s historians, however, credit the Spanish with the rediscovery and
initial mapping of these islands. Hawaiian legends and chants, too, support the
idea of earlier European contacts,
chronicling visitors, shipwrecks and castaways in ancient times.

Indeed, when officers and crews of Captain Cook’s Resolution and Discovery first
encountered the Hawaiian People, they immediately began to wonder if they were
the first Europeans to visit these shores. The opening comment on this subject
was logged on January 19, 1778, by Cook himself, aboard the Resolution, the day
before coming to anchor off Waimea, Kauai. While still off the east side of that
island, about a half mile from shore he wrote, of the natives that came out in
canoes; “ There was little difference in the casts of their color, but some
considerable variation in their features, some of their visages not being unlike
Europeans.”

He continued by stating that the people he met on Kauai were not “ aquainted
with our commodities, Except Iron ; which however, it was plain, they had ……..
in some quanity, brought to them at some distant period….. They asked for it by
the name of Hemaite.” It is interesting to note that a Spanish word for iron is
“ Hematitas”.

The following day, the ships safely anchored, Captain Cook, with a number of his
officers and men, went on an excursion inland. It was at this time that Cook was
formally greeted and given the official title or name of LONO. Later that
afternoon, at a heiau on the western side of the Waimea Canyon, he was presented
with what he called “ a piece of hoop iron, about two inches long, fitted into a
wooden handle ……. Which our people guessed to be made of the point of a broad
sword.”

On the morning of the 23rd, “ one of the midshipmen purchased of the natives a
piece of iron, lashed into a handle for a cutting instrument. It appeared to be
a piece of a blade of a cutlass, and had by no means the appearance of a modern
acquisition; looking to have been a good deal used and long in it’s present state.”

Following a summers search for a Northwest Passage the Resolution and Discovery
returned to the Sandwich Islands. Knowing that there were islands to the east of
Kauai, they sought harbor on Maui. Finding no anchorage, they stayed off shore
and interacted with the Mauians while underway. At that time, Captain Clerk, of
the Discovery wrote : “ One of the Ariis, or principle people, came on & made me
a present to two small hogs; one of his attendants had 2 large, long iron
skewers. I was not master enough of the language to learn the proper history of
them ……. I should have been glad to know, but it was pretty well clear from them
having them at all …. That Europeans have sometime or other been in the
neighborhood.” On the Resolution, Lt. King wrote that “ One of the indians held
his two forefingers across each other and pointed to the land; which we
construed into the Spanards having set up a cross on shore. These circumstances,
however fell short of proof.”

A few weeks later, safely anchored at Kealakekua the crews had much more time to
interact with the Hawaiians. Again they found iron. The flattened out breechpin
of a gun and an iron dagger, which had been beat out by the natives, were seen
in the village before Captain Cook was killed. The travelers also discovered
that Hawaiians played a board game, much like our checkers.

In August of 1798, a trader named Ebenezar Townsend wrote that “ It is very much
in doubt whether Captain Cook was the first discoverer of these islands, it
aqppears [retty evident that he was not …….. There is at Mowee the ring and part
of the shank of an anchor of about seven hundred weight …. Where there is no
recollection of their ever having been a vessel, and for it’s appearance it must
have been there many years …..  They have a tradition that a couple of white men
came on shore and remained there about a hundred and fifty years ago.” Hawaiian
Majesty, David Kalakaua, published his legends and myths in Hawaii in 1888. In
the volume he tells us that during the reign of Kamehameha on Maui there was
another shipwreck there;

From which there were five survivors, two women and three males. Magnetometer,
diving and shoreline searches, conducted by the Sandwich Shipwreck Museum, for
this vessel have so far been inconclusive. The site is along a rocky cliff-side
and reef that is exposed to the huge winter swells of the North Pacific Ocean.

Few artifacts remain today that are certain to have come from pre-Cook European
ships. Two, have surfaced, were interred with the bones of an ancient chief,
inside of aq woven casket called “ Ka’ai.” A piece of metal attached to a wooden
handle, that appears to have been a dagger, was found along with a piece of
flaxen sailcloth, which dates to the 1600s.

Cloth, in its symbolic form was another thing that caused the men of Cook’s
crews to wonder about possible western predecessors at these islands. The
standard of the annual Makahiki, or harvest festival, was a tall cross, hung
with long strips of cloth, somewhat resembling a ships mast and sails.

Another hint of prior contact were certain articles of chiefly attire; Captain
Cook wrote; “ Amongst the artcles which they brought to barter…….. we could not
help taking notice of a particular sort of cloak and cap, which, even in
countries where dress is more particularly attended to, might be reckoned
elegant. The first were nearly the size and shape of the short cloaks worn by
the women in England, and by the men in Spain.” Nothing of the kind existed
elsewhere in Polynesia.

