Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Currents

Historically the world was thought of having 4 oceans the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian and Arctic. Today we have five oceans (adding the Southern (around Antarctica)) covering over 71 percent of the earth’s surface and over 97 percent of the earth’s water. (National Geographic)

The term ‘Seven Seas’ has referred to bodies of water along trade routes, regional bodies of water, or exotic and far-away bodies of water.

In Greek literature (which is where the phrase entered Western literature), the Seven Seas were the Aegean, Adriatic, Mediterranean, Black, Red and Caspian seas, with the Persian Gulf thrown in as a “sea.”

In Medieval European literature, the phrase referred to the North Sea, Baltic, Atlantic, Mediterranean, Black, Red and Arabian seas.

As trade picked up across the Atlantic, the concept of the Seven Seas changed again. Mariners then referred to the Seven Seas as the Arctic, the Atlantic, the Indian, the Pacific, the Mediterranean, the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico.

Not many people use this phrase today, but you could say that the modern Seven Seas include the Arctic, North Atlantic, South Atlantic, North Pacific, South Pacific, Indian and Southern Oceans.  (NOAA)

Oceans have currents, the continuous, predictable, directional movement of seawater driven by gravity, wind and water density. Ocean water moves in two directions: horizontally and vertically. Horizontal movements are referred to as currents, while vertical changes are called upwellings or downwellings. (National Geographic)

Ocean currents exist both on and below the surface. Some currents are local to specific areas, while others are global. And they move a lot of water. The largest current in the world, the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, is estimated to be 100 times larger than all the water flowing in all the world’s rivers.

A characteristic surface speed is about 2 to 20 inches per second. Currents generally diminish in intensity with increasing depth.

Vertical movements exhibit much lower speeds, amounting to only a few meters per month. As seawater is nearly incompressible, vertical movements are associated with regions of convergence and divergence in the horizontal flow patterns. (Britannica)

All of this moving water helps more stationary species get the food and nutrients they need. Instead of going looking for food, these creatures wait for the currents to bring a fresh supply to them.

Currents also play a major role in reproduction. The currents spread larvae and other reproductive cells. Without currents many of the ocean’s ecosystems would collapse. (Ocean Blue Project)

Ocean surface currents tend to form ring-like circulation systems called gyres. A gyre is a circular ocean current formed by a combination of the prevailing winds, the rotation of the Earth, and landmasses.

Continents interfere with the movement of both surface winds and currents. Gyres form in both the northern and southern hemispheres.

Gyres in the Northern Hemisphere travel in clockwise directions while gyres in the Southern Hemisphere travel in counter-clockwise directions. It takes about 54 months for water to travel the circuit of the North Pacific gyre, while only 14 months in the North Atlantic gyre.

In the Northern Hemisphere near the equator, trade winds drive currents westward, forming a North Equatorial Current (NE), which moves at about 1 m/sec. At the western boundary of an ocean basin, the water turns and flows towards the North Pole, forming the western-ocean boundary currents.

Western boundary currents are very strong. Two examples are the Gulf Stream (GS) that runs in the Atlantic ocean basin and the Kuroshio Current in the Pacific ocean basin.

They are narrower, but deeper and swifter, than the other currents in the gyre. For example, speeds of 2 m/sec have been measured in the Gulf Stream. These currents, as deep as 1 km, generally remain in deeper water beyond the continental shelf. Western-ocean boundary currents carry warm water from the equator north.

The broad, gentle pitch of the continental shelf gives way to the relatively steep continental slope. The more gradual transition to the abyssal plain is a sediment-filled region called the continental rise. The continental shelf, slope, and rise are collectively called the continental margin. (Britannica)

Eventually, the western boundary currents fall under the influence of the westerly winds and begin flowing to the east, forming the North Atlantic Current (NA) and North Pacific Current (NP).

When they approach the eastern-ocean boundaries of continents, they turn and flow south, forming the eastern-ocean boundary currents. Eastern-ocean boundary currents are shallower and slower than western-ocean boundary currents.

