Captain Cook | Page 2 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

July 25, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

A Connecticut Yankee in Captain Cook’s Crew

John Ledyard, the son of a ship captain, was born in Groton Connecticut in 1751. He grew up in thriving New London County, where the West Indian trade made fortunes for enterprising merchants and captains.

When he was 11, his father and an uncle died at sea. He went to live with his grandfather, then his uncle (he apprenticed in his uncle’s law office.) During his teens Ledyard vacillated between a career in law and one in the ministry. (Bashford)

He took neither and headed to sea.

In March 1775, he boarded a ship to England where he enlisted in the British Army. Four months later, in July, he transferred into the British Navy, joining the Royal Marines. (Drury)

A year later, July 12, 1776, a Corporal in the British Marines, he became part of the last expedition under Captain James Cook (the only American on board.)

It consisted of two ships, the Resolution and Discovery, the former commanded by Captain Cook (with Ledyard aboard,) and the latter by Captain Clerke. (Sparks)

From Britain, the Resolution and Discovery sailed south and east, around the Cape of Good Hope, across the southern Indian Ocean to Tasmania, New Zealand, and from there to the various Polynesian island chains of the South Pacific.

It was in Tahiti that Ledyard is reportedly the first Westerner to be tattooed – with “Otaheite marks on my hands”. (Ledyard)

The expedition continued north and eastward reaching the Pacific Northwest coast of North America. It then sailed north, probing the Alaskan coastline in search of a Northwest Passage, connecting the Atlantic and the Pacific. (Drury)

With cold weather setting in, Cook decided to head to the Sandwich Islands for winter quarters.

“We had been approached several times by some canoes at a distance, but none of them would come near enough to converse with us or that we might see what sort of people they were until we anchored and furled our sails.”

“Those who came first were armed and appeared inexpressibly surprised, though not intimidated. They shook their spears at us, rolled their eyes about and made wild uncouth gesticulations.”

“The next day we were visited by a great multitude of canoes, bringing yams, sweet potatoes, hogs, plantains and other tropical fruits, which they … exchanged for little bits of old iron, nails and other articles.” (Ledyard)

While there, Ledyard requested permission to scale Mauna Loa, for the double purpose of exploring the interior, and, if possible, climbing to the top of the mountain. The request was granted.

The botanist and a gunner of the Resolution accompanied him; Hawaiians were also engaged to serve as guides. (Sparks)

“The woods here are very thick and luxuriant, the largest trees are nearly thirty feet in the girt, and these with the shruberry underneath and the whole intersected with vines renders it very umbrageous.” (Ledyard)

They never made it to the summit, having underestimated its height (13,680 feet,) distance and the thickness of the tropical undergrowth on its slopes, and had to turn back.

He was there when Cook was killed, “Cook and Mr. Phillips were together a few paces in the rear of the guard … Cook having at length reached the margin of the water between the fire of the boats waved with his hat to cease firing and come in, and while he was doing this a chief from behind stabed him with one of our iron daggers … Cook fell with his face in the water and immediately expired.”

“The natives did not attempt to molest the boats in their debarkation of our people, which was much wondered at, and they soon joined the others upon the Morai (heiau) amounting in the whole to about 60.” (Ledyard)

They left the Islands; the expedition returned to England in the fall of 1780. He was obligated to stay there until his enlistment expired early in 1782, while the American Revolution dwindled toward its close.

Refusing to fight against his countrymen, he was detained in barracks for two years. Then, sent out on a frigate that cruised American waters for several months, he jumped ship. (Halliday)

He began to write his ‘Journal of Captain Cook’s Last Voyage,’ published in 1783. After Ledyard’s petition to the General Assembly seeking copyright protection provoked a series of state laws that codified that right. Eventually, a federal copyright law was adopted in 1790. (Drury)

His journeys weren’t over.

Seeking support for a new expedition, he travelled to Europe. He met Ambassador Thomas Jefferson there, and discussed his plans to cross the American continent alone (from Stockholm, Sweden, across Siberia to New England.

Discussion of that journey helped call Jefferson’s attention to the possible value of the Northwest Coast and the need to explore the American continent; it led to the expedition of Lewis and Clark in 1804-1806, after Jefferson became president.

