Show U S possession located 2400 miles from any mainland prepared by national geographic society washington ashington D C servia geography experts have long sought the solution to the As why and the how of the first population of the hawaiian islands located I 1 in the midst of the pacific ocean 2400 miles from any mainland the islands present a puzzling problem in history of worldwide world wide colonization it is practically certain that the first settlers came from tahiti or samoa about A D but why they came exactly how they came whether they sailed out into the blue or follow followed edthe the trail of some legend L JIM M k kamehameha 1 I this stat ue tie ol of the conqueror stands in front of the judiciary building in honolulu the great king kamehameha 1 I died in 1820 about the time of the arrival of the first white missionaries to the islands ary hero no man knows berh perhaps OPs the most plausible explanation is ii that they were driven from home by an invasion of savage people there are legends of several voyages voyage s back and forth from samoa and tahiti about years later and then tor for some unknown reason all communication with the rest of the world seems to have ceased until the discovery of the islands by captain cook in 1778 spoke polynesian language by that time the legends were vague but that they were substantially true Is proved by the language which is polynesian like that of the tahitians Tahiti ans the te samoans Sa moans and the laoris maoris of new zealand and by much of the fauna and gore bora which resemble that of the south pacific islands even though the prevailing winds and currents are from the northeast furthermore the ha worshiped the same principal gods as other polynesians captain cook who landed first on the little island of kauai was treated as a god runners we were sent throughout the group of islands island to tell the wonderful news of his coming they even described the english language langua gi imitating it thus A hika balale balaki 1 it if to us this does not rei resemble emble english we must remember that the hawaiian language contains only IS 12 sounds ds later translated into letters five vowels and seven consonants the runners runners could hardly be eap exp expected acted to invent sounds like the letter ile s A few months later when captain cook returned thi to the island isi I 1 a nd ot of hawaii to explore and trade i his crew behaved outrageously finally a native stole one of the ships coats fighting ensued and the to a navigator lost his bis we life cook was honorably bur i led fed and his bones were deified delfied dei fied near his monument today are some of the oldest and most interesting hawaiian remains things which the navigator undoubtedly saw in 1778 9 the first white missionaries to settle settie in the islands were the annerl americans who arrived in 1820 the great king kamehameha I 1 on an whom these newcomers had counted for sympathy and assistance had lust just died but his successor welcomed them the missionaries most of 0 them from new england were high mind ed self sacrificing and devoted they refrained from exploiting the Hawaii hawaiians Ha ans and guarded them against exploitation by others missionaries were valuable these missionaries were good americans but they made no attempt to bring about annexation Mn ot the islands to the united S states tl ates they did however g give ive the hawal hawaiian government every possible assistance si in preventing seizure of the islands by any other nation had they not been on hand hawaii would have been british or Fre french fich before the middle of the nineteenth century their influence on the american government induced the declaration that the united states would consider it an unfriendly act if the islands were taken over by any other power even in those early days it wa was 8 vaguely realized in washington that for defensive reasons hawaii was important to the united states state S kamehameha I 1 has been called by the grandiloquent name of napoleon of the pacific he certainly was a good a soldier administrator and a man of fine character kamehameha il II a weakling in body and character died young kamehameha III who reigned a long time was an able man who on the whole led his people wisely kamehameha IV and V leftwo par particular albular impression old line dies out after this line died out Luna lilo ahagh a high chief was elected king he died soon after assuming the throne and david kalakaua was elected te an succeed him kalakaua took a trip around the world probably he tasted every wine in every country for he be is reported to have been often in a dazed condition and not always coherent his companion on the trip told the story atory that when the king was driving in nikko with one of the imperial princes after a heavy luncheon he fell asleep ru rudely dely wakened by the cawing of crows he said politely to the prince in japan how sweet Is the singing of the birds Kalakau as magnificent funeral with its dirges its wailing the pone pano HERES YOUR POL A hal ha batian wilon poi maker hero here demonstrated th tho ancient art of han ham dlinn aline one of the native autive foods poin oi made from the root of the taro faro plant and is boiled and beaten into a pulpy muss m 4 it u is eaten aten with the fingers er s ply ily of its fe teather ether cloaks and ka kahili hills really eally marked the end of hawaiian royalty hit his sister lister sue guc ceded him but her reign was waa short mil and stormy in her desire to abolish the tr constitution and make herself absolute shi she was wai a tw few centuries after fter her time the result was her dethronement ethron ement and the establishment of a republic |