Magellan | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

“The Pacific, the largest ocean in the world, extending over more than one third of the surface of our globe, was discovered in the year 1513, by Vasco Nugnez de Balboa, a courageous and enterprising Spaniard, governor of the Spanish colony of Santa Maria in the isthmus of Darien.”

“The desire of finding a more direct communication with the East Indies had prompted Columbus to the daring voyage which resulted in the discovery of the new world.”

“In that immense and unexplored region, his followers pursued their career of enterprise, until Balboa, by discovering the great South Sea, accomplished what Columbus, notwithstanding his most splendid achievements, had in vain attempted.”

“Magellan, a Portuguese, despatched by the court of Spain … sailed along the eastern coast of South America, discovered the straits that bear his name; and, passing through them, first launched the ships of Europe in the Southern Sea.”

“Several distinguished Spanish, Dutch, and British navigators followed the adventurous course of Magellan across the waters of the Pacific, and were rewarded by the discoveries they made in that part of the world, which, under the appellation of Polynesia, from a Greek term signifying ‘many islands’”. (Ellis)

“There is no locality in the Hawaiian Islands which has so many associations with its early history as Kealakekua Bay and its surroundings. The two villages on its shore, Ka‘awaloa, and Kakua, now called Napo‘opo‘o, are mentioned in nearly all the books and journals written by explorers and traders, from the death of Captain Cook in 1779 onward, but as far as I know there has been no collection of historic data relating to this district.”

“The first circumstance, which I believe to be authentic, is connected with the landing of seven men at Kealakekua Bay at a period less remote in point of time, than the reputed landing of other foreigners.”

“The Rev. William Ellis, who came to Hawaii in 1822, and remained here over two years, was soon proficient in the Hawaiian language, as he had lived in Tahiti for six years, where a variation of the Polynesian dialect is spoken.”

“He heard as he journeyed about the Hawaiian group, several stories of the landing of foreigners, but they varied greatly as to the place and details. One story he heard from different men, on many occasions, and all who told it agreed as to the number of men, the description of the boat in which they came, the clothes they wore, etc.”

“Shortly before Liholiho left for England he gave Mr. Ellis a detailed account of the occurrence, which is as follows:”

“‘In the days of Kahoukapu, King of Kaawaloa, seven foreigners arrived at Kealakekua Bay. They came in a painted boat, with an awning over the stern, but without mast or sails.”’”

“‘They were all dressed, the color of their clothes was white or yellow, and one of them had a pahi (that is a long knife, or sword) by his side, and had a feather in his hat.’”

“‘The natives treated them kindly. They married native women, were made chiefs, and ultimately became very powerful in the Island of Hawaii’”.

“Liholiho had no idea whence they came. I am inclined to believe that they may have been deserters from the Dutch ship Hope.” (Restarick)

“June 27, 1598, a fleet, consisting of the Hope, 500 tons; Faith, 320 tons; Charity, 300 tons; Fidelity, 220 tons and the yacht Merry Messenger, 150 tons, sailed from Rotterdam, under command of Admiral De Weert, ‘being provided with all manner of provisions and ammunition, with cannon, money, merchandise and all necessaries whatever for a long voyage.’”

“It proceeded through the Straits of Magellan, thence across the Pacific, and home by way of the Cape of Good Hope, arriving at Rotterdam May 13, 1600.” (Clark)

“(The Hope) in company with the Charity, sailed from Chili taking a north-west course until they reached 27 degrees north. When about 16 degrees north they passed an island, and seven men took the ship’s pinnace and made for the land, and were not seen again.”

“The course of the Hope would have taken her near Hawaii, and according to the log of the pilot Will Adams, they would have been here in February, 1600.” (Restarick)

“The first Dutch ships to cross the Pacific east-west were the Hope, Charity and Faith (the Hoop, Liefde and Trouw) the surviving vessels of an expedition of five ships led by Jacques Mahu in 1598.”

The Hope and Charity intended to sail from Peru to the Moloccas … In 1600, the Charity disappeared north of Hawai‘i. The Hope sighted several islands, probably Johnston Atoll and the Marianas, before reaching Japan in April 1600, where the surviving crew were imprisoned.”

“The expedition was a failure, (lead merchant) died before rounding Cape Horn … and the Hoop (Hope) (was) lost off Hawai‘i.” (Quanchi & Robson)

“It was late November 1599 when the (Hope and Faith) sailed westwardly for Japan. On their way, the two ships made landfall in ‘certain islands’ (possibly the islands of Hawai‘i) where eight sailors deserted the ships. Later during the voyage, a typhoon claimed the Hoop with all hands, in late February 1600. (Luscombe)

“I am aware that this is only a theory, but I have seen no refutation of it which has been satisfactory to me. From the description, the men would seem to have been Europeans. In any event this is the first chronicled event connected with Kealakekua Bay.” (Restarick)

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

Dutch Fleet to Japan

“After Magellan’s daring voyage round South America and across to the Philippines (1519-1521), the magnet of Pacific exploration was Terra Australis Incognita, the great southern continent supposed to lie between the Cape of Good Hope and the Straits of Magellan.”

