KUNGL. SV. VET. AKADEMIENS HANDLINGAR. BAND 57. N:0 4 11 



pitaine King. qu ? aprés en avoir doublé la pointe orientale, on découvrait une montagne appelée Mowna- 

 roa, qu'on apercoit tres long-temps: "elle est, dit-il, aplatie å la cime, et forme ce que les marins 

 appellent un plateau". L'expression anglaise est méme plus significative, car le capitaine King dit 

 table-land. 1 



Here we have, for the first time, laid before us the theory of the Spanish discovery 

 of Hawaii, supported on what are substantially the same grounds as have since been 

 repeated ad nauseam. La Pérouse takes up the question afresh in connection with his 

 account of his experiences during his short intercourse with the inhabitants of the 

 country. On this subject he says: 2 — 



Cette habitude du commerce, cette connaissance du fer qu'ils ne doivent pas aux Anglais, d'a- 

 prés leur aveu, son t de nou velies preuves de la fréquentation que ces peuples ont eue anciennement 

 avec les Espagnols. Cette nation avait, il y a un siécle, de trés-fortes raisons pour ne pas faire con- 

 naitre ces iles, parce que les mers occidentales de l'Amérique étaient infestées de pirates qui auraient 

 trouvé des vivres chez ces insulaires, et qui, au contraire, par la difficulté de s'en procurer, étaient ob- 

 ligés de courir å 1'Ouest vers les mers des Indes, ou de retourner dans la mer Atlantique par le cap 

 Horn. Lorsque la navigation des Espagnols a 1'Occident a été réduite au seul galion de Manilie, je 

 crois que ce vaisseau, qui était extrémement riche, a été contraint par les propriétaires ä faire une 

 route fixe qui diminuåt leurs risques: ainsi, peu-å-peu, cette nation a perdu peut-étre jusqu'au souvenir 

 de ces iles conservées sur la carte générale du troisiéme voyage de Cook, par le lieutenant Roberts, 

 avec leur ancienne position å 15° plus å l'Est que les iles Sandwich; mais leur identité avec ces derniéres 

 me paraissant démontrée, j'ai cru devoir en nettoyer la surface de la mer. 



But this is not enough. La Pérouse thinks that he is able to give the year of the 

 discovery and the name of the Spanish discoverer: "it appears certain, he says, that 

 these islands were discovered for the first time by Gaétan, in 1542". Evidently he has 

 here followed the hint given in the above-cited note to his Instructions; but the reasons 

 he alleges for his view we wish to pass över here, as we intend to return to the subject 

 låter. 



The last news of La Pérouse was dated from Botany Bay in Australia in February 

 1788. Under the influence of the increasing anxiety as to his fäte, the National Assembly 

 resolved, 9 February 1791, to send out an expedition to search for him, and shortly 

 afterwards, 22 April 1791, that the journals he had sent home should be published. 

 The motion to this effect had been brought forward by C. P. Claret de Fleuriett, the 

 same man who had composed the instructions for La Pérouse and who, both by these in- 

 structions and by other works, had made himself a name as a distinguished student of 

 the history of geography and discovery. According to the original plan he was also 

 designed to edit La Pérouse's journals; but as he was prevented from doing this, the task 

 was handed över to L. A. Milet-Mureau, who was not able to produce the finished work 

 until 1797. 



The year afterwards, 1798, however, Fleurieu appeared as the editor of the work 

 of another French traveller, Étienne Marchand, who had made a voyage round the 



1 James King, who låter took över the command of one of Cook's vessels, continued, after Cook's death, 

 the story of the expedition. The expression cited by La Pérouse is to be found in A Voyage to the Pacific 

 Ocean, Vol. III, p. 103. We shall have occasion to return to it låter. 



2 Voyage de La Pérouse, T. II. p. 116. 



