212 DAHLGREN, THE D1SC0VERY OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 



had been placed just north of that region, and that the island of La Mesa, if it existed, 

 should fall within its limits; and accordingly that it had been passed by those who had 

 sought in vain for those mysterious islands, especially La Pérouse and Vancouver; and 

 that the tracks of Camille de Roquefeuil, 1818, and of H. M. S. "Blonde", Captain Lord 

 Byron, 1825, fall within the assigned limits of the region. This diminishes still further 

 the probability of finding here any land previously unknown, even if one wanted to find 

 evidence of such in recent reported reefs in that vicinity, 1 or in newspaper reports that 

 in 1905, south-west of the Re villa Gigedo Islands, there were encountered great masses 

 of drifting trunks, dead bodies of animals etc., which were supposed to proceed from 

 some violent volcanic eruption in these regions. 2 



For our principal subject these features of the recent history of the Pacific Ocean 

 seem to be of interest because they show how uncertain, even down to our own days, 

 discoveries have been in that part of the world, and how it is only through following the 

 supposed discoveries back to their original sources and by a critical examination of these 

 sources, that we can find the solution of problems which, if wrenched from their context, 

 assume a false air of probability. 



If we summarize the contents of the preceding investigation, we can propound the 

 following facts as the main results. 



No land that can be identified with the Hawaiian Islands is mentioned in any 

 narrative of exploring expeditions in the Pacific Ocean in earlier times, nor in any notice 

 of the voyages of the Spanish galleons between the Philippines and Mexico. 



The allegations that those islands were discovered by Alvaro de Saavedra 1527, 

 Diego Hurtado de Mendoza 1532, Juan Gaytan 1542 or 1555, Alvaro de Mendaiia 1568, 

 Francisco Gali 1584, are demonstrably incorrect. 



The surmises that a Spanish discovery took place at a låter time rest on too flimsy 

 a foundation to deserve notice. 



The legends of the Gold and Silver Islands or other fabulous islands have no 

 connection whatever with real discoveries, nor did the search for these islands lead to any 

 knowledge of Hawaii. 



Inasmuch as the Hawaiian Islands are not mentioned in the sailing directions and 

 other writings from the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, among the 

 authors of which may be named Andres de Urdaneta, Jan Huyghen van Linschoten, 

 Antonio Herrera, Antonio de Morga, and Cabrera Bueno, this forms a positive proof that 

 the islands were unknown to the most eminent of those who were acquainted with the 

 North Pacific during that period. 



1 Captain Maurice Rose, of the French bark "Michelet", reported that on January 18, 1907, when in 

 lat. N. 22° 19', long. W. 131° 6', off the Mexican coast, lie passed within 200 yards of a reef över which 

 the sea was breaking for an extent of about 15 yards. "This new report is one more call from far midocean 

 for renewed search and thorough survey of this unexplored region". James D. Hague, A Recent Report from 

 the "Doubtful Island Region" (National Geogr. Mag XVIII, 1907, pp. 205—208). 



9 Geographen-Kalender hrsg. von H. Haack. Jahrg. III (1905/06), pp. 55 — 56. 



