After many years of collecting the antiquarian and traditional lore of the Polynesian Race in general, with the object of identifying the origin and migrations of the Hawaiians in particular, which formed the basis of his scholarly work on that subject, Abraham Fornander, with a corps of native helpers of known ability (notably S. M. Kamakau, the historian; J. Kepilino, and S. N. Haleole), gathered from among the people throughout the group a most valuable collection of material covering Hawaiian mythology, traditions, meles and genealogies. Following his death in 1887, after a residence in the land of his adoption of forty-five years, this collection of manuscripts was purchased from his estate for preservation by the late Charles R. Bishop, and later was turned over by him to the Trustees of the Bernice P. Bishop Museum. Upon examination and translation of the various papers comprising the collection, the Trustees decided to share this treasure with the reading public by issuing it, in several series, among the Memoirs of the Museum. Most of the translation was completed under the late Dr. W. D. Alexander’s supervision. Following his death it devolves upon another to carry out the desires of the Trustees in its revision and editing for publication. In doing so several amendments and extensions are embodied, but only such changes as the collector himself would doubtless have made had its preparation for the press passed through his experienced and painstaking hands, with the view of preserving it as “The Fornander Collection” of antiquities, traditions, legends, genealogies and meles of Hawaii. The order in which they were designed by him is observed, except in the enlargement of this first series to embrace the historic traditional papers in relatively chronological order. The rest of the series comprises the legendary, antiquarian and miscellaneous papers and meles.