Ledyard would return to the Pacific Northwest on an expedition of his own—not merely to make a fortune in the fur trade, but to realize his dream of crossing the American continent alone (from Stockholm, Sweden, across Siberia to New Engand.)

However, his one-man journey ended a year later when Russian forces loyal to Catherine the Great arrested him in Irkutsk, Siberia, accusing him of being a spy. He was subsequently banished from the country. (Halliday)

A final journey, begun in June 1788, would be Ledyard’s last.

On an expedition to explore the interior of the African continent, he suffered a digestive ailment. His attempt at self-medication, by swallowing sulfuric acid and tartar emetic, eventually claimed his life in January 1789. John Ledyard was 38 years old. (Ray)

John_Ledyard

Captain James Cook-1776

Cook_Entering_Kealakekua_Bay-(HerbKane)

Cook_Expedition_Off_Waipio_Valley-(HerbKane)

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Cook-Kealakekua_Bay-Webber-1778

Death_of_Cook-February_14,_1779-(HerbKane)

HMS_Discovery-(HerbKane)

HMS_Discovery_Puna_Coast-(HerbKane)

King_Kalaniopuu_Welcomes_Cook-Kealakekua-(HerbKane)

Ledyard-voyages

Masked_Paddlers_at_Kealakekua-(HerbKane)

Zoffany_Death_of_Captain_Cook-1794

Jefferson_to_Ledyard-August 16, 1786

Captain Cook Marker

John-Ledyard

July 15, 2024 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kōnane

Lawe ʻili keokeo, paʻani, ka ʻeleʻele
Removing the whites is playing with the blacks

It starts with a papamū, a generally rectangular flat stone whose surface is marked with shallow pits in regular order and of considerable number. Later more mobile boards were used.

The center of the board was called piko (navel) and frequently marked with an inset human molar; sometimes every position had an inset tooth (or a chicken or human bone.) The row along the borders of the board was termed kakaʻi. (Ernst)

“They have a game somewhat resembling draughts (checkers,) but more complicated. It is played upon a board about twenty-two inches by fourteen, painted black, with white spots, on which the men are placed; these consist of black and white pebbles, eighteen upon each side, and the game is won by the capture of the adversaries pieces.”

“Tamaahmaah (Kamehameha) excels at this game. I have seen him sit for hours playing with his chiefs, giving an occasional smile, but without uttering a word. I could not play, but William Moxely, who understood it well, told me that he had seen none who could beat the king.” (Campbell)

Captain James Cook also noted Konane in his journal. “It is very remarkable, that the people of these islands are great gamblers. They have a game very much like our draughts; but, if one may judge from the number of squares, it is much more intricate.”

“The board is about two feet long, and is divided into two hundred and thirty-eight squares, of which there are fourteen in a row, and they make use of black and white pebbles, which they move from square to square.” (Cook)

Kōnane boards do not follow any established pattern in size and range from 6×6 boards to well over 14×14 boards. (Some suggest even larger boards are used.)

To begin the game, the ﬁrst player (black) must remove one of their pieces, either the center piece, one laterally next to it or one at a corner. The second player (white) now removes a piece of their own, adjacent to the space created by black’s ﬁrst move.

Then, the players take turns making moves. A player moves a stone of his color by jumping it over a horizontally or vertically (not diagonally) adjacent stone of the opposite color, into an empty space. Stones so jumped are captured, and removed from play. Thereafter players take turns making moves on the board.

A stone may make multiple successive jumps in a single move, as long as they are in a straight line; no turns are allowed within a single move. The winner of the game is the last player able to make a move.

Kōnane figures in the saga of Lonoikamakahiki, a great chief credited with creating the first kahili and instituting the Makahiki games.

In a fit of jealous rage over rumors that she had been unfaithful, he killed his wife during a game of kōnane by beating her over the head with the heavy board. Later learning of her steadfastness, he was crazed with grief, but eventually nursed back to health by a faithful retainer. (Yuen)

King Kalākaua and his Queen Kapiʻolani were experts at kōnane, and it is well known that the goddess Pele did not refuse to play the game with the demigod Kamapuaʻa. (Brigham)

An alternative name for kōnane was mū, and for the board, papamū. Brigham notes that mū was the name of the official who captured men for sacrifice or for judicial punishment and suggests this name was adopted for the game. (Ernst)

June 24, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Cook’s Voyages to and from Hawai‘i

Between 1768 and 1778 England’s maritime explorer, James Cook, made three expeditions to the Pacific. Astronomy played a vital role in navigation and coastal cartography, and consequently there were astronomers on all three Pacific expeditions.

