Arizona republican., 1921-07-18
QUESTION ORIGIN
 IF PINEAPPLE AS
 HAWAIIAN PRODUCT

There are many reasons for the as- sumption that the pineapple, now synonymous with Hawaii, did not originally have its home in the Ha- waiian archipelago, despite many contentious to the contrary. None I of the early voyagers mention pine apples, although they do speak of all | the other fruits growing in Hawaii l at the time of their visits Just
 where the pineapples which reached Hawaii came from seems to be a mystery.
 The first attempt to cultivate the pineapple in Europe seems to have
 been about the end of the 17th cen tury by wealthy Flemish merchant,
 who had fine garden near Leyden. When 1 say" observes an English writer in 1730, that the first pine apples that were cultivated in Eng land, were in Sir Mathew Decker S
 gardens at Richmond, I mean the
 first that were cultivated with sue
 cess, were in those gardens The l pineapple is now found in almost every curious garden,
 The Hawaiian word for pineapple I is halakahki, a compound of hala, | the name of the screw -pine or Pan
 danus. and of kahiki. the Hawaiian equivalent for a foreign land r'his furnishes reasonable grounds for the assumption that the pineappies are non-indigenous plants. The fact is.
 however, that practically the same
 variety as the Kona pineapple is
 found in Samoa, Fiji and throughout I Polynesia, and they might have been brought to Hawaii by some of the na- tives on their prehistoric voyages to the Southward
 How Did 1t Get To Hawaii?
 The immediate inquiry is: How did I the pineapple reach Hawaii?
 "One theory is that they were brought to Hawaii by the traders or
 whalers in the beginning of the Nine
 teenth Century," says Cruse Carriel
 Another is that they were brought
 here by Don Francisco Paulo Marin a Spaniard, who came to Hawaii
 from Mexico, settled here and intro
 duced many fruits and trees. Whalers
 did make 1t a practice to visit the Kona coast of the island of Hawaii in
 the early days and the first authentic mention of pineapples in Hawaii is
 that they were being planted in 1S1s
 by Don F. de P. Marin states the
 Hawaiian Annual for 1906
 i Another rather attenuated theory is that they were brought here by a Spanish vessel wrecked on the Kona
 coast. A squadron of three vessels carrying 11o men as endorsements tc the Moluccas sailed from Mexico, Oc- tober 31. 1527, under the command oi Don Alvarado de Saavadra. Of these two of the vessels were lost, but Dor Alvarade continued safely on his voy- age. Hawaiian tradition is responsi- ble for the statement that in tht
 reign of Keliiokaloa, son of Umi, there [ was foreign vessel wrecked at Keei South Kona. on the island of Hawaii Keliiokaloa was probably born abou the year 1920, so it is reasonable tC
 presume that he was king at tho 7 time the Spanish ships were lost l Such vessels. leaving Mexico, nigh 2 well have included pineapples in theil
 stores and, if wrecked. these would l have been thrown ashore.
 At any rate, the Spanish toucheG ! the Hawaiian islands officially abou f this time, for they were discovered , and named Isles de Mesa" by Juai . Gaetane in 1855. according to records
 since found in Spain.
 i Commercial Possibilities t "Regardless of how pineapple
 reached these islands. the first one