CHAPTEK IX. 



Traditions as to the Visits of Europeans to Hawaii: 

 Supposed Traces of their Influence there. 



ur researclies in the history of navigation in the Pacific Ocean for more than two 

 centuries ha ve been of no avail: no hint whatsoever of any discovery of the Hawaiian 

 Islands by the Spaniards has been found there. It remains to try to follow the traces 

 of such a discovery that various writers have believed themselves to have found on these 

 islands themselves. 



We have briefly mentioned above (p. 17) that certain traditions current on the 

 islands have been supposed to show that Europeans had been there at some time or other. 

 The possibility of such an occurrence cannot be altogether disputed. The above chrono- 

 logical account shows that various galleons were löst without leaving any trace of their fäte. 

 Such was the case in 1574 with a ship whose nanie we do not know. Other total losses 

 that are recorded are the "San Juanillo" 1578, the "San Juan" 1586, the "San Antonio" 

 1604, the "Santo Cristo de Burgos" 1693, and the "San Francisco Xavier" 1705. It is 

 not incredible that one of these ships, or some other ship of which we have no knowledge, 

 stranded on some rock or reef belonging to the Hawaiian group, and that the shipwrecked 

 men succeeded in reaching the inhabited islands in boats. 



As has been previously said, it was the missionary William Ellis who first noted 

 down and published some of the traditions with which we are now concerned. He arrived 

 at the islands in March 1822, and tells us that, after a period of two months,he "was enabled 

 to converse with facility and preach to the people in their own language". The explanation 

 of this lies in the close relationship between this language and that which is spöken on 

 Tahiti, with which last Ellis, after a stay of six years on the island, was fully familiar. 

 From July to September 1823, Ellis made a tour round the island of Hawaii, 1 which 

 ended at Kairua on the west coast of the island. In the course of conversations with the 

 "Governor" of Hawaii, Kuakini — who was resident there and who was called by the 

 Europeans John Adams — - and with other natives, Ellis learnt the following: 2 — 



1 Narrative of a Tour througli Haivaii. 2d ed. Lond. 1827. 



2 Op. ät., p. 446. 