Cook’s third (and final) voyage (1776-1779) of discovery was an attempt to locate a North-West Passage, an ice-free sea route which linked the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. Cook commanded the Resolution while Charles Clerke commanded Discovery. (State Library, New South Wales)

They left Portsmouth, England in the late evening of July 12, 1776 – almost exactly four years after leaving on the previous successful voyage – a coincidence that some viewed as a favorable omen.

The commander of the second ship, Discovery, was Lieutenant Charles Clerke (1741–1779), who had sailed with Cook on both circumnavigations but was currently in prison for his brother’s debts; he was not released until the end of July, unwittingly having contracted tuberculosis.

Among Cook’s officers were George Vancouver, who would later lead a four-year survey of the northwest coast of America, and William Bligh, destined to be made famous by the storied mutiny on the Bounty. Also on board were Nathaniel Portlock and George Dixon.

After a year among the islands of the South Pacific, many of which he was the first European to make contact, on December 8, 1777, they were in Bora-Bora.

Proceeding north, they discovered the Pacific’s largest atoll, Kiritimati (what Cook called Christmas Island (where they celebrated Christmas)) and Cook observed an eclipse of the sun. After stocking up on over a ton of green turtles, the ships departed on January 2, 1778. (Smithsonian)

Then, “We continued to see birds every day … sometimes in greater numbers than others; and between the latitude of 10° and 11° we saw several turtle. All these are looked upon as signs of the vicinity of land.”

“However, we discovered none till day-break, in the morning of the 18th, when an island made its appearance, bearing northeast by east; and, soon after, we saw more land bearing north, and entirely detached from the former.” (Cook’s Journal)

Cook’s crew first sighted the Hawaiian Islands in the dawn hours of January 18, 1778. His two ships were kept at bay by the weather until the next day when they approached Kauai’s southeast coast.

On the afternoon of January 19, native Hawaiians in canoes paddled out to meet Cook’s ships, and so began Hawai’i’s contact with Westerners. The first Hawaiians to greet Cook were from the Kōloa south shore.

The Hawaiians traded fish and sweet potatoes for pieces of iron and brass that were lowered down from Cook’s ships to the Hawaiians’ canoes.

The Islands “were named by Captain Cook the Sandwich Islands, in honour of the Earl of Sandwich, under whose administration he had enriched geography with so many splendid and important discoveries.” (Captain King’s Journal; Kerr)

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

Throughout their stay, the ships were supplied with fresh provisions which were paid for mainly with iron, much of it in the form of long iron daggers made by the ships’ blacksmiths on the pattern of the wooden pāhoa used by the Hawaiians.

After a month’s stay, Cook got under sail again to resume his exploration of the Northern Pacific. The maritime sea-fur industry of the northwestern Pacific coast was almost accidentally begun when in 1778 Captain Cook brought back from the Nootka Sound region a few pelts whose great value was learned in China.

The maritime fur trade in skins of the sea otter (and beaver, seal, etc) was the stimulus for the unofficial earliest explorations of the coast and islands of what is now British Columbia and southern Alaska.

Although seven years passed before Cook was followed by another European vessel, the year 1785 opened a lively period of trade. Within a few years the flags of seven nations were flown in these waters by merchant vessels seeking their booty on uncharted coasts. (US Naval Institute)

After being in the Northwest, Alaska, they headed back to Hawaii to provision (November 1778). “Dec2d …We got to windward of Mowee & this Morning came to another large Island called by the Natives Ou-why’ee (Hawai‘i:) in the afternoon we stood close in shore & lay to trading with the Natives, who brought us a large quantity of Breadfruit & roots & a few Hogs.”