Current flow over the continental shelves (the edge of a continent that lies under the ocean), close to shore, carrying colder waters from the north to the south. Two examples are the California Current (Cal) in the Pacific Ocean basin and the Canary Current (Can) in the Atlantic Ocean basin.

One major current, the equatorial Countercurrent (EC), appears to be an exception to the circulation pattern set up by the gyres. This countercurrent forms just north of the equator in the region between the north equatorial current and the south equatorial current and flows in the opposite direction.  (Hawaii-edu)

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The Spray Will Come Back

Joshua Slocum was born on February 20, 1844, in Nova Scotia. He was the fifth of eleven children. His father was a hard disciplinarian and from his early teens, he made several attempts to run away to the sea.

At the age of fourteen he became cook on a local fishing schooner and soon afterwards he and a friend shipped out, bound for Dublin. From Dublin, he went to Liverpool becoming an ordinary seaman on the British merchant ship Tangier which was bound for China.

Joshua Slocum’s first command in 1869 was the barque Washington which he took across the Pacific from San Francisco to Australia and then onwards to Alaska. In 1871, while in Sidney, he married his first wife, an American named Virginia Walker. They went on to have four children, all born in different countries.

In remote Alaska, the Washington ended up dragging her anchor during a gale, ran ashore and was a total loss. However, Slocum managed to save the cargo and crew, bringing them back safely in the ship’s open boats.

The shipping company was impressed by this feat of leadership and seamanship and gave him command of the Constitution which he sailed to Honolulu and later Mexico.

After the Constitution he commanded the Benjamin Aymar in the South Seas. However, when the owner sold the vessel, he became stranded in the Philippines.

There he was given the 90 ton schooner, Pato. Reviving his fortunes, he crossed the North Pacific to British Columbia. During this period, Slocum fulfilled his wish to become a writer by becoming a temporary correspondent for the San Francisco Bee.

Crossing to Hawaii, he sold the Pato and bought the Amethyst which he sold in Hong Kong for an interest in the full-rigged ship Northern Light. This was his ‘best command’ and was considered the ‘finest American sailing vessel afloat’ at the time.

However after two years he sold his interest and bought the barque Aquidneck in which he sailed to Buenos Aires. While there his wife, Virginia, died at the age of 35.

The following year, 1886, he married his cousin Henrietta Elliott and the Aquidneck ran between Baltimore and South America. During this time he lived through a cholera epidemic, an outbreak of smallpox (which killed several of his crew), and later a mutiny in which he was forced to shoot two men.

A few months later, in 1887, his ship ran aground and broke up in Brazil, marooning him and his family and ruining his fortunes. Unwilling to return to the United States as a castaway and a pauper, he used native help and the wreckage of his ship to build a 35-foot, junk rigged, dory which he named “Liberdade”.

The next year, he, his wife and children sailed this small, homemade craft across 5,500 miles of open ocean to South Carolina. Slocum wrote his first book ‘Voyage of the Liberdade’ about the trip. In recognition for this feat the Liberdade was placed on view at the Smithsonian Institution. (Chesapeake Bay Lighthouse Project)

Then, he sailed alone …

At noon on April 24, 1895, Joshua Slocum cast off his dock lines in East Boston and set out to sail alone around the world in the 37’ sloop Spray.

“The first name on the ‘Spray’s’ visitors’ book in the home port was written by the one who always said, ‘The ‘Spray’ will come back.’”

“The ‘Spray’ was not quite satisfied till I sailed her around to her birthplace, Fairhaven, Massachusetts, farther along.”  (Slocum)

“The ‘Spray’ … plunged into the Pacific Ocean at once, taking her first bath of it in the gathering storm. There was no turning back even had I wished to do so, for the land was now shut out by the darkness of night.”

