O’ahu was inhabited one to two thousand years ago. The first European explorer was English Captain William Brown when his ship entered this harbor in 1794. Soon afterwards, the city of Kou was renamed Honolulu. The name means sheltered harbor. Ten years later, Kamehameha I, who was the founder of the Kingdom of Hawaii, established his government here. Now Honolulu Harbor is the major port for commercial and cruise ships and is the waterfront of downtown.