“We saw many Houses on the low land & Thousands of people collected together to look at the Ships. This Island has a pleasant Appearance, the Land from the Waterside sloping gently upwards to the foot of the Hills. The top of one of the highest mountains is covered with Snow…” (Journal of Captain Cook)

“Jan.16th [1779] … This morning seeing the appearance of a Bay a Boat from each ship was sent to examine it. We have had more Canoes about us to day than in any place this Voyage; …”

“… we counted 150 large sailing Canoes many of which contained thirty & forty men – we reckoned that all together there could not be less about the 2 Ships than 1000 canoes & 10,000 Indians…” (Journal of Captain James Cook)

“Jan.17th … We entered with both ships, and anchored in the middle of the bay having on one side a town containing about 300 hundred houses called by the inhabitants Kiverua [Ka’awaloa,] and on the other side a town contained 1100 houses, and called Kirekakooa [Kealakekua]…” (Journal of John Ledyard)

“As soon as the Resolution was moored Capt. Cook went on ashore … the chiefs had each two long white poles which they held upright and waved to the people in the canoes, to make room, and as they passed through the throng, the chief cried out in their language that the great Orono [Lono] was coming …”

“… at which they all bowed and covered their faces with their hands until he was passed, but the moment this was done they resumed their clamorous shouts, closed the vacant place astern, and as many as could crowded upon his rear to the shore. …” (Journal of John Ledyard)

At that time of Cook’s arrival, Kalaniʻōpuʻu was on the island to Maui to contend with Kahekili, king of Maui. The east side of Maui had fallen into the hands of Kalaniʻōpuʻu and Kahekili was fighting with him to gain control.

Kalaniʻōpuʻu returned to Hawaiʻi and met with Cook on January 26, 1779, exchanging gifts, including an ʻahuʻula (feathered cloak) and mahiole (ceremonial feather helmet.) Cook also received pieces of kapa, feathers, hogs and vegetables.

In return, Cook gave Kalaniʻōpuʻu a linen shirt and a sword; later on, Cook gave other presents to Kalaniʻōpuʻu, among which one of the journals mentions “a complete Tool Chest.”

The natives were permitted to watch the ships’ blacksmiths at work and from their observations gained information of practical value about the working of iron. (Kuykendall)

Shortly thereafter, Cook got under sail again to resume his exploration of the Northern Pacific. “At midnight, a gale of wind came on, which obliged us to double reef the topsails, and get down the top-gallant yards.”

“On the 8^th [of February 1779] at day-break, we found, that the foremast had again given way … and the parts so very defective, as to make it absolutely necessary to replace them, and, of course, to [remove] the mast.”

“In this difficulty, Captain Cook was for some time in doubt, whether he should run the chance of meeting with a harbour in the islands to leeward, or return to Karakakooa [Kealakekua.]”

“In the forenoon, the weather was more moderate, and a few canoes came off to us, from which we learnt, that the late storms had done much mischief; and that several large canoes had been lost.”

“During the remainder of the day we kept beating to windward, and, before night, we were within a mile of the bay; but not choosing to run on, while it was dark, we stood off and on till day-light next morning, when we dropt anchor nearly in the same place as before.”

“Upon coming to anchor, we were surprised to find our reception very different from what it had been on our first arrival ; no shouts, no bustle, no confusion …”

“… but a solitary bay, with only here and there a canoe stealing close along the shore. The impulse of curiosity, which had before operated to so great a degree, might now indeed be supposed to have ceased …”

“… but the hospitable treatment we had invariably met with, and the friendly footing on which we parted, gave us some reason to expect, that they would again have flocked about us with great joy, on our return.”

“… there was something at this time very suspicious in the behaviour of the natives; and that the interdiction of all intercourse with us, on pretence of the king’s absence, was only to give him time to consult with his chiefs in what manner it might be proper to treat us.”

“For though it is not improbable that our sudden return, for which they could see no apparent cause, and the necessity of which we afterward found it very difficult to make them comprehend, might occasion some alarm”.

“[T]he next morning, [Kalaniopuʻu] came immediately to visit Captain Cook, and the consequent return of the natives to their former, friendly intercourse with us, are strong proofs that they neither meant nor apprehended any change of conduct.”

However, “Soon after our return to the tents, we were alarmed by a continued fire of muskets from the Discovery, which we observed to be directed at a canoe, that we saw paddling toward the shore in great haste, pursued by one of our small boats.”

That night a skiff from the Discovery had been stolen. “It was between seven and eight o’clock when we quitted the ship together; Captain Cook in the pinnace, having Mr Phillips and nine marines with him; and myself in the small boat.”

