Yes, colonial attitude.

1st, denial of history.  I tried to point out that the xenophobia you dislike is a recent phenomenon.  Cook was welcomed with open arms because Hawaiians and Polynesians generally were voyagers par excellence.  They celebrated voyagers and made them feel at home when they made landfall.  How else could their ancestors have settled every landmass over 1/3 of the globe?  Xenophobia would have been counter-productive to this enterprise, don't you think?  Kamehameha actively sought alliance with King George of England, and he and others spoke of themselves as men of Brittanee.  Through much of the 19th century Hawai`i had one of the greatest rates of literacy in the world, and the local newspapers were filled with stories about goings-on around the world.  These were some of the least xenophobic people in the world for a long time.

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