Barthélemy Lauvergne's Vue de Honolulu, Iles Sandwich depicts a small trade port c. 1840, sixty-two years after Captain Cooke's first visit and forty-five years after Vancouver's mapping of the islands.

Honolulu's attractive harbor brought whalers -- followed by missionaries -- in the early 19th century. Once established as a center for the whaling trade, commerce expanded into sugar and pineapples.

Russians built the first small fort in the area in 1814. The British flag was raised there in 1843; French forces occupied the harbor in 1849. Despite the intermittent foreign ventures, the Hawaiian kingdom never relinquished control of the island. In 1850, King Kamehameha III declared Honolulu to be the capital of the kingdom and proceeded to expand the harbor to accommodate more and larger sailing vessels.

When the French seafarer Nicolas Vaillant put in at Honolulu in 1839 with the artist Barthelemy Lauvergne aboard, the port was still in its orignial state . Our Perfect Recreation™ of Lauvergne's hand-colored engraving shows their moored ship, La Bonite, along with a small launch and a traditional canoe. In the foreground, some Hawaiians appear in traditional dress; others wear missionary-influenced European clothing.