“To cross the Pacific Ocean, even under the most favorable circumstances, brings you for many days close to nature, and you realize the vastness of the sea. Slowly but surely the mark of my little ship’s course on the track-chart reached out on the ocean and across it, while at her utmost speed she marked with her keel still slowly the sea that carried her.”

“On the forty-third day from land, – a long time to be at sea alone, – the sky being beautifully clear and the moon being “in distance” with the sun, I threw up my sextant for sights. I found from the result of three observations, after long wrestling with lunar tables, that her longitude by observation agreed within five miles of that by dead-reckoning.” (Slocum)

“Taking things by and large, as sailors say, I got on fairly well in the matter of provisions even on the long voyage across the Pacific. I found always some small stores to help the fare of luxuries; what I lacked of fresh meat was made up in fresh fish, at least while in the trade-winds …”

“… where flying-fish crossing on the wing at night would hit the sails and fall on deck, sometimes two or three of them, sometimes a dozen. Every morning except when the moon was large I got a bountiful supply by merely picking them up from the lee scuppers.” (Slocum)

“The Pacific is perhaps, upon the whole, no more boisterous than other oceans, though I feel quite safe in saying that it is not more pacific except in name. It is often wild enough in one part or another.”

“I once knew a writer who, after saying beautiful things about the sea, passed through a Pacific hurricane, and he became a changed man.  But where, after all, would be the poetry of the sea were there no wild waves?”

“At last here was the ‘Spray’ in the midst of a sea of coral. The sea itself might be called smooth indeed, but coral rocks are always rough, sharp, and dangerous. I trusted now to the mercies of the Maker of all reefs, keeping a good lookout at the same time for perils on every hand.” (Slocum)

More than once during his 38-month circumnavigation, Slocum was reported as having gone missing. There were times when it was presumed he had been lost.

But when Slocum finally sailed into Newport, Rhode Island, at 1 am on June 27, 1898, he proved all the doubters wrong. Slocum and his Spray had sailed into history. (New Bedford Whaling Museum)

At the age of 51, Captain Joshua Slocum became the first man to sail around the world alone. His 46,000-mile voyage in the 36-foot sloop ‘Spray’ was only part of a life of adventure, exploration and ingenuity, making him one of the world’s most famous sailors. (South Bay Sail)

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Tonquin

“In December, 1777, Captain James Cook, who had been sent into the Pacific on a voyage of exploration by the King of England, discovered several islands which he named in honor of the Earl of Sandwich, He later sailed northward and in March of the next year sighted the American coast in the neighborhood of the present Yaquina Bay.”

“He thus became the first to make a contact between the Oregon country and Hawaii. Cook was followed within a few years by vessels that engaged in trading furs from the Indians along the northwest coast of America which they sold in China.”

“The captains of such ships were quick to learn the value of the Hawaiian Islands as a resting place and provisioning station. Their custom was to stop there on the northward voyage, spend a season in trade, return to the islands for the winter, and afterwards sail back to the American coast to complete their cargo of furs before going to Canton.”  (Clark)

“On June 23, 1810, Pacific Fur Company partners sign articles of agreement in New York City. This new enterprise aims to monopolize the American fur trade from coast to coast.”

“The wealthy New York merchant John Jacob Astor (1763-1848) is president, prime mover, and principal stockholder of the fledgling organization, and he will soon dispatch two expeditions to found a transcontinental trading network headquartered on the Columbia River, ‘the first American commercial undertaking west of the mountains.’” (Nisbet)

“To serve as his chief agent, Astor approached Wilson Price Hunt (1783-1842), a St. Louis merchant who hired several Missouri River traders and frontiersmen of his acquaintance as assistants. Because no American furmen possessed the expertise needed to organize a new trading network in the Far West, Astor recruited experienced Canadian traders for his remaining leadership.”

