6 DAHLGREN, THE DISCOVERY OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 



times, lie says, no better than NW. He liad been specially ordered not to lose time 

 during this part of the voyage by seeking for new lands; and accordingly lieonlycame 

 across the little uninhabited Christinas Island before, on 18 January 1778, hesighted 

 some islands: these were the westernmost islands of the Hawaiian Archipelago. They 

 landed on Kauai and Niihau. Of the greater eastern islands they sighted only Oahu; 

 the question whether still more existed, of which the natives seemed to have knowledge, 

 had to be left unsettled on this first visit; and the confirmation of this intelligence was 

 left for future investigations. 



After this account of Cook's discovery, we wish to pass to the examination of the 

 question how the priority of this discovery came to be disputed and to investigate the 

 validity of the arguments which have been adduced. 



On the map of the world which accompanies the history of Cook's voyage we find, 

 on the same degree of latitude as Hawaii but about 20° of longitude east thereof, a group 

 of four islands of which the two westernmost are called Los Majos, the furthest to the 

 south-east La Maso. The draughtsman, Lieutenant Henry Roberts, has given a detailed 

 description of the sources of this map. 1 He says that, after leaving England, Captain 

 Cook commissioned him to draw up a map of the world on the basis of the best mate- 

 rial that was available for this purpose; and that this commission was, for the most part, 

 accomplished before the Captain's death, so that a draft was ready, in which only those 

 parts were left vacant which they hoped to investigate in the course of the voyage. When 

 the map was about to be published after the return home, however, it was found necessary 

 to re-examine and amplify it in accordance with the latest and best authorities. Roberts 

 gives a detailed account of these authorities, and then adds that "every other part of the 

 chart, not mentioned in this account, is as originally placed by Captain Cook". As the 

 above-named group of islands, and a number of other islands in the adjacent parts of the 

 ocean, are not mentioned as the objects of re-investigation after the arrival home, we 

 may fairly assume that they were inserted in the map by Cook himself or, with his know- 

 ledge, by Roberts. Cook, therefore, probably had no doubt of their existence; but, for 

 reasons which have been previously adduced, he quite certainly had no suspicions that 

 they might possibly be regarded as identical with the Hawaiian group discovered by 

 himself. 



The nearest source from which the existence of these islands had been derived, 

 however, is not difficult to find: it is a chart of the northern part of the Pacific Ocean 

 which Lord Anson found on the Spanish galleon which he captured on 30 June 1743 in 

 the neighbourhood of the Philippines. 



We shall further on submit this chart to a closer examination: suffice it to observe 

 here, that the group of islands in question exhibits in this chart a number of details which 

 are not reproduced in Roberts' map, that instead of Los Majos we find Los Mojas and 



1 A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, Vol. I, Introd. pp. lxxix — lxxxij. 



