Trti 



INTRODUCTION. 



So long as the English tongue is spoken by Britons, and so long as they hold in 

 honour the deeds by which the maritime glory of this country was established, so long 

 will the name of the Sandwich Islands, almost the last discovery of the great English 

 navigator, remain a household word. The story of the death of Captain James Cook — 

 the discoverer whose character secured for him during a fierce war immunity from the 

 " ancient enemy " of England — has been for more than a century part of the history of 

 this country, and thousands of English boys and girls have heard with the deepest 

 emotion how that great chief was stricken down in a miserable quarrel on the shore of 

 the " Island of Owhyhee " — one of the group which he had sighted but little more than 

 a twelvemonth before, and appropriately named after the English statesman to whose 

 influence and encouragement the undertaking of this last and fatal voyage was due. 

 For many years past this name has been set aside by their inhabitants, and the 

 designation of the " Hawaiian Islands " has been substituted ; but that bestowed by 

 Cook — the Sandwich Islands — can never be erased from English memories. 



The group lies in the North Pacific, extending approximately from the 155th to 

 the 161st degree of W. longitude and from the 19th to the 23rd degree of N. latitude, 

 and the several islands, reckoning from the north-west, are Niihau (Oneehow), Kauai 

 (Atooi), Oahu, Molokai, Lanai, Maui, Kahoolawe, and Hawaii. The last-named is 

 divided into eight districts, namely, North Kohala, South Kohala, Hamakua, North 

 Kona, South Kona, Hilo, Kau, and Puna ; Oahu contains five — Honolulu, Ewa (with 

 Waianao), Waialua, Koolauloa, and Koolaupoko ; Maui four — Lahaina, Wailuku, 

 Hana, and Makawao ; Kauai four — Waimea, Lihue and Koloa, Kawaihau, and Hanalei. 

 With the exception of Kahoolawe, which is almost entirely fiat, all of the above are 

 more or less mountainous, though in parts at least of every member of the group 

 stretches of level beach lie around the elevated central area. Lehua, Kaula, and 

 Molokini are adjacent rocky islets, bare and uninteresting, while there are a few 

 others that are still smaller. On the east of Hawaii the cliffs attain a height of some 

 1600 feet, on the north-east of Oahu they rise to about 2000, while in some parts of 

 Windward Molokai they are said to be as much as 4000, and descend as sheer 

 precipices to the ocean. 



The mountains were in olden times densely clothed with tropical vegetation and 

 trees of various kinds, and such is still the case to a considerable extent in most of the 



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