“The first party would sail from New York on the ship Tonquin with the supplies and equipment necessary ‘to establish a fur trading post at, or in the vicinity of the Columbia River’. Partners Alexander McKay, Duncan McDougall, David Stuart (1765-1853) and Robert Stuart (1785-1848) would superintend the establishment of the trade in the Columbia region upon their arrival.”

“The second group, commanded by Wilson Price Hunt and Donald Mackenzie, would depart St. Louis in late October and travel west along Lewis and Clark’s route, selecting appropriate locations for trading posts and establishing friendly rapport with Indian tribes along the way.”

“Astor, who watched the Tonquin set sail on September 8, 1810, would later muse, ‘Was there ever an undertaking of more merit, of more hazard, and more enterprising?’” (Nisbet)

“Commanded by Captain Jonathan Thorn (1779-1811), a 32-year-old lieutenant on leave from the US Navy, the Tonqin was 94 feet long with a burden of 269 tons, and was known as a ‘first-rate ship’”.

“[W]hile planning a post on the Columbia River [Astor] also had in mind to establish friendly relations with the Hawaiian Islands in the hope of securing special commercial privileges there.”

“When the Tonquin which carried his men and goods to the Columbia stopped at those islands, its captain endeavored without success to make a commercial treaty with King Kamehameha.”

“He did, however, succeed in securing needed supplies of food and in enlisting 24 Hawaiians for service as sailors and as laborers at the prospective post [twelve for the crew and twelve for the new settlement]. The agreement was that they were to receive food, clothing and $100 in merchandise for three years service.”  (Nisbet) Then they sailed to the Northwest coast.

“When the crew sighted land about three miles away on the morning of March 22, [1811] the captain felt certain they had reached the Columbia. With a fresh gale blowing from the northwest, Thorn thought it would be prudent to examine the notoriously treacherous bar before venturing any closer in the Tonquin.”

“In the early afternoon he ordered his first mate, JC Fox (d. 1811), and four of his crewmen to launch a longboat and sound the channel. According to three eyewitness accounts, the first mate objected to setting out in such stormy weather and rough seas, to which Captain Thorn replied, ‘Mr. Fox, if you are afraid of water, you should have remained at Boston’”.

“Mr. Fox had been well-liked aboard the Tonquin, and his friends watched anxiously from deck as his little boat was tossed about by the boisterous sea, but they soon lost sight of it among the expanse of breaking waves.”

“The following day the Tonquin stood off and on the bar all day ‘with anxious solicitude’, but there was no sign of the longboat. As evening approached, the crew of necessity steered the ship a safe distance from shore, ‘all with long faces, even the Captain looking worried’”. 

“The morning of March 24 proved clear, and the Tonquin anchored in a calm area to the north of Cape Disappointment. … Soon thereafter, a fine breeze sprung up, and Captain Thorn decided to weigh anchor and stand in for the entrance to the river.”

“According to his charts, the deepest and most reliable channel lay close in to Cape Disappointment, on the north edge of the shifting sandbars that rendered the river’s mouth so perilous.”

“This channel was narrow, intricate, and constantly changing, and Thorn ‘became so alarmed at the appearance of the breakers that he hove to’. He ordered second mate Mumford to re-launch the pinnace and sound the waters ahead. Mumford succeeded in locating five fathoms of water, but with the surf breaking all around him, he retreated to the ship.” 

“Captain Thorn again weighed anchor and stood in for the channel under an easy sail. … ‘We came within pistol range of the long-boat and made a signal to them to come aboard, which they were unable to do, the suction of the ebbing tide carrying them away with incredible speed’”.

“Tonquin began to drift fast to the southward … ‘the mind of the captain was so absorbed in apprehension, and perplexed with anxiety at the danger which stared him in the face, and which he was about to encounter, that he could not be brought to give a thought to anything else but the safety of the ship.’”

“Indeed, the safety of the Tonquin was soon imperiled, for as she made her way across the bar in the face of the outgoing tide, she struck repeatedly on reefs and shoals. Waves broke over the deck. ‘Everyone who could, sprang aloft, and clung for life to the rigging … she struck again and again, and, regardless of her helm, was tossed and whirled in every direction’”.