“Though the enterprise which had carried Captain Cook on shore had now failed, and was abandoned, yet his person did not appear to have been in the least of danger, till an accident happened, which gave a fatal turn to the affair.”

“The boats which had been stationed across the bay, having fired at some canoes that were attempting to get out, unfortunately had killed a chief of first rank.”

“One of the natives, having in his hands a stone, and a long iron spike (which they call a pahooa), came up to the Captain, flourishing his weapon, by way of defiance, and threatening to throw the stone. The Captain desired him to desist ; but the man persisting in his insolence, he was at length provoked to fire a load of small-shot. “

“Our unfortunate Commander, the last time he was seen distinctly, was standing at the water’s edge, and calling out to the boats to cease firing, and to pull in.”

“If it be true, as some of those who were present have imagined, that the marines and boat-men had fired without his orders, and that he was desireous of preventing further bloodshed, it is not improbable that his humanity, on this occasion, proved fatal to him.”

“For it was remarked, that whilst he faced the natives, none of them had offered him any violence, but that having turned about to give his orders to the boats, he was stabbed in the back, and fell with his face in the water.” On February 14, 1779, Cook was killed.

Captain Charles Clerke took over the expedition and they left. (The quotes are from ‘The Voyages of Captain James Cook,’ recorded by Lieutenant James King (who, following these events was appointed to command HMS Discovery.))

March 24, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Who Came Next?

Significant advances in radiocarbon dating and the targeted re-dating of key Eastern Polynesian and Hawaiian sites has strongly supported and suggested that initial Polynesian discovery and colonization of the Hawaiian Islands occurred between approximately AD 1000 and 1200. (Kirch)

Who came next – the English, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish …?

English

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 and made ‘Contact’ with what Cook named the Sandwich Islands (that were later named the Hawaiian Islands.)

But, was Cook the first foreigner to find Hawaiʻi? Some suggest that Cook’s references to the Hawaiian interest in iron, and some of the iron implements noted by Cook’s crew at the time of his Contact suggest contact prior to the Englishmen Cook and his crew.

Since some of the terms for ‘iron’ also are applied to ‘foreigners,’ the indications are that the various Polynesians learned of iron, either directly through foreigners, or by means of wreckage from foreign ships. The early Polynesians were not iron producers, because, valuing the metal as they did, they apparently were unable to obtain it by smelting. (Stokes)

Japanese

There is reference to Japanese contact well before Cook’s time. Kalākaua’s ‘The Legends and Myths of Hawaii’ titled ‘Iron Knife’. It speaks of early Japanese visitors to the Islands and the Japanese captain’s sword – the time frame is about the 1300s.

“It was late in the afternoon that word had been brought to Wakalana that a strange vessel was approaching the coast. As it was high out of water and drifting broadside before the wind, it appeared to be of great size”.

“The name of the captain was Kaluiki-a-Manu; the four others were called Neleike, Malaea, Haakoa and Hika – all names of Hawaiian construction. Two of them – Neleike and Malaea – were women, the former being the sister of the captain.”

Wakalana “was charmed with the bright eyes and fair face of Neleike, the sister of the captain. He found a pleasure that was new to him in teaching her to speak his language, and almost the first use she made of [this] was to say ‘yes’ with it when he asked her to become his wife.”

“Neleike became the progenitor of a family which for generations showed the marks of her blood, and that the descendants of the others were plentiful thereafter, not only on Maui but in the neighborhood of Waimalo, on the island of Oahu.”

“The object of the rescued Japanese which attracted most attention was the sword accidentally preserved by the captain. No such terrible knife had ever before been seen or dreamed of by the natives…. The sword of Kaluiki, the ransom of a king, remained for some generations with the descendants of Kukona; but what became of it in the end tradition fails to tell.” (Kalākaua)

Japanese Junks

Japanese junks have been blown to sea, and finally stranded with their occupants upon distant islands, and have reached even the continent of America, in the 46th degree of north latitude. (Jarves)

“[M]ention is made of several Japanese vessels reported in some of the Spanish-American ports on the Pacific. In 1617 a Japanese junk belonging to Magomé, was at Acapulco.” (Brooks)

“According to the traditions of the islands, several such junks had been wrecked upon Hawaii, before the islands were discovered by Captain Cook.” (Brooks)

Hawai‘i had its share of Japanese contact, directedly in the Islands, as well as by sailors at sea. Beachcombing finds of Japanese glass balls (fishing floats,) as well as marine debris from the 2011 Japan tsunami, suggest the possibility of earlier Japan contact with the Islands (especially in the context that a Japanese fishing boat and its survivors landed in the Islands in 1832.)

