The Story of the Philippines Part 37

"It should seem that the reign of George the Third had been reserved by the Great Disposer of all things for the glorious task of establis.h.i.+ng the grand keystone to that expansive arch over which the arts and sciences should pa.s.s to the furthermost corners of the earth, for the instruction and happiness of the most lowly children of nature. Advantages so highly beneficial to the untutored parts of the human race, and so extremely important to that large proportion of the subjects of this empire who are brought up to the sea service deserve to be justly appreciated; and it becomes of very little importance to the bulk of our society, whose enlightened humanity teaches them to entertain a lively regard for the welfare and interest of those who engage in such adventurous undertakings for the advancement of science, or for the extension of commerce, what may be the animadversions or sarcasms of those few unenlightened minds that may peevishly demand, "what beneficial consequences, if any, have followed, or are likely to follow to the discoverers, or to the discovered, to the common interests of humanity, or to the increase of useful knowledge, from all our boasted attempts to explore the distant recesses of the globe?" The learned editor (Dr. Douglas, now Bishop of Salisbury) who has so justly antic.i.p.ated this injudicious remark, has, in his very comprehensive introduction to Captain Cook's last voyage, from whence the above quotation is extracted, given to the public not only a complete and satisfactory answer to that question, but has treated every other part of the subject of discovery so ably as to render any further observations on former voyages of this description wholly unnecessary, for the purpose of bringing the reader acquainted with what had been accomplished, previously to my being honored with His Majesty's commands to follow up the labors of that ill.u.s.trious navigator Captain James Cook; to whose steady, uniform, indefatigable and undiverted attention to the several objects on which the success of his enterprises ultimately depended, the world is indebted for such eminent and important benefits."

Captain George Vancouver pays, in the introduction of his report, a remarkable tribute to Captain Cook, that should become familiar to the American people, for it is one of the features of prevalent Hawaiian literature that the great navigator is much disparaged, and denounced. One of the favorite theories of the missionaries has been that Cook's death at the hands of the savages was substantially the punishment inflicted by G.o.d, because the Captain allowed himself to be celebrated and wors.h.i.+pped as a G.o.d by the heathen, consenting to their idolatry when he should have preached to them, as was done with so much efficiency nearly half a century later. The fact is the natives had a great deal of "religion" of their own, and defended their superst.i.tions with skill and persistence before yielding to the great simplicities of the Christian faith. Captain Cook, it must be admitted, did not attempt to preach the gospel. The gentleness of the natives turned out to contain a great deal that was most horrible.

The closing years of the last century were those of rapid progress in the art of navigation, and Captain Vancouver gives this striking summary of testimony:

"By the introduction of nautical astronomy into marine education, we are taught to sail on the hypothenuse, instead of traversing two sides of a triangle, which was the usage in earlier times; by this means the circuitous course of all voyages from place to place is considerably shortened; and it is now become evident that sea officers of the most common rate abilities who will take the trouble of making themselves acquainted with the principles of this science, will, on all suitable occasions, with proper and correct instruments, be enabled to acquire a knowledge of their situation in the Atlantic, Indian or Pacific Oceans, with a degree of accuracy sufficient to steer on a meridia.n.a.l or diagonal line, to any known spot, provided it be sufficiently conspicuous to be visible at any distance from five to ten leagues.

"This great improvement, by which the most remote parts of the terrestrial globe are brought so sasily within our reach, would nevertheless have been of comparatively little utility had not those happy means been discovered for preserving the lives and health of the officers and seamen engaged in such distant and perilous undertakings; which were so peacefully practiced by Captain Cook, the first great discoverer of this salutary system, in all his latter voyages around the globe. But in none have the effect of his wise regulations, regimen and discipline been more manifest than in the course of the expedition of which the following pages are designed to treat. To an unremitting attention