“The wind suddenly died, leaving the ship at the mercy of the surf, in danger of being dashed against the rocks at the foot of Cape Disappointment. Thorn threw out two anchors to counter the pull of the tide.  But ‘darkness soon fell to add to the horrors of our predicament’”.

“When the tide eventually turned, the ship was still intact, and an ocean breeze sprang up to usher her away from the cape’s rocky shore, across the rest of the bar, and into the shelter of Baker’s Bay in the lee of the Cape, where the weary sailors dropped anchor just before midnight.”

“Despite extensive searches over the next several days, Stephen Weeks and Harry [one of the Hawaiians] were the only survivors of either of the small boats ever found. ‘The loss of eight of us [including one Hawaiian] within two days was deeply felt,’ wrote Franchere.”

“‘In the course of such a long voyage, among men who see one another every day, live in the same quarters, share the same dangers, ties form which make such a sudden and unforeseen separation doubly painful.’”  (Nisbet)  Some of the Hawaiians remained at the Columbia River to build the trading post.

After a few days, fur company officials found a site for the trading post and named it Astoria. This was the base of operations for Astor’s northwest fur trade. (Kittelson)

“The 12 Hawaiians who remained on board were murdered with the other members of the crew when the Tonquin was surprised by Indians while in Clayoquot Sound [at Vancouver Island] a few weeks later.”  (Clark)

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Spice Trade

By many accounts, Britain was a quiet agricultural outpost in the Roman empire. The native inhabitants had a well-established growing system that prioritized crops such as broad beans, barley, oats, and wheat. Needless to say, Britons ate a lot of bread and drank a lot of beer.

Their livestock consisted of the usual range of domesticated animals: cattle, sheep, chicken, and pigs. Foraged foods included mushrooms, wild onions, and herbs such as mustard. Those who lived near the coast enjoyed seaweed, fish, and oysters. Rural life and food looked much the same as it does today, with a key exception — lack of spices.

The Romans brought a wealth of spices from all over their empire. The trade along the Spice Road had been good to them, and they introduced pepper, rosemary, thyme, coriander, mint, and garlic to Britons. Some of these herbs were dried and some were in plant form. Those plants that grew well in the Isles still remain a part of British cuisine.  (Cowen)

Many tall tales developed as to the origins of spices, but by the 13th century, travelers like Marco Polo (1254-1324 CE) and missionaries were beginning to improve Europe’s geographical knowledge of the wider world.

India seemed awash with black pepper. Sri Lanka was rich in cinnamon. Sandalwood came from Timor. China and Japan were getting spices like cloves, nutmeg, and mace from India, South East Asia, and the Maluku Islands or the Moluccas in what is today Indonesia – not for nothing were they nicknamed the Spice Islands.

Then, in 1453 came the fall of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire was conquered by the Ottoman Empire, and so one of the principal land routes for spices into Europe was lost. (Cartwright)

One of the major motivating factors in the European Age of Exploration was the search for direct access to the highly lucrative Eastern spice trade. In the 15th century, spices came to Europe via the Middle East land and sea routes, and spices were in huge demand both for food dishes and for use in medicines.

The problem was how to access this market by sea.

Accordingly, explorers like Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) and Vasco da Gama (c. 1469-1524) were sent to find a maritime route from Europe to Asia.

Columbus (who was looking for a new route to India, China, Japan and the ‘Spice Islands’ of Indonesia to bring back cargoes of silk and spices (ginger turmeric and cinnamon)) never saw the mainland United States, but the first explorations of the continental United States were launched from the Spanish possessions that he helped establish.

To the south, da Gama did round the Cape of Good Hope, sail up the coast of East Africa, and cross the Indian Ocean to reach India.