Chinese

“Every junk found adrift or stranded on the coast of North America, or on the Hawaiian or adjacent islands, has on examination proved to be Japanese, and no single instance of any Chinese vessel has ever been reported, nor is any believed to have existed.” (Brooks)

Spanish

Back to the ‘iron’ reference … the first written Hawaiian word 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)

“There are many ways by which such people may get pieces of iron, or acquire the knowledge of the existence of such a metal, without ever having had an immediate connection with nations that use it.”

“It can hardly be doubted that it was unknown to all the inhabitants of this sea, before Magellan led the way into it; for no discoverer, immediately after his voyage, ever found any of this metal in their possession …”

“… though, in the course of our late voyages it has been observed, that the use of it was known at several islands, to which no former European ships had ever, as far as we know, found their way.” (Cook)

Spanish Galleons (1565 -1815 AD)

We know the Spanish crossed the Pacific, between the Philippines and Acapulco for 250-years. The term Manila Galleons is used to refer to the trade route between Acapulco and Manila, which lasted from 1565 to 1815. (Alchetron)

The Manila Galleons made round-trip voyages once or twice per year across the Pacific Ocean from the port of Acapulco (present-day Mexico) to Manila in the Philippines which were both part of New Spain.

Kulou (‘to bow down’) (1527 AD)

“Hernando Cortez, immediately after his conquest of Mexico, fitted out an expedition on the western coast to reinforce his countrymen … [they] sailed from Zacatula, Mexico, Oct. 31, 1527.” (Alexander) Two of his ships were lost during a storm [one is said to have landed in Hawai‘i]. (Univ of Wellington)

“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)

“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 … a vessel, called by the natives Konaliloha, arrived at Pale, Keei, on the south side of Kealakeakua bay, Hawaii.”

“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)

Gaetano and Mapping of the Islas de Mesa (1555 AD)

“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 proofs of the discovery of the Hawaiian Islands by the Spaniard, Juan Gaetano. This is the first known record of the islands among the civilised nations.” (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)

“(H)e called them “Islas de Mesa” (Table Islands.) There are besides, other islands, situated in the same latitude, but 10° further east, and respectively named “La Mesa” (the table), “La Desgraciado” (the unfortunate), “Olloa,” and “Los Monges” (the Monks.)”

Gaetano passed through the northern part of the Pacific and discovered large islands which he marked upon a chart as “Los Majos.” One of the islands was named “The Unfortunate.” Three other smaller islands were called “The Monks.” (Westervelt 1923)

In 1743, English captain George Anson set sail for the Pacific to attack Spanish galleons (English and Spain were at war at the time.) Overcoming the ‘Nuestra Senora de Covadonga,’ he found a “chart of all the ocean between the Philippines and the coasts of Mexico.”

A cluster of islands were noted in mid-ocean; the island La Mesa is on the same latitude of the Island of Hawaiʻi and its southern contour resembles the southern coastline of Hawaiʻi; however, they are noted east of their actual location. (Kane)

How could the Islands be mis-mapped to the east? … Until 1744 and the development of the chronometer, determining longitude was an historic problem for navigators. Longitude (East-West) was estimated by distances a ship covered within various periods of time, estimated by the ship’s speed during each period. (Kane)

Ship speed was measured with a block of wood attached to a line with knots tied at intervals. The ‘log’ was cast from the sterns and the number of ‘knots’ run out during a certain time interval enabled the navigator to calculate his speed. However, this method doesn’t address the west-bound ocean current that would effectively place a position east of its true position. (Kane)

For more information on this, click the link:

Click to access Who-Came-Next.pdf

March 16, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Tree of Life

“If a man plant ten breadfruit trees in his life, which he can do in about an hour, he would completely fulfil his duty to his own as well as future generations.” (Joseph Banks, 1769)

Banks had been on the Endeavour with Captain Cook on his first voyage to the South Pacific in 1768-1771. William Bligh was part of the Cook’s crew on its third voyage when it made contact with Hawaiʻi in 1778.

