1891-92]. ELEVENTH MEETING. 15 
logy held in Montpelier, and published in La Revue des Langues Romanes 
with a note by Dr. Bourinot on French Canadian Biography. 
Mr. Henry Spencer Howell read a paper on “ The Volcano of Kilauea 
and the Hawaiian Islands.” 
The Hawaiian Islands are situated in the North Pacific ocean, lying 
between the 18th and 23rd parallels of north latitude, and from 155° to 
161° west longitude ; and are, therefore, just within the tropics. There 
are eight principal islands, Hawaii, with an area of 4,210 square miles ; 
Maui, 760; Oahu, 600; Kauai, 590; Molokai, 270; Lanai, 150; Niihau, 
97 ; and Kahoolawe, 63. The last named is uninhabited ; and there are 
four small islets, one of which (Molokini) is an extinct volcano with one 
side of the crater open to the sea—showing either subsidence or denuda- 
tion. No finer climate can be found in any part of the world; it is as 
salubrious as that of Madeira, and its evenness is the delight of those who 
come here for pleasure or to benefit health. The tropical heat is so tem- 
pered by the sea breezes—the soft trade winds of the north—that the 
greatest degree of heat at Honolulu during the past twelve years was 90° 
in the shade, while the lowest was 54°; the average being 75°. The daily 
range of the thermometer is 12°. Of course it is hot in the sun at noon ; 
but the mornings and the evenings are delightful. Sugar is the chief pro- 
duct ; and rice, tobacco, coffee, bananas, and pineapples are grown in great 
quantities ; all sorts of citrous fruits abound, and the cocoa palm grows 
to perfection. Most people are under the impression that these islands 
were discovered by Captain Cook, and many books chronicle the error— 
for an error it is ; they were discovered by Gaetano, an early Spanish 
navigator, in the year 1542, and the chart drawn by Mendana in 1567 
gives a very nearly accurate position of the group—absolutely correct in 
regard to Kauai. There is a tradition among the natives that two vessels 
from Spain were wrecked on the large island about 1527, in the reign of 
Kealiiokaloa, a king of Hawaii. Captain Cook, on his second visit, 
landed at Kealakekua Bay: on his former visit Cook was looked upon as 
a god—the long-lost “Lono” of the Hawaiian Trinity—and he was 
treated with the greatest respect ; the natives say that he allowed himself 
to be worshipped, and accepted sacrifices as a deity ; but in their last 
visit, February, 1779, the Englishmen seem to have acted like pirates, for 
they over-ran the heiaus (sacred temples), broke the tabus (religious laws), 
demanded the best of everything in the way of fresh meat and fruits, and 
the sailors of the Resolution and Discovery took the greatest liberties 
with the natives. Then began a series of petty quarrels between the 
ships’ officers and the chiefs, ending in the death of several native chiefs 
and the luckless circumnavigator, whose name is revered in England and 
