“The place is like a new creation: the birds and beasts do not get out of our way; the pelicans and sea-lions look in our faces as if we had no right to intrude on their solitude; the small birds are so tame that they hop upon our feet; and all this amidst volcanoes which are burning around us on either hand. Altogether it is as wild and desolate a scene as imagination can picture.”
– Lord George Bryon, Diary entry Friday March 25, 1825, Voyage of H. M. S. Blonde to the Sandwich Islands, in the years 1824-1825