The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1872-10-19
No. 2.LThe Hawaiians, an Oceanic Race

the antiquity Of man on the Hawaiian Islands, l
will answer.
antiquity in these Islands was in the year ls22,
during the first successful effort in digging a well at
Honolulu. This was made by Joseph Navarro, m
his yard near the Bethel The well was dug through
eight or ten feet Of loan and volcanic sand 20 the
coral bed and about the same distance through the
coral. About the middle Of the coral strata, a human
thigh bone Was found embedded in = compact mass
Of coral. and lower down ia one % the cavities q
human skull was found - in good order and preser-
walton. but darker than a new skull. II evidently
had some strength in il, as II vas kicked about by
the boys" i the language Of Mr.. James hunneTeu,
who communicated the Information 10 the Hawaiian
Club Papers
In the second well, dug about the same year 1922,
on the ". II. Davis or Brewer premises, on sort
street. a the substrata proved to be the same as in
the former case, and the coral was full OF cavities,
from which were taken a number Of bones OF a mans
hand or foot None OF the cavities OF the coral CON-
municated with the surface" And IL must be borne
in mind that the coral was covered with several feet
Of successive strata OF volcanic sand, marking prob
ably several ages Of eruption.
In 1867, ]. G.. Osborn, Esq, the architect, in ex-
cavating a well at the brick yard at Manamans,
adjoining Honolulu, after passing through the loan
and various layers Of black volcanic sand and lava
which marked the past ages Of eruption Of PuoTaina,
discovered a human skull several feet below the
surface. The ancient Hawaiian, to whom ii belonged,
had probably been fishing on the reef. long ages ago,
on the first eruption Of Punch Bowl, and before
Herculaneum and Pompeii were wbelmed beneath
the lava of Vesuvius.
Several years since a human tooth was found
embedded in a compact mass # lava near the pail.
The man to whom it pertained had lived previous to
the great commissions that formed that gorge and
precipice, and the fused lava had been moulded
round the tooth by Pele, who no doubt proved rather
a rough dentist.
On the elevated plain lying between Eva and
Waialua, many remnants Of man have been dis
covered several feet below the present level of the
soil, and in the remains of shells and debris, as well
as various evidences of man, similar to the ~sjoeekkeH
UOefdinp (kitchen leayin0sl. on the Danish shores.
The Hawaiian shell mounds show greater antiquity,
for they are deeply covered by alluvial deposits.
These evidences point TO a remote period when
man was an inhabitant Of Oahu. The last appear
ance of Pele on any of the Islands of the group,
except Hawaii, was at Haleakala, on Maui, according
to tradition in times long past. There Is no tradition
Of the eruption Of Punchbowl among the Hawaiian
people. From every indication it has been long ages
extinct. An alluvial soil, consisting of loan and
vegetable mould several feet thick, has been formed
over the last eruptive strata. The different volcanic
stTlta mark several eruptive periods, not following
eacn other in rapid succession, but after long inter
walls of rest. These e~ruptions were on and above the
coral beds, and the remains of man had been depos-
tied on the coral at O time when that formation had
not attained by more than four feet its elevation.
when the first volcanic wave from Punchbowl rolled
over il. The coral reef at Honolulu has not been
perceptibly elevated in fifty years. How long would
it require to form a bed four feet thick over the
human skeletons found in the wells to which l have
alludedl How many ages was the earliest volcano Of
Punchbowl pouring its fiery waves over the coral,
| before even the tradition OF It's eruption was LOST !
The Pali-the highest range of central mountains
have been formed, since man lived and walked on
Oahu. The skull found in the well of Manamane,
was full of life and thought before the volcanoes
birth
Can Java or Sumatra show an antiquity for man
higher than this! And do not these facts lead to an
irresistible argument against the peopling of these
Islands by the Malays2 The problem of this high
antiquity can only be solved by the hypothesis of the
ancient submerged continent-the Oceanica of the
past.
But if there were any of the inhabitants of the
ancient submerged continent left. would not their
descendants preserve some tradition of such a grand
catastrophef 1 will proceed 10 answer.
Earths physical history is written in unmistakable
characters and unerring marks upon her surface.
The numerous changes indicating great geological
periods. as well as the minuti@ Of the varied past
forms of organic life are portrayed in a language all
can understand. Reason is the great teacher by
which we can read the secrets of the past.
There is no geological evidence of a universal
deluge since the advent of man upon the earth; nor
has such an event been possible since the carbonifer-
Gus era, which extended through immense ages OF
rainfalls. After the mighty changes effected by
aqueous action during earth's great pluvial period,
the shaping Of the earth's surface, the formation of
seas and oceans, the drying and purifying of the at
~mosphere and the adaptation of the primeval dry
land. climate, heat and moisture to the production of
organic life, there could not have been such a catas-
trophe rs a universal pluvial deluge. We have many
dim glimpses of riparian deluges in Greece and in
the valleys of the Euphrates and Tigrls, in Mesapota-
mia, in that traditionary period, immediately preced-
ing mans historical period. Even since the historical
period, the earth's atmosphere in ancient times con-
tainel more moisture, there was greater condensation
and consequently riparian floods were more frequent
than at present.
Whence then, originates the almost general ira
dition of q universal deluge?
In the subsidence and submergence of earth's con-
tinents and islands, since man has been an inhabi-
taDt of our planet, and the unmistakable marks of
aqueous action in every portion of the earth, not of
recent volcanic origin. The memory of such an
event as a general or partial submergence among n
prehistoric and unlettered people could only be pre-
served by oral tradition, and in the long course of
ages, would assume q variety Of forms, bat all COM
memOrating a great aqueous catastrophe. The peo-
pie of the mountain submits or islands, left by the
subsistence of the continent of Oceanica, have all
preserved a memory of this catastrophe, by traditions
somewhat varied in their details. l will specify the
most prominent.
The Raiakohinalii, the deluge of the Hawaiians,
when the traditions relating thereto are critically
examined, evidently refer to a catastrophe, not
caused by n deluge of rain, but a great CONFUSION
by which the submergence of all the land except the
islands occurred. The traditions which refer extra
ordinary works to Hina and the sons of Hina, can
have no other reference than to a cataclysm of the
character indicated. Was it not a mythical allusion
to some sudden CONFUSION succeeded by others less
disastrous in their consequences: The ancient Ha-
waiians were a highly pOetical people. Their ancient
meies far exceed any productions of the kind from
further west among the Malays, Javans or the ISL
ands of the Indian Archipelago. The epic of Kawelo,
Is a superior production t. anything produced in
Java even under Hindoo civilization. The deluge of
kaiakahinalii, according to a comparison of all the
ancient traditions which have been collected and
preserved, relates to the sinking of a continent,
whose mountain tops are still visible in the numer-
GUS Islands of Polynesia, whether the cones of ancient
volcanoes. or surrounded by coral reefs, as in the
case of the low islands.
This conclusion is borne out by the traditions of
all the other islands of the Oceanic race. 1.-The
Tahitian story is. that Taaroa (the Kaneloa of Ha-
waii) being angry with men on account OF their DISC
bedience, overturned the world into the sea, except
ing a few projecting points or Gurus, which consti-
tuted the present cluster Of Islands" This tradition
in connection with their claim TO he sutocthons, as
do the Hawaiians, goes to disprove the fact that they
were immigrants from any other land.
1.-The tradition among the inhabitants Of Eimeo is
that after the food (similsr TO that Of the Tahitians)