Bligh later captained the Bounty on a voyage to gather breadfruit trees from Tahiti and take them to Jamaica in the Caribbean. There, the trees would be planted to provide food for slaves.

Bligh didn’t make it back on the Bounty, his crew mutinied (April 28, 1789;) one reason for the mutiny was that the crew believed Bligh cared more about the breadfruit than them (he cut water rationing to the crew in favor of providing water for the breadfruit plants.) Bligh’s tombstone, in part, reads he was the “first (who) transplanted the bread fruit tree.”

For thousands of years, Ulu (Breadfruit) was a staple food in Oceania. It is believed to have originated in New Guinea and the Indo-Malay region and was spread throughout the vast Pacific by voyaging islanders.

According to a legend, the chief Kahai brought the breadfruit tree to Hawaiʻi from Samoa in the twelfth century and first planted it at Kualoa, Oʻahu. Only one variety was known in Hawaiʻi, while more than 24 were distinguished by native names in the South Seas. (CTAHR)

It was a canoe crop – one of around 30 plants brought to the Hawaiian Islands by the Polynesians when they first arrived in Hawaiʻi.

“This tree, whose fruit is so useful, if not necessary, to the inhabitants of most of the islands of the South Seas, has been chiefly celebrated as a production of the Sandwich Islands; it is not confined to these alone, but is also found in all the countries bordering on the Pacific Ocean.” (Book of Trees, 1837)

Known as ‘Ulu’ in Hawaiʻi and Samoa, ‘Uru’ is the Tahitian word for the tree, ‘Kuru’ in the Cook Islands, and ‘Mei’ in the Marquesas, Tonga and Gambier Islands, scientifically, it’s known as Artocarpus altilis.

William Dampier, claims credit for giving the fruit its English name, breadfruit. His description of it, from his 1688 Voyage Round the World, notes:

“The Bread-fruit (as we call it) grows on a large Tree, as big and high as our largest Apple trees. It hath a spreading head full of branches, and dark leaves. …”

“When the fruit is ripe it is yellow and soft; and the taste is sweet and pleasant. The Natives of this Island use it for bread: they gather it when full grown, while it is green and hard; then they bake it in an Oven, which scorcheth the rind and makes it black:”

“but they scrape off the outside black crust, and there remains a tender thin crust, and the inside is soft, tender and white like the crumb of a Penny Loaf.”

“There is neither seed nor stone in the inside, but it is all of a pure substance like Bread; it must be eaten new; for if its kept above 24 hours, it becomes dry, and eats harsh and choaky; but ’tis very pleasant before it is too stale. The fruit lasts in season 8 months in the year, during which time the Natives eat no other sort of food of Bread kind.” (Smith)

The breadfruit is multipurpose, it may be eaten ripe as a fruit or under-ripe as a vegetable – it is roasted, baked, boiled, fried, pickled, fermented, frozen, mashed into a puree, and dried and ground into meal or flour.

The Breadfruit Institute at the National Tropical Botanical Garden, Hawai‘i, is engaged in a Global Hunger Initiative to expand plantings of good quality breadfruit varieties in tropical regions.

Click here for a link to the NTBG Breadfruit Institute.

More than 80% of the world’s hungry live in tropical and subtropical regions – this is where breadfruit thrives. The trees require little attention or care, producing an abundance of fruit with minimal inputs of labor or materials.

Trees begin to bear fruit in three to five years, producing for many decades. Crop yields are superior to other starchy staples. An average-sized tree will readily produce 100-200 fruit per year.

The Breadfruit Institute manages the world’s largest collection of breadfruit, conserving over 120 varieties. The Institute has developed effective methods to propagate and distribute millions of plants of productive nutrient-rich varieties.

This initiative aims to disseminate breadfruit plants to alleviate hunger and support sustainable agriculture, agroforestry and reforestation in the tropics.

The same can hold true, here at home.

Centuries ago, the Hawaiians recognized breadfruit’s benefit and brought it with them to Hawaiʻi – we can learn from that.