Lt King wrote; “ The exact resemblance between the habit, and the cloak and
helmet formally worn by the Spaniards …… appears to me sufficient proof of its
European origin …. We are driven indeed …. To a supposition of the shipwreck of
some buccaneer, or Spanish ship, in the neighborhood of these islands.”

Between 1565 and 1800s, the Spanish maintained a colony in the Phillipines.
During most of those years, two ships would leave Acapulco, Mexico in the
spring, sail down to about ten degrees north and then directly towards Guam,
which they would reach in about eight weeks. After a short stay to restock with
food and water they would continue on to Manila. These ships carried the
colonists, soldiers and priests as well as the supplies necessary to keep the
colony comfortable. The primary cargo on this voyage was Mexican silver which
was used to pay the wages of the people and administers of the colony as well as
purchase the silk, porcelain, spices and other Asian goods needed in Mexico and
Europe.

Large gallons, loaded with these Asian treasures would depart Manilla in July,
sail up to the latitude of Japan and cross the North Pacific. Seeing land near
San Francisco, they would then sail down the coast, not stopping until they
reached the colonies in Mexico, usually in January. During the two centuries of
galleon trade, nine vessels vanished without a trace. Could any of these have
been wrecked in or near Hawaii ?

No Spanish map has yet been found which shows the location of a shipwreck in the
mid-Pacific. However, many maps show these islands. In fact most charts of the
Pacific printed in Europe after 1570 show a group of islands in this vicinity
named “ La Mesa, Los Manges, and La Desgraciada.” “ The Table, The Monks, and
the Unfortunate One “, as sometimes called,

are surely called table islands, and are the Hawaiian Islands. Captain Cook had
charts with him that showed these islands.

Lt. Henry Roberts was the draftsman aboard the Resolution. It was his duty to
draw up all the charts and update any new chartographical information. He was
commissioned to draw up a map of the world on the basis of the information
available on board the ships. This work was nearly complete at the time of
Captain Cook’s death.

There was some discussion amongst the ship’s officers as to whether the Sandwich
( Hawaiian )
Islands and the La Mesa and Los Monges group ( which translated meant Table
Islands ) were one of the same. Captain Cook, not having time to investigate,
further eastward, decided that both groups should be depicted. Further
investigation was left to later explorers.

Some of Cook’s officers returned to the Pacific before the turn of the 19th
century and looked in vain for the Los Monges Islands. Captain Portlock and
Dixon came in 1786 on a fur trading mission. George Vancouver followed in 1793.
The Frenchman, Laperouse was but a week behind Portlock and Dixon, He wrote, “ I
thought it would render an important service to geography if I could succeed in
erasing from the charts those idle names, denoting islands which have no
existence, and perpetuating errors extremely injurious to navigation.”

It must be noted here that most of these islands were of volcanic masses, and as
volcanic the islands were sumerging under the seas and moving in latitude and
longitude. ( It was once admonished that many little land masses were sighted by
the earliest of polynesians.)

Once anchored in the Bay that bears his name to this day, Frenchman Laperouse
and a number of his officers and men went ashore. He soon noticed that some of
the people showed signs of the venereal disease, syphilis. The ship’s surgeon,
M. Rollin, examined a number of the people and found that they showed signs of
having advanced cases of this disease, which, in Europe would have taken twelve
to fifteen years to develop the stages of these peoples. The fact that Cook had
visited these islands but eight years prior and never landed on Maui at all, led
Laperouse to conclude that the venereal disease was introduced in the islands
before Cook’s time. Indeed, the men of Cook’s ships wondered how the disease
could have traveled so quickly, and spread so widely, amongst the Maui people,
by the time of their arrival there, as they left Kauai but nine months prior.

Modern Archaeology supports the Frenchmans position. A few years ago, the
remains of a young woman, known as have died before 1664, were unearthed on
Oahu. Her bones showed signs of the congenital form of this disease. Another
noteable find, made on Oahu, was a life-sized carved stone image of a man in the
17th century European dress, unearthed in Manoa Valley prior to the 1860s.

Hawaiian tradition is sometimes quite specific about certain events concerning
foreigners. Thomas Manby, who was with Vancouver, befriended an old Hawaiian
priest while at 

Kealakekua. He later stated that “ This traditional historian imformed me that a
few generations back white men visited the Sandwich Islands, many of whom
remained behind & were raised to the highest honors. From these visitors it is
recorded that the present batch of Royalty are decended.”

