I agree with boomer gal saying Capt. Cook discovered Hawaii is like saying Christopher Columbus discovered America. There were people here already. It was the ancient Polynesians who discovered the Hawaiian Islands in canoes: Hokuleia was the first canoe built by the Polynesian Voyaging Society, and was built to prove that it was possible for the ancient Polynesians to intentionally voyage and migrate the long distances between their isolated islands using their double-hulled canoe without the use of western navigational instruments. In 1976, the PVS set out on a 5,000 mile roundtrip between Hawai i and Kahiki (Tahiti) where the traditions say the Hawaiians originated. That first voyage proved their theory by demonstrating that both the vessel design and the ancient navigational techniques were more than capable for making the regular trips which the Polynesian claimed to have travelled.
The first people to come to Hawaii came from the South Pacific by canoe. James Cook may get credit for discovering Hawaii, but since there were people already living here then, I don t think that is the case at all.
James Cook in 1778