From 1500 onwards, first Portugal, and then other European powers, attempted to control the spice trade, the ports which marketed spices, and eventually the territories which grew them.  (Cartwright)

On November 28 1520, Ferdinand Magellan entered the “Sea of the South” (which he later named the Pacific) and thereby open up to Spain the possibility of an alternative route between Europe and the spices of the Orient.”  (Lloyd)

Then, almost 50 years after the death of Christopher Columbus, Manila galleons finally fulfilled their dream of sailing west to Asia to benefit from the rich Indian Ocean trade.

“The Spanish Galleons were square rigged ships with high superstructures on their sterns. They were obviously designed for running before the wind or at best sailing on a very ‘broad reach.’”

“Because of their apparently limited ability to ‘beat their way to windward’ (sail against the wind), they had to find trade routes where the prevailing winds and sea currents were favorable.”  (Lloyd)

Starting in 1565, with the Spanish sailor and friar Andrés de Urdaneta, after discovering the Tornaviaje or return route to Mexico through the Pacific Ocean, Spanish galleons sailed the Pacific Ocean between Acapulco in New Spain (now Mexico) and Manila in the Philippine islands.

Once a year, gold and silver were transported west to Manila in exchange spices (pepper, clove and cinnamon), porcelain, ivory, lacquer and elaborate fabrics (silk, velvet, satin), collected from both the Spice Islands (Moluccas, Indonesia) and the Asian Pacific coast, in European markets.

They also carried Chinese handicrafts, Japanese screens, fans, Japanese swords, Persian carpets, Ming dynasties and a myriad of other products. East Asia traded primarily with a silver standard, and the goods were bought mainly with Mexican silver. (Pascual)

The galleons leaving Manila would make their way back to Acapulco in a four-month long journey.  The goods were off-loaded and transported across land to ships on the other Mexican coast at Veracruz, and eventually, sent to European markets and customers eager for these exotic wares.  (GuamPedia)

In 1668 a royal decree required the galleons to stop in Guam in the Mariana Islands on their westward voyage from Acapulco to Manila. This allowed ships to replenish supplies and was the only means for communication between Spain and the Marianas colony.

The Manila Galleon Trade lasted for 250 years and ended in 1815 with Mexico’s war of independence.  More than 40-Spanish galleons were lost during this 250-year period. (Lloyd)

“‘The voyage from the Philippine islands to America may be call’d the longest, and most dreadful of any in the world; as well because of the vast ocean to be cross’d, being almost the one-half of the terraquous globe, with the wind always a-head; as for the terrible tempests that happen there, one upon the back of the other …”

“… and for the desperate diseases that seize people, in seven or eight months living at sea, sometimes near the line, sometimes cold, sometimes temperate, sometimes hot, which is enough to destroy a man of steel, much more flesh and blood, which at sea had but indifferent food.’” (Dr. Gemilli, Popular Science, 1901)

“The Spanish captains normally made their eastbound Pacific crossings between 31o N and 44o N latitude to insure that they would remain in the zone of the westerly winds. They would want to avoid the ‘horse latitudes’ (around 30o  N) and they would certainly want to remain well north of the northeast trade winds that would  drive their square rigged ships back to the Philippines.”

“This northerly route back to Acapulco would normally keep the galleons at least 1,000 miles north of Hawaii and it would not be surprising if little or no contact with the Hawaiian Island occurred during these difficult eastbound crossings of the North Pacific.”

“The westbound route from Acapulco offers an entirely different set of navigational considerations.  Friar Urdaneta’s route involved sailing down to 13° N latitude (or 14° N) and following that parallel all the way to Guam and on to the San Bernardino Strait in the Philippines.”

“Unknown to the Spanish navigators, the very favorable ocean currents mentioned above would position their ships much further along their westbound course than indicated by using their ship’s mechanical ‘log’ to measure their ship’s speed through the water.”  (Lloyd)

Some suggest the Spaniards came to the Hawaiian Islands a couple of centuries before Cook saw them.

