Besides the regular priesthood, there were many kinds of medicine men,
necromancers or mediums, sorcerers and diviners, who preyed upon the
superstition and credulity of their countrymen. The belief that all
forms of disease were caused by evil spirits, and their fear of being
"prayed to death" (_anaana_), kept the people in a state of abject fear.

There is too much reason to believe that during several centuries
preceding the discovery of the Islands they had been deteriorating in
many respects. As the historian Fornander has stated:

"It was an era of strife, dynastic ambitions, internal and external wars
on each Island, with all their deteriorating consequences of anarchy,
depopulation, social and intellectual degradation, loss of liberty, loss
of knowledge, loss of arts."

DISCOVERY OF THE ISLANDS.

It seems to be almost certain that one Juan Gaetano, a Spanish
navigator, saw Hawaii in 1555 A. D. A group of islands, the largest of
which was called La Mesa, was laid down in the old Spanish charts in the
same latitude as the Hawaiian Islands, but 10 degrees too far east.

On the eighteenth of January, 1778, Captain Cook, the great navigator,
while sailing due north from the Society Islands, discovered the Islands
of Oahu and Kauai. The next day he landed at Waimea, Kauai, where he
held friendly intercourse with the natives, and afterwards laid in
supplies at Niihau. He finally sailed for Alaska, Feb. 2d. The Hawaiians
looked upon him as an incarnation of the god Lono, and upon his crew as
supernatural beings. Returning from the Arctic the following winter, he
anchored in Kealakekua bay, January 17th, 1779. Here he received
divine honors and was loaded with munificent presents of the best that
the islands could produce. By his rash and arbitrary conduct, however,
he involved himself in an affray with the natives, in which he was
killed on February 14th, 1779.

The spot where he fell is now marked by an appropriate monument.

[Illustration: LUNALILO HOME, FOR AGED HAWAIIANS.]

[Illustration: KAMEHAMEHA SCHOOL.]

EARLY TRADERS.

For seven years after the death of Captain Cook no foreign vessel
ventured to touch at the Islands. After that time many of the vessels
engaged in the fur trade on the northwest coast of America called at the
Islands for supplies on their way to Canton or ran down here to spend
the winter. Waimea, Kauai, and Kealakekua bay were the two harbors most
frequented by them. Fire arms,