The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1869-10-02
uawniInn BIbItorraphy.

One OF the most interesting works that have
lately appeared, relating to these Islands, is the
a. BIsLIocRAPHY OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS" COM
piled and published by JAMES F. HuNNEwELL.
Esq. of Charlestown, Mass, for a copy of which
we are indebted to the author. 1t is printed on
very fine and heavy tinted paper, in quarto form,
of which only one hundred copies have been pub
lished. 1t is probably the most complete and
consequently most valuable catalogue OF publica-
tions relating to this archipelago that has ever
appeared. The work is dedicated, as n memorial
volume TO the late JAMES HrSNEwELL, father OF
the author.
The catalogue fills ffty-seven pages OF the book,
and taking an average of eighteen to each page,
this gives n total of over one thousand publica-
tons noticed. Preceding the catalogue is an in
teresting historical sketch of the group, filling
fourteen pages, very correctly prepared, and well
condensed. The following page we extract, Civ
ing all that is known relating to the Spanish dis
coyery Of these Islands, by Gaytan, in the sixteenth
century:
The discovery of the Hawaiian Islands by civilized
people is commonly considered an achievement by the
British Captain James Cook, in 1853, and his
visit, indeed, practically introduced them to the
knowledge of the world. But the bold explorers and
agents Of a power that in the sixteenth and severn
tenth centuries made the WIDE Pacinc, " from Bor-
neo TO California, but n Spanish lake" had, long
before 177S, learned their existence and chief natura,
characteristics. The evidence Of this fact is partly
circumstantial, but it Is conclusive, and may be best
presented in an extract from 80 onicial letter (trans-
lated by authority, dated Madrid, February 21st,
1865, addressed to the Governor of the Philippine
Islands, and from him communicated to the Minister
Of Foreign Affairs, Honolulu, where it was published
in the HaDaiiaa Gazette, government paper, Nov.
IL, 1866. From this letter it will appear that re-
searches Mt the Archives Of Simancas, lately affording
so much important historical information, show the
discovery of the Hawaiian Islands to have been as
follows:
"By all the documents that have been examined,
it is demonstrated that the discovery dates from the
year 1856, or two hundred and twenty-three years
before Captain Cook surveyed those Islands ; and
that the discoverer was Juan Gaetano, or Gaytan,
who gave names to the principal Islands of that ar
c~hipelago. Ii is true that no document has been
found in which Gaytan himself certifes to this fact,
but there exist data which collectively form n series
Of proofs sufficient for believing it to be so. The
principal one is an old manuscript chart, registered
in these archives as anonymous, and in which the
Sandwich CHawaiian1 Islands are laid down under
that name, but which also contains q note declaring
the name of the discoverer and date of the discovery,
and that he called them 9 Islas de Mesa liable ISL
ands). There are, besides, other Islands, situated in
the same latitude, but 10 Q further east, and re-
spectively named 'Olloa' and Los Monges' (the
Monks). This chart appears to be a copy Of that
called the Chart of the Spanish Galleon, existing long
before the time of Cook, and which is referred to by
all the national and foreign authors that have been
consulted"