a recurring theme in Fornander's writing was a concern for the status and condition of native Hawaiians. Fornander then went to work for The Polynesian, a rival publication that he now edited until its demise in 1864. Life as a public official In late 1863, the new Hawaiian king Kamehameha V recognized Fornander's talents and appointed him to the nation's privy council, which were thirty of the most distinguished men in the islands. In May 1864, the King made Fornander a judge, a position that he held for less than a year before he was made superintendent of the Honolulu school district, and then in March 1865, Inspector General of Schools for the entire kingdom. Fornander had long been an advocate of public education, and his administration had three main goals: to put the system on a non-sectarian basis, improve opportunities for girls, and improve the teaching of English. The first of these goals won him the increasing animosity of American Protestant missionaries, who saw his attempt at even-handedness as disguised prejudice. By July 1870, their opposition had become great enough to replace Fornander as Inspector General. The king, however, re-appointed him in May 1871 to the circuit court, a position that he would hold for the next twelve years together with a variety of other governmental boards and commissions. These positions required Fornander to travel a good deal, which allowed him to learn more about Hawaiian mythology and the Hawaiian language. Account of the Polynesian Race While undertaking these duties, Fornander had long been developing theories of Hawaiian origins and collecting material for a work setting out his thoughts. In 1877, he finished the first volume of his monumental An Account of the Polynesian Race, its Origin and Migrations, and the Ancient History of the Hawaiian People to the Times of Kamehameha I, which was published in London in the following year. This volume dealt with the now-discredited hypothesis that the Polynesians were Aryans, both racially and linguistically, who had over the ages migrated through India and the Malay archipelago into the Pacific islands. Basing his theory on the comparison of Polynesian languages, genealogies, and mythology, Fornander estimated that the Polynesians first entered the Pacific in Fiji in the 1st or 2nd centuries AD. When expelled by Melanesians, the inhabitants made their way to Samoa and Tonga, and by AD 400 or 500, to Hawaii, where they lived in