KUNGL. SV. VET. AKADEMIENS HANDLINGAR. BAND 57. NIO 4. 213 



The traditions of the Hawaiians as to visits paid to the islands by foreigners are 

 obscure and ambiguous in themselves; and moreover they were written down at so late 

 a period that it is impossible to deterrnine to what extent they were affected by notions 

 which came in låter with the Europeans: in any case, they supply no certain evidence that 

 these foreigners were white men. 



The traces of European influence which various writers have believed that they 

 could find in the appearance, language, dress, and customs of the natives are due to loose 

 hypotheses without any scientific value. The occurrence of iron on the islands at Cook's 

 arrival can readily be explained without the supposition that European vessels were 

 wrecked there. 



The evidences in f avour of the Spanish discovery that had been drawn from a number 

 of earlier maps, and especially from the Anson chart, are untenable for the following 

 reasons: — 



The group of islands on these maps which has been identified with the Hawaiian 

 Archipelago originally denotes the Volcano or Bonin Islands discovered by Bernardo de 

 la Torre in 1543; and the names Los Monges, La Vecina, and La Desgraciada, which were 

 transferred to these islands, derive from the northernmost Ladrones discovered by Gonzalo 

 Gomez de Espinosa in 1522. 



The coincidence in latitude between the Los Monges group and the Hawaiian Islands 

 is thus explained; as regards the longitude of the first-named group it is due to a series 

 of removals which, in their main features, can be followed on the printed and manuscript 

 maps from the close of the sixteenth century. 



In particular, we can satisfactorily explain by this means the position and distance 

 of the islands in relation to the mainlancl of America. 



The name La Mesa, which in the meaning of "table" or "plateau" has been regarded 

 as pointing to Hawaii on very disputable grounds, is one of the numerous clerical errors 

 that occur on the Anson chart, while the correct form, according to the authentic sources, 

 is La Mira, a name which can likewise be traced back to a discovery by Bernardo de la 

 Torre. 



For all these reasons I hold that the question which has been put as the title to 

 this essay must be answered in the negative: — 



No historical fact proves, nor is there any sort of probability, that the Hawaiian 

 Islands were ever visited, or even seen, by the Spaniards before their discovery by Captain 

 Cook in 1778. 



