Aves Hawaiienses: the birds of the Sandwich Islands

Description

London: R.H. Porter, 1890. - 488 p. So long as the English tongue is spoken by Britons, and so long as they hold in honour the deeds by which the maritime glory of this country was established, so long will the name of the Sandwich Islands, almost the last discovery of the great English navigator, remain a household word. The story of the death of Captain James Cook — the discoverer whose character secured for him during a fierce war immunity from the "ancient enemy" of England — has been for more than a century part of the history of this country, and thousands of English boys and girls have heard with the deepest emotion how that great chief was stricken down in a miserable quarrel on the shore of the "Island of Owhyhee" — one of the group which he had sighted but little more than a twelvemonth before, and appropriately named after the English statesman to whose influence and encouragement the undertaking of this last and fatal voyage was due. For many years past this name has been set aside by their inhabitants, and the designation of the "Hawaiian Islands" has been substituted; but that bestowed by Cook — the Sandwich Islands — can never be erased from English memories.