ANCIENT HISTORY

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with the natives, and became the progenitors of certainwell-known families of chiefs, such as that of Kaikioewa,former governor of Kauai .

In reckoning by generations, and allowing thirty yearson an average to a generation, we find that Kealiiokaloawas born about a.d. 1500, and probably came to thethrone about a.d. 1525-30.

Now we learn from Spanish historians that Cortez, theconqueror of Mexico , fitted out several exploring expe-ditions on the western coast about this time. The firstsquadron, consisting of three vessels, commanded by Alva-rado de Saavedra, sailed from Zacatula for the Moluccas or Spice Islands , October 31, 152 7. These ships sailed incompany, but when they were a thousand leagues fromport they were scattered by a severe storm. The twosmaller vessels were never heard from, but Saavedra pur-sued the voyage alone in the “Florida ” to the Moluccas ,touching at the Ladrone Islands on the way.*

No white people except the Spaniards were navigatingthe Pacific Ocean at that early period, and it seems to becertain that the foreign vessel which was wrecked aboutthis time on the Kona coast must have been one of Saa-vedra’s missing ships.

There is also little doubt that these islands were dis-covered by the Spanish navigator Juan Gaetano, in theyear 1555.f

* As has been shown by Judge Fornander , this storm was probably a Kona galefrom the southwest, which would have driven the vessel directly toward Hawaii .

t He had previously crossed the Pacific Ocean as pilot for Buy Lopez de Vil-lalobo in 1542, on which voyage they discovered the Caroline Islands (Islas delRey). The account of his second voyage has never been published, but there isan ancient manuscript chart in the Spanish archives on which a group of islandsis laid down in the same latitude as the Hawaiian Islands, but over ten degreesof longitude too far east, with a note stating the name of the discoverer and thedate of the discovery.