CHAPTER XII. 



HAWAII, OR SANDWICH ISLANDS. 



HE Hawaiian group, better known by the name of Sandwich, given 

 to it by Cook in 1778, forms the limit of the oceanic lands in the 

 north-east Pacific. It forms a chain of islands, reefs, and banks 

 running nearly 2,000 miles in the direction from north-west to 

 south-east, parallel with the South Polynesian archipelagoes. 

 Hawaii is limited northwards by chasms ranging from 1,000 to 2,000 fathoms, 

 and on the south side by abysmal depths exceeding 2,750 fathoms. It occupies a 

 position of vital importance, being the most advanced region of the oceanic world 

 in the direction of the United States. Yet its Polynesian inhabitants, who con- 

 tinue to diminish in numbers, have not yet been replaced by fresh immigrants, and 

 the whole archipelago, with nearly 7,000 square miles of dry land, has a population 

 of little over 80,000 souls. 



Sighted by the early Spanish navigators, Hawaii appears to have been subse- 

 quently visited by passing European seafarers, and thirty seven years before the 

 arrival of Cook a Spanish vessel was wrecked on one of the islands. But the 

 honour of having revealed the archipelago to the world still belongs to Cook, who 

 twice visited it in 1778, on the first occasion discovering the three western islands 

 of Niihau, Kauai, and Oahu, on the second perishing at the hands of the natives of 

 Maui under circumstances that have not yet been satisfactorily explained. After 

 Cook's voyage Hawaii was visited by Laperouse and Vancouver, and in 1794 Brown 

 surveyed the port of Honolulu, which has since become the commercial centre of 

 the group. Missionaries, naturalists, and traders gradually settled in the islands, 

 and the work of exploration was even prosecuted by the natives themselves. At 

 present Hawaii is by far the best known of all Polynesian lands, and its biblio- 

 graphy comprises thousands of treatises of all kinds. 



A native legend, referring the origin of the archipelago to an enormous egg 

 suddenly bursting in mid-ocean, is probably a reminiscence of old eruptions, 

 during which some lands really rose above the surface. The volcanic range repro- 

 duces in the inverse direction and on a far larger scale the formation of the Samoan 

 group, for here also the loftiest mountains lie at one extremity, the islands thence 

 decreasing in altitude until at the opposite end they are mere reefs rising little 

 above the surrounding waters. The igneous forces diminish in the same direction, 



