He was a Polynesian chief who sailed some 2,400 miles of open water from the Marquesas Islands, near Tahiti, to discover the Hawaiian Islands in the A.D. 400s. The islands were first discovered by Europeans in 1778 when British navigator Captain James Cook (1728–1779) landed on the island of Kauai and named the islands after John Montagu (c. 1718–1792), who was the fourth earl of Sandwich and first lord of the admiralty. Captain Cook died there at the hand of the natives in a skirmish over a stolen boat.