240 Pomander Collection of Hawaiian folk-lore. 



other's claims and ])rctentions with jealous care and asserting their own with the fullest 

 freedom. 



Of the almost incredihle tenacity and faithfulness with which these traditions were 

 preser\'ed and handed down, ahundant proofs exist in the uncorrupted exactness with 

 \\hich they are repeated even at this late day, when collected and written down as de- 

 livered by the old i)eo])le in various parts of the islands. I have two independent sets 

 of the praver and chant of "Kapaahulani" ("He Elele kii na Maui"), recounting the ge- 

 nealogy and exploits of Kualii, a famous King of Oahu, — one collected on Hawaii, the 

 other on Oahu — and yet — though it is perhaps the longest poem in the Hawaiian language, 

 ha\ing six hundred and eighteen lines — the two versions do not differ to a word; so ten- 

 acious was the memory, so faithful the preservation of the original composition. I have 

 also a double version of the remarkable chant or prophecy of Kaulumoku ("O Haui ka 

 lani etc.") regarding Kamehameha I, composed years before the conquest of the islands 

 by the latter, and containing five hundred and twenty-seven lines; one version collected on 

 Maui, the other on Hawaii, and the only difference between the two is the omission of one 

 line in the Hawaii version. Though parts of the first poem are evidently of older date 

 than the others, yet the poem as a whole can not well, from merely genealogical con- 

 sideration, be less than two hundred years old. The latter poem was evidently composed 

 before the year 1786, the a])proximate date of the author's death, while Kamehameha I 

 was still ruling over only one third of Hawaii and struggling with no marked success 

 against the combined forces of Keawemauhili and Keoua. And thus with many other 

 meles and chants of much older date, bearing record of contemporary events and of the 

 past reminiscences of this people. 



It is historicallv on record that a Spanish vessel under Ca])t. Gaetano, sailing from 

 Acapulco to Manila, did about the year 1542 discover certain islands in the North Paci- 

 fic, corresponding in latitude to the position of the Hawaiian Islands, though over ten de- 

 grees too far east in longitude; and that one of them, thought to be Hawaii, was called 

 La Mesa by the Spaniards. But that record, and no subsequent or preceding record 

 yet known in the Spanish archives, make any mention that these islands were ever visited 

 by the Spanish navigators.^ Here the native tradition comes to our aid ; and that tradi- 

 tion is clear and positive and was well known before the arrival of Captain Cook, and is 

 in substance this, that, in the time of Keliiokaloa, the son of Umi-a-Liloa, a vessel was 

 cast away on the southwestern coast of Hawaii and three persons were saved from the 

 wreck, viz : two men and one woman, who were kindly received and remained the balance 

 of their lives in the country, marrying and having children with the aborigines. The 

 first question which arises is, when did Keliiokaloa live? We know from numerous na- 

 tive genealogies, original on different islands, attached to dift'erent dynasties and fam- 

 ilies, crossing and confirming each other, that Keliiokaloa was the eighth generation pre- 

 vious to the birth of Kamehameha I. Now Kamehameha I died in May, 1819, and 

 was at his death about eighty years old, making the time of l)irth approximate to the year 

 1740, perhaps one or two vears earlier. Deducting the generation of which Keliiokaloa 



'La Perouse is strongly of opinion tliat the Spaniards had visited the Islands, rested more or less time; and 

 introduced venereal diseases. 



