Captain Cook Monument

In January, 1778, two ships under British navigator Captain James Cook sighted the northwest coast of O'ahu, then cruised from Maha'ulepu to Waimea Bay on Kaua'i and anchored there the next day. Because the crew was acquainted with the Tahitian language, they were able to converse with the native people. They spent two weeks on Kaua'i and one week on Ni'ihau provisioning their ships for a journey north. The British explorers were amazed to find the Polynesian race on these remote islands thousands of miles from any other inhabited land, and to them it was obvious that Polynesians were masters of long-distance ocean travel. Cook's Pacific voyages were remarkable for carrying scientists, artists, and cultural observers, and the lands encountered were described and documented as few had been before. Each isolated culture discovered by the Western world changed drastically almost overnight. At the time of Cook's landfall, Hawaiian civilization was complex and highly stratified, with the land heavily cultivated. The king of Kaua'i, surrounded by his high chiefs, made his capital at Wailua but spent winters in the mild, dry climate of Waimea. Cook's crew introduced Western trade goods such as beads, iron, ceramics, mirrors, firearms, and cloth, while fleas and foreign disease remained behind and the ships took away pigs, water, taro, sweet potatoes, yams, and coconuts. Within five years, the world knew of this new port. Cook's journals became best sellers in Europe, advertising the existence of Hawai'i and Waimea as a suitable port of call. In seeking a Northwest Passage, his ships instead revealed the natural resources of the North American West Coast, leading to abundant trade throughout the North Pacific region with Hawai'i becoming a major business hub. After the initial visit to Waimea, he continued the quest for the northwest passage, returned to Hawaii in 1779, and was eventually killed during a conflict with islanders at Kealakekua Bay on the Big Island of Hawai'i.

Kekaha, Hawaii · United States