“Old Spanish charts and a 1613 AD Dutch globe suggest that explorers from Spain had sighted Hawaiʻi long before Captain Cook.  When Cook arrived in 1778, galleons laden with silver from the mines of Mexico and South America had been passing south of Hawaiʻi for two centuries on annual round trip voyages of 17,000 miles between Acapulco and Manila.”  (Kane)

“It seems to be almost certain that one Juan Gaetano, a Spanish navigator, saw Hawaii in 1555 AD. A group of islands, the largest of which was called La Mesa, was laid down in the old Spanish charts in the same latitude as the Hawaiian Islands, but 10 degrees too far east.”  (Hawaiʻi Department of Foreign Affairs, 1896)

“There are undoubted proof of the discovery of the Hawaiian Islands by the Spaniard, Juan Gaetano. This is the first known record of the islands among the civilized nations. There are evident references to this group in the legends of the Polynesians in other Pacific islands.”  (Westervelt 1923)

La Perouse noted, when he briefly visited the Islands (1786,) “In the charts, at the foot of this archipelago, might be written: ‘Sandwich Islands, surveyed in 1778 by Captain Cook, who named them, anciently discovered by the Spanish navigators.’”  (La Perouse, Fornander)

“By all the documents that have been examined, it is demonstrated that the discovery dates from the year 1555 and that the discoverer was Juan Gaetano or Gaytan. The principal proof is an old manuscript chart, registered in these archives as anonymous, and in which the Sandwich Islands are laid down under that name, but which also contains a note declaring that he called them Islas de Mesa”.  (Spanish Colonial Office letter to the Governor of the Philippines, The Friend May 1927)

“It is true that no document has been found in which Gaytan himself certifies to this fact, but there exist data which collectively form a series of proofs sufficient for believing it to be so. The principal one is an old manuscript chart … in which the Sandwich Islands are laid down under that name…” (The Friend May 1927)

Gaetano passed through the northern part of the Pacific and discovered large islands which he marked upon a chart as ‘Los Majos.’ The great mountains upon these islands did not rise in sharp peaks, but spread out like a high tableland in the clouds, hence he also called the islands “Isles de Mesa,” the Mesa Islands or the Table Lands. One of the islands was named “The Unfortunate.” Three other smaller islands were called “The Monks.”  (Westervelt 1923)

Fortunately, however, the Spanish made no use of this discovery, thus permitting the Hawaiians to escape the sad fate of the natives of the Ladrones and Carolines under Spanish dominion.  (White 1898)

Juan Gaetano may not have been the first Spaniard, here.  Stories suggest an earlier arrival of shipwrecked Spaniards at Keʻei, Kona Moku (district,) Island of Hawaiʻi.

There is fairly complete evidence that a Spanish vessel was driven ashore on the island of Hawai‘i in 1527, it being one of a squadron of three which sailed from the Mexican coast for the East Indies.  (White 1898)

“A well known Hawaiian tradition relates that in the reign of Keliiokaloa, son of Umi, a foreign vessel was wrecked at Keei, South Kona, Hawaii. According to the tradition, only the captain and his sister reached the shore in safety. From their kneeling on the beach and remaining a long time in that posture, the place was called Kulou (to stoop, to bow,) as it is unto this day.”  (Alexander 1892)

“The natives received them kindly and placed food before them. These strangers intermarried with the Hawaiians, and were the progenitors of certain well known families of chiefs, as for instance, that of Kaikioewa, former Governor of Kauai.“  (Alexander 1892)

Jarves expanded on the story, “In the reign of Kealiiokaloa, son of Umi, thirteen generations of kings before Cook’s arrival, which, according to the previous calculation, would bring it near the year 1620, a vessel, called by the natives Konaliloha, arrived at Pale, Keei, on the south side of Kealakeakua bay, Hawaii.”

