History
Pedro Fernandes de Queirós, a Portuguese navigator sailing for Spain, is believed to have been the first European explorer to have visited Swains Island, arriving on 2 March 1606. He named it Isla de la Gente Hermosa, which means "island of the beautiful people" in Spanish.
Later, there was an expedition from Fakaofo to the island. The male inhabitants of the island either fled or were killed by the invaders, while the women were taken back to Fakaofo. The subsequent infertility of the island, attributed to a curse placed on it by its last chief, led to the failure of the Fakaofoan settlement there.
Captain William L. Hudson of the American ship Peacock visited the atoll in 1841, at the request of Commodore Charles Wilkes, but was unable to land due to stormy weather. Finding the island was not at the position reported by de Queirós, Hudson concluded that the whaling captain W.C. Swains who had alerted them to the island had discovered it, and he renamed it "Swains Island".
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