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 THE QUARTERLY of the Oregon Historical Society Volume XXIV = JUNE, 1923 Number 2 Copyright, 1923, by the Oregon Historical Society The Quarterly disavows responsibility for the positions taken by contributors to its pages. A NORTHWEST TRADER AT THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS By Ralph S. Kuykendall Executive Secretary of the Hawaiian Historical Commission The more we study the history of the traders who came into the Pacific Ocean for the purpose of collecting furs, hides, and whale oil, the more clearly we perceive the close connection existing in the early days between the Hawaiian Islands and the northwest coast of Amer- ica. The operations of the sea captain discussed in this paper— William Brown, master of the English ship But- terworth — are an excellent illustration of this connection. Brown is generally said to have been the discoverer of the harbor of Honolulu. Mr. Bruce Cartwright, presi- dent of the Hawaiian Historical Society, has recently shown 1 that he is not entitled to the credit for that dis- covery, and it therefore becomes a matter of some inter- est to determine just what Brown did do in the course of his several visits to the Hawaiian Islands. We are not able to trace in minute detail all the movements of Cap- tain Brown during the three years he spent in the north- west trade, but enough is known to make possible a fairly 1 "Honolulu Harbor, 1786-1795" (paper read before the Hawaiian Historical Society, Jan. 25, 1923, and published in the annual report of that society for the year 1922.)