Niihau emerges from the sea, the visible summit of a volcanic mountain that ascends 13,000 feet from the ocean floor. Hawaiian legend teaches that Pele, the fire goddess of Tahiti, lived on Niihau first, before making her way along the island chain -- a teaching confirmed in its own way by Western science, which reports this island to be the oldest of the eight major Hawaiian islands. That today Niihau remains the island least changed by the workings of progress, makes one wonder if perhaps the gods and goddesses of legend are in some way still at hand. Captain Cook first arrived in Niihau-- or Oneeheow as he recorded it -- in 1778, and his appearance set into motion a chain of events that subsequently led to the transfer of ownership from public hands to private, from the Hawaiian people representative in King Kamehameha V to James and Francis Sinclair. Ownership has since been passed along to descendants of the Sinclair family, and is currently held in the family name of Robinson. With the change from public to private property, Niihau became a working ranch and the lives of the people of the island took a turn that led in a direction somewhat different to that of the other Hawaiian islands -- both culturally and economically. Across the years Niihau has maintained its private ownership status. Guests are welcome by invitation only and the population of the island is managed in terms of available supporting natural resources. Consequently, Niihau, The Forbidden Island, is today home to the greatest number of pure Hawaiians, and is the only island in the Hawaiian chain on which the Hawaiian language remains the spoken language. If the gods and goddesses of Hawaiian legend still live, surely it must be on Niihau.