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The Pineapple Isle or The Secluded Isle Lanai has been under the control of nearby Maui since before recorded history. History seems sometimes to have forgotten little Lanai. The first inhabitants of this island may have arrived as late as the 1400s. According to the Hawaiian legends, man-eating spirits occupied the island before that time. For generations, Maui chiefs believed in these man-eating spirits. Depending on which legend one follows either the prophet Lanikaula drove the spirits from the island or the unruly Maui prince Kaulua'au accomplished that heroic feat. The more popular myth is that the mischievous Kaulua'au pulled up every breadfruit tree he could find on Maui. Finally his father, Kakaalaneo had to banish him to Lanai, expecting him not to survive in that hostile place. However Kaulua'au was able to outwit the spirits and drive them from the island. The chief looked across the channel from Maui and saw that his son's fire continued to burn nightly on the shore, and he sent a canoe to Lanai to bring the prince, redeemed by his courage and his cleverness, back home to Maui. As a reward, Kaulua'au was given control of the island and he encouraged immigration from other islands.[4] True to himself Kaulua'au had, in the meantime, pulled up all the breadfruit trees on Lanai, accounting for the lack of breadfruit on that island. The name Lanai is of uncertain origin, but the island has historically been called Lana?i o Kaulua?au. One theory is that the phrase means "day of the conquest of Kaulua?au." The first people to migrate here, most likely from Maui and Molokai, probably established fishing villages along the coast initially but later branched out into the interior where they raised taro in the fertile volcanic soil. During most of those times, the Moi of Maui held dominion over Lanai. Even today, Lanai is part of the County of Maui, but apparently the Maui leaders primarily left the people of Lanai to their own devices. Life on Lanai remained relatively calm until King Kamehameha I or Kalaniopuu came over to take control, slaughtering people on every part of the island. His wrath was so fierce that when Captain Vancouver sailed past the island in 1792, he didn't bother to land because of Lanai's apparent lack of villages and population. It is mentioned that Lanai was the favorite fishing spot of Kamehameha out of all the eight islands. Lanai was first seen by Europeans on February 25, 1779, when Captain Charles Clerke sighted the island from aboard James Cook's HMS Resolution. Clerke had taken command of the ship after Cook was killed at Kealakekua Bay on February 14 and was leaving the islands for the North Pacific.[citation needed]
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