January 18 – Cook Spots Hawaii!

nPosted on January 18, 2019

Key Points

nI’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again, when we say something like “so-and-so discovered such-and-such place,” we USUALLY mean something like this: “so-and-so is the first European known to have seen or landed on such-and-such place.”

nI have to remind myself of this misuse of the word discover whenever I read about an intrepid explorer discovering a place WHERE HUMANS ALREADY LIVE! I mean, for sure the ancestors of those humans discovered the place before the explorer did – and maybe even they weren’t the first humans to see / walk in that place!

nAnother less important point: We always name the big-name guy, the fellow who gets all the name recognition, all the credit and/or blame for the “discovery” –

nBut it was probably someone in the big-name guy’s crew, someone whose name is lost to us know, who was the first European to clap eyes one wherever-it-is.

nProbably some poorly paid sailor high in the rigging or up in the crow’s nest, someone who called “Land ho!” or “Mire!” or “La terra, la terra!” or whatever.

nAnyhow, on this date in 1778, British explorer James Cook “discovered” Hawaii – or, rather, someone on James Cook’s crew became the first European to see any of the Hawaiian Islands.

nCook and his crew first anchored in Waimea Bay, on the island of Kauai, but I’m not sure how many islands they saw or which island they spotted first. I do know, however, that Cook named the islands the Sandwich Islands, after the fourth Earl of Sandwich, who was pretty much his boss.

nCook and his crew met with inhabitants to trade, getting water and fresh food for the next leg of their trip.

nMonths later, on his return trip, Cook and his crew explored a bit of Maui and the island of Hawaii (aka “the Big Island”) – but relations with the inhabitants got bad, and Cook and several other British marines ended up dying when they tried to kidnap and hold for ransom the King of Hawaii. Some other crew members died of a variety of other causes (mostly illness), but many of them were able to complete the journey back to Britain and spread the word on the existence and location of the Hawaiian Islands.

nHere are some of the most beautiful things to be seen on Hawaii’s eight main islands (there are hundreds of teeny islands as well):

nMaui: