to him hogs, and other offerings, and with rapid incantation and prayer, did him homage; then led him to their sacred temple and worshipped him, as one of their long acknowledged deities.

About fifty days after his arrival from the north, the king of Hawaii returned from the war on Maui to Kealakekua. He treated Captain Cook with much respect, but finding the abominable practice on board which had been so unfortunately commenced at Kauai, attempted to restrain their licentiousness by forbidding the women to go on board. But in this he failed, for the measure induced the shipmen to throng the shore so much the

more.

Kalaniopuu presented Captain Cook with some of his most valuable articles-brilliant feather mantles, and plumed rods, insignia of rank, of neat workmanship, and imposing form and aspect, for which he is said to have made little return. Priding himself on the honors shown him, and the influence he had acquired over these ignorant barbarians, and trusting to his naval and military skill and power, to resist or punish any aggression from the people, he ventured to assert rights which could not belong to him as a fellow-man. He not only received the religious homage which they ascribed to Lono, but according to Ledyard, who was with him, invaded their rights, both civil and religious, and took away their sacred enclosure, and some of their images, for the purpose of wooding his vessels, offering three hatchets in return. The effect was doubtless to awaken resentment and hostility. He sailed immediately on the 4th of Feb. But before he had passed Kawaíhaé, finding one of his masts defective, he was providentially sent back to Kealakekua bay, where he anchored again, and engaged in the needful repairs. The men of the place were far less friendly than before, and finding that the foreigners had seduced the affections of some of their women, were disposed to oppose them. The shipmen became violent, fired on the people, and seized a canoe belonging to Paalea, a man of some distinction. He resisted, and was struck down by a foreigner with a paddle. Then his people threw stones. Paalea rising, and fearing he might be killed by Lono, the foreign chief, interposed, and quieted and drew off his men. But afterwards he stole one of the boats of the Englishmen, either for retaliation or indemnity. Captain Cook demanded of the king the restoration of the boat. But this was out of his power, for the people had broken it up to secure the iron in it for other purposes. Here was a real difficulty, though not sufficient for war or hostility of any kind. If Cook had been as ready to award justice to the injured people, and to Paalea who attempted to remunerate himself, as he was to exact restoration or remuneration from the king who had not trespassed on him, this matter might have been settled without the guilt of murder on either side. But disregarding the provocation which Paalea had had, though he mistook the course of duty in seeking redress, Captain Cook undertook to bring the king on board

34

ORIGINAL STATE OF THE NATION.

with him, that he might compel him to restore the stolen boat. He therefore on the 14th of Feb. blockaded the bay or harbor, landed with an armed party on the north side of the bay, made a little circuit, and came to the house of the king. He sent in his lieutenant, who invited and led the king out. The captain endeavored to persuade him to accompany him to the ship. They approached the boat, which was waiting to receive them. A multitude of the people collected around, apparently unwilling that their king should, in that posture of affairs, go off on board lest they should lose him. Some, who apprehended danger, interposed to detain him. Among these was Kekuhaopio, who had hastily crossed the bay in a canoe, having witnessed an attack made by the English on another canoe crossing at the same time, in which Kalimu, a chief and a relative, was shot. The report of this outrage produced excitement in the crowd around the king. Some urged an attack on the Englishmen. The king halted and refused to proceed. The armed marines formed a line on the shore or at the water's edge. A native approached Captain Cook with a dagger. The captain, having a double-barrel gun, fired a charge of small shot at him. Stones were thrown at the marines by the natives. Capt. Cook then fired with ball, and killed one of the foremost natives. Stones were again thrown at the marines, and returned by a discharge of musketry from them and two boats' crews near the shore. The crowd of natives received the fire with firmness, some holding up mats as a shield against the whistling bullets. Their dauntless men exasperated rushed on the marines, killed four and wounded three of them. Kalaimanohoowaha, a chief, seized Captain Cook with a strong hand without striking him, thinking he might perhaps be a god, but concluding from his outcry that he was not, stabbed and slew him. The musketry continued from the boats. and cannon-balls from the ships, at length compelled the natives to retire, seventeen being killed and others wounded. Two cannon shots were fired upon the people on the other side of the bay; the effects of one upon the trunk of a cocoanut tree remained till the missionaries arrived there. A skirmish took place between the natives and the English stationed there, in which eight of the natives were killed. Among the slain that day were two chiefs acknowledged to have been friendly to the English.

The king and his people retired to the precipice that rises abruptly from the head of the bay. They carried with them the bodies of Cook and four of his men. On the heights of Kaawaloa, they stripped the flesh from the bones of Cook and burnt it with fire, preserving the bones, palms and entrails for superstitious abominations. There were subsequent skirmishing and bloodshed. The English demanded the body of their commander, burnt down the village of Kealakekua on the south side of the bay, consuming the houses of the priests and their property, including the presents given them by the officers of the squadron. The bones of the com

DEIFICATION AND DEATH OF COOK.

35

mander were at length restored; and were buried in the deep with martial honors. A reconciliation took place, and the two ships, the Resolution and Discovery, put to sea on the 22d or 23d of Feb., 1779, under the command of Captains Clerke and King.

In the intercourse between the natives and their discoverers, the late Queen Kaahumanu, Kekupuohi a young wife of Kalaniopuu, Kamehameha and their contemporaries, received their first impressions with respect to the civilized and Christian world. Kamehameha and others in their deep darkness endeavored to learn what advantage they could derive from intercourse with this new order of beings. The great and acknowledged superiority of Captain Cook and his associates over the natives would, had they taken the wisest course, have given them an enviable moral power for good, in making the earliest impressions from the Christian world highly salutary. Had this distinguished and successful navigator, conscientiously resisted, through jealousy for the honor of the Most High, every token of religious homage wrongfully offered to his own person by the infatuated natives, and with his party insisted on the propriety and duty of their leaving their horrid idols and vain oblations, and tabus, and acknowledging the living Jehovah alone as God, they might have prepared the way for the overthrow of the foolish and bloody idolatry of the land. But that was not the object of the expedition; and if the influence of it had been nugatory it might be passed by with little notice.

But we can hardly avoid the conclusion, that for the direct encouragement of idolatry, and especially for his audacity in allowing himself like the proud and magisterial Herod to be idolized, he was left to infatuation and died by the visitation of God.

How vain, rebellious, and at the same time contemptible, for a worm to presume to receive religious homage and sacrifices from the stupid and polluted worshippers of demons and of the vilest visible objects of creation, and to teach them by precept and example to violate the plainest commands or rules of duty from Heaven-to encourage self-indulgence, revenge, injustice, and disgusting lewdness as the business of the highest order of beings known to them, without one note of remonstrance on account of the dishonor cast on the Almighty Creator!

Had an inspired apostle, Peter or Paul, or an angel from Heaven in his celestial glory, instead of the lamented discoverer, visited these ignorant and debased sons and daughters of Adam, whom superstition was leading blindfold to ruin; and had they proposed or attempted to sacrifice to him or to worship him, how promptly would he have rebuked them, saying with astonishment as that navigator ought to have done, "Not so-worship God, your Creator and Redeemer-I am his servant!"

But under the influence of a totally different example, the nation confirmed in superstition darker than before, and encouraged in adultery and violence more destructive, passed on another generation.