In 1804, a fur trader named Captain Shaler wrote that several years before
Cook’s appearance 
“ a ship appeared off the south end of Owwyee; two girls went on board of her in
a small canoe, which was stove alongside the ship. This fact is so well averred
( among the natives ) that it cannot be doubted; and there is the greatest
reason to suppose the ship was Spanish.”

In 1823, the Reverand William Ellis made a circuit of the Island of Hawaii and
spent some time with the Governor of that island. From him and other informants,
Ellis was able to gather enough information on this subject to write the
following; “ They have three accounts of foreigners arriving at Hawaii before
Captain Cook …… One tells of a priest who made changes in Hawaiian religion, and
of his son who spoke the same language as some other foreigners that came ashore
later.”

Another account states that in the reign of Kahoukapu, “ seven foreigners
arrived at Kearake’kua Bay, the spot where Captain Cook subsequently landed.
They came in a painted boat, with an awning or canopy over the stern……….The
color of their clothes was white or yellow, one of them wore a pahi, long
knife…….. at his side, and a feather in his hat. The natives received them
kindly. They married native women, of Hawaii, which is said, was for some time
governed by them.”

It appears that this legend has a strong basis in fact and ties in with the only
unquestionably documented European contact with the Hawaiian Islands before
Captain Cook. In 1599 a fleet of Dutch trading ships entered the Pacific bound
for Japan. Two of these vessels, the Lefda and the Hope, reached the planned
rendezvous off Chili. They then directed their course for Japan. The Lefda’s
pilot, and Englishman named William Adams ( upon whose life the novel Shogun was
based ), chronicled highlights of the ensuing voyage in two letters, which
eventually reached London. He writes: “ We took our course directly for Japan ….
In our way, we fell with ceratin islands in sixteen degrees of north latitude….
Coming neere these islands, ……. Eight of our men …. ran from us with the pinnesse.”

The importance of cross-referencing legends with documents now allows us to
state that Kahaoukapu seems to have ruled in 1599.

In 1880 Abraham Fornander published his Account of the Polynesian Race. In that
volume he wrote that “ In the time of Kealiikaloa, King of Hawaii and son of
Umi, arrived a vessel at Hawaii. Kanaliloha was the name of the vessel. As they
were sailing along, approaching the land, the vessel was struck at the Pali, and
was broken to pieces by the surf, and the foreigner Kukanaloa and his sister
swam ashore and were saved, but the greater part of the crew perished….. but not
all……..”

“ When when they arrived ashore, they prostated themselves on the beach,
uncertain perhaps on account of their being strangers, and of the different kind
of people whom they saw there, and being very fearful perhaps. A long time they
remained prostrated on the shore, and hence the place was called “ Kulou.” And
is so called to this day, “ And when the evening came the people of the place
took them to thei house and entertained them, asking them if they were
acquainted with the food set before them, to which they replied they were; and
afterwards, when breadfruit, ohia, and bananas were shown them, they expressed a
great desire to have them, pointing to the mountain as the place to get them.
The strangers exhabited with the Hawaiians and had children, and they became
ancesters of some of the Hawaiian people, and also of some chiefs. “

The objects of Captain Cook’s voyage of discovery is well known, but the
question arises and has in some measure much discussed---- Whether Capatain Cook
was aware of the existance of the Hawaiian group from imformation received from
Spanish authorities, and looked upon it on purpose to find or rediscover it, or
whether he was entirely ignorant of its existence, and this by merest accident
discovered it ?

There can be no doubt that in the early part of the sixteenth century
shipwrecked Spaniards arrived at the Hawaiian Islands. Evidences set forth in
the “ North Pacific Pilot,” London, 1870. and in the document from the Colonial
Office in Spain, procured at the solicitation of the Hawaiian Minister of
Foreign Affairs in 1866 – both will satisfy the majority of those who take an
interest in the matter that the Hawaiian group was discovered in 1555 by Jaun
Gaetano, a Spaniard sailing from the coast of New Spain to thed Spice Islands.
It is also probable that other Spanish vessels besides that of Gaetano passed by
or through the Hawaiian Archipelago on their way from Manilla.

But if the priority of the discovery, as a fact, must be conceded to the
Spanairds, yet the credit of the rediscovery, as an act tending to enlarge the
knowledge of mankind, and extend the area of civilised and Christain activity,
must be awarded to Captain Cook. The Spaniards knew of the existence of the
Hawaiian group, but they buried the knowledge in their logbooks and archives,
and it was barren of results to themselves as to others. Cook gave to the world
the benefit of his discovery, and in the fulness of time added another star to
the family group of civilised peoples of European descent.

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Wiki Mo’olelo – continued in part 20 next.


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