Paradise of the Pacific: Approaching Hawaii

Hawaii's history centers on successive arrivals: volcanic eruptions that created the islands, seeds and birds carried by natural forces, Polynesian voyagers in double canoes, Spanish galleons, British navigators, Protestant missionaries, shipwrecked sailors, and Irish poachers from Botany Bay. Unlike many places shaped by migration, Hawaii retained all these groups. Each brought accompanying myths and legends that continue to shape understanding of the islands. Susanna Moore examines late-eighteenth-century Hawaii during a period of rapid transformation. The book traces the stories of Hawaiian kings and queens, gods and goddesses, missionaries, migrants, and explorers. It documents the collision between an isolated society—one without currency or written language, governed by human sacrifice and strict taboos—and the arrival of capitalism, Western education, and Christian values.