“Alvaro de Mendana, the Spanish voyager, sailed from Callao in Peru in 1567 and reached the Solomon Islands. It was not until 1595 that he went back, with Pedro Fernanadez de Quiros, found the Marquesas and got as far as the Santa Cruz Islands.”

“Quiros went out from Callao in 1605 with the Portuguese Luiz de Vaez de Torres and believed he had found the continent when they reached Vanuatu (the New Hebrides), which Quiros called ‘Austrialia del Espiritu Santo’ – managing a compliment to Philip III of Spain who was Archduke of Austria.”

“Quiros and Torres now split: Quiros went north-east to California, while Torres went north-west through the strait named after him, discovering that New Guinea was an island, but failing to see Australia.”

“The English circumnavigations by Drake (1577-1580) and Cavendish (1586-1588) were not rich in discoveries. The Dutch merchant Isaac Ie Maire, with Willem Corneliszoon Schouten, reached the Pacific in 1615 via Cape Horn (which they named) but had no luck with the missing continent before reaching Batavia in 1616.”

“Sailing from there, the Dutch had made several sightings of the coast of Australia, north, west and south, in the early seventeenth century, and Anthony van Diemen, governor-general of the Dutch East Indies from 1631 to 1645, was responsible for a number of expeditions, of which the most important was that of Abel Janszoon Tasman with Frans Jacobszoon Visscher, which left Batavia in August 1642.”

“Tasmania was reached (Van Diemen’s Land), then the south island of New Zealand where four men were killed, followed by the Tonga group and Fiji.”

“Much later, another Dutch expedition, under Jacob Roggeveen, left the Netherlands in 1721 in search of the southern continent. Roggeveen went through the Strait of Le Maire and found Easter Island and Samoa before reaching Batavia after a year’s voyage.

“The English had now come strongly on the scene, with the expeditions of Narborough up the South American coast (1669-1671), a mixed assembly of buccaneers, adventurers and privateers, including Dampier, Wafer, Cowley, Ringrose, Woodes, Rogers and Shelvocke, followed by the grand naval expedition of 1740-1744 under Anson.”

“As far as discoveries go, the most important of these men was the remarkable amateur William Dampier, whose painfully assembled New Voyage Round the World (1697) set alight the imagination of eighteenth-century England.”

“On this first voyage Dampier had touched on Australia (New Holland), ‘a very large Tract of Land’, and had thought the inhabitants ‘the miserablest People in the World’.”

“He returned on his second voyage but was only able to make a cursory investigation of the north-western and northern coasts.”

“The major period of English exploration in the Pacific followed the ending of the Seven Years War with France in 1763. The Earl of Egmont, First Lord of the Admiralty from 1763 until 1766, sent out John Byron in the Dolphin in 1764, and on its return from a speedy circumnavigation in 1766, sent the ship out again under Samuel Wallis, with Philip Carteret in the Swallow as consort.”

“Wallis and Carteret were separated. Wallis went on to find Tahiti, unknown to Europeans. He named it King Georrge’s Island and his five-week visit had an importance for Europeans and Polynesians that is hard to measure.”

“Carteret struggled on alone, and made many important discoveries, including Pitcairn. At this very time the French expedition in La Boudeuse and L’Etoile, under the great Louis-Antoine de Bougainville was making its way through the Pacific, reaching Tahiti, fa nouvelle Cythere, hard on Wallis’s heels.”

“However important these voyages were for geographical knowledge and the advancement of science – and Bougainville with his naturalist Commerson were deeply concerned with the advancement of science …”

“… all these expeditions by the competing European powers of Spain, France and Britain were undertaken for the control of new territory for commercial exploitation and strategic use.”

“The scientific element was very much to the fore, however, in the next British expedition. The Royal Society, which in the hundred years of its existence had always regarded voyages to distant lands as a vital source of scientific information, was making plans for a voyage to the Pacific to observe the transit of Venus across the sun in 1769.”

“The observations were needed to help establish the distance of the earth from the sun, and it was necessary for observers to be stationed at different points on the earth’s surface. The planet had crossed the sun in 1761, but the observations world-wide were unsatisfactory. The phenomenon would not occur again for over a hundred years.”

“In 1767 the Royal Society recommended Alexander Dalrymple to lead the expedition. He was an energetic and imaginative thirty year old who had spent much time in Madras and was a keen advocate of English commercial expansion, as well as a firm believer in the possibilities of the great southern continent.”

“He was a skilled navigator but had comparatively little experience of command at sea. His idea was that he should command the expedition and that he should have a master to sail the ship. This was Bougainville’s position, and the practice was common in England in Tudor times.”

“But the Royal Society knew that it depended on the Royal Navy to transport its observers to the Pacific and the Navy was totally opposed to a divided command.”

“James Cook, thirty-nine years of age, a master in the Navy engaged on the survey of Newfoundland, was proposed by the Navy, and during April and May 1768 it was agreed that he should become leader of the expedition.” (The Journal; Edwards)

In the dawn hours of January 18, 1778, on his third expedition, British explorer Captain James Cook on the HMS Resolution and Captain Charles Clerke of the HMS Discovery first sighted what Cook named the Sandwich Islands (that were later named the Hawaiian Islands.)

Hawaiian lives changed with sudden and lasting impact, when western contact changed the course of history for Hawai‘i.

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger