This 116 page history of Hawai'i is called by David Forbes in his Hawaiian National Bibliography (2000), "one of the most important books on Hawaii. This is the first Hawaiian history written and published in Hawaii, and the first from a Hawaiian viewpoint. Sometimes catalogued as the work of David Malo, it is rather the cooperative effort of a select group of Lahainaluna students and their instructor, Sheldon Dibble."

The reprint of the 1838 Lahainaluna publication is the third in the Society's Hawaiian Language Reprint Series. An introduction in Hawaiian and English is provided by M. Puakea Nogelmeier, Ph.D. The book is available in softcover and clothbound editions (xxviii, 116 pages). The limited clothbound collectors edition is bound in the forest green cloth with gold stamping on the front and spine.