“Here, by some accident, she was drawn into the surf, and totally wrecked; the captain, Kukanaloa, and a white woman, said to be his sister, were the only persons who reached the land. As soon as they trod upon the beach, either from fear of the inhabitants, or to return thanks for their safety, they prostrated themselves, and remained in that position for a long time.”

“The spot where this took place, is known at the present day, by the appellation of Kulou, to bow down. The shipwrecked strangers were hospitably received, invited to the dwellings of the natives, and food placed before them.”  (Jarves 1843)

One more thing, the first Hawaiian word written is ‘Hamaite’ – it was spoken to Captain Cook at the time he made contact with the Islands and he wrote it in his journal.

It was made in reference to iron.  Some suggest it refers to Hematite (ferric oxide – a mineral form of iron oxide – that is Hematita in Spanish.)  However, others suggest ‘Hamaite’ is actually a Hawaiian expression of He maita’i – good.  (Schutz)

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Cook’s Concern

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.)

Cook continued to sail along the coast searching for a suitable anchorage. His two ships remained offshore, but a few Hawaiians were allowed to come on board on the morning of January 20, before Cook continued on in search of a safe harbor.

“At nine o’clock [January 20, 1778}, being pretty near the shore, I sent three armed boats, under the command of Lieutenant Williamson, to look for a landing-place, and for fresh water. I ordered him, that if he should find it necessary to land in search of the latter, not to suffer more than one man to go with him out of the boats.”

“Just as they were putting off from the ship, one of the natives having stolen the butcher’s cleaver, leaped overboard, got into his canoe, and hastened to the shore, the boats pursuing him in vain.”

“The order not to permit the crews of the boats to go on shore was issued, that I might do every thing in my power to prevent the importation of a fatal disease into this island, which I knew some of our men laboured under, and which, unfortunately, had been already communicated by us to other islands in these seas.”

“With the same view, I ordered all female visitors to be excluded from the ships. Many of them had come off In the canoes. Their size, colour, and features did not differ much from those of the men ; and though their countenances were remarkably open and agreeable, there were few traces of delicacy to be seen, either in their faces, or other proportions.”

“The only difference in their dress, was their having a piece of cloth about the body, reaching from near the middle to half-way down the thighs, instead of the maro worn by the other sex. “

“They would as readily have favoured us with their company on board as the men ; but I wished to prevent all connection, which might, too probably, convey an irreparable injury to themselves, and through their means, to the whole nation.”

“Another necessary precaution was taken, by strictly enjoining, that no person, known to be capable of propagating the infection, should be sent upon duty out of the ships.”

“Whether these regulations, dictated by humanity, had the desired effect, or no, time only can discover. I had been equally attentive to the same object, when I first visited the Friendly Islands ; yet I afterward found, with real concern, that I had not succeeded.”

“And I am much afraid, that this will always be the case, in such voyages as ours, whenever it is necessary to have a number of people on shore.”

“The opportunities and inducements to an intercourse between the sexes are then too numerous to be guarded against; and however confident we may be of the health of our men, we are often undeceived too late.”

“It is even a matter of doubt with me, if it be always in the power of the most skillful of the faculty to pronounce, with any certainty, whether a person who has been under their care, in certain stages of this malady, is so effectually cured, as to leave no possibility of his being still capable of communicating the taint.”

“I think I could mention some instances which justify my presuming to hazard this opinion. It is likewise well known, that, amongst a number of men, there are generally to be found some so bashful as to endeavour to conceal their labouring under any symptoms of this disorder.”

“And there are others, again, so profligate, as not to care to whom they communicate it. Of this last, we had an instance at Tongataboo, in the gunner of the Discovery, who had been stationed on shore to manage the trade for that ship.”

“After he knew that he had contracted this disease, he continued to have connections with different women, who were supposed not to have already contracted it.”

“His companions expostulated with him without effect, till Captain Clerke, hearing of this dangerous irregularity of conduct, ordered him on board.”  (All here is from Cook’s Journal; 2nd of 3rd Voyage, pgs 181-182)

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