|
The historians tell us that the first humans arrived on the Na Pali coast sometime around 1200 A.D. They were Polynesians who had sailed large double hulled sailing canoes across 2,000 miles of open ocean to get there. Some time later, Tahitians began arriving, also by sailing canoe, and quickly became the dominant force in developing the local culture. No one is sure just how many people lived along the coast, but estimates range from a few hundred to a few thousand.
People settled in each of the valleys leading down to the sea. Communication between settlements was primarily accomplished by outrigger canoe, but rigorous foot trails over the mountains between valleys also existed. Fresh water was plentiful, the ocean was a rich source of sustenance, and several different root crops supplemented the diet of the people. Sophisticated irrigation systems were built to ensure the success of terraced family farms throughout the region. A royal class emerged to provide social leadership.
Captain Cook "discovered" Kauai in 1778 and the lives of the people began to change soon thereafter as more and more Anglo-Europeans began visiting the Sandwich Islands (as Cook had called them). The newcomers brought diseases with them that were unknown in Kauai and which decimated the local population. Missionaries fought for the souls of the people and in the process went a long way toward destroying the traditional culture. The people began moving out of the valleys along the Na Pali coast and by the early decades of the twentieth century all of the settlements along the coast were totally abandoned. Six centuries of continuous peaceful human habitation in a natural paradise extinguished by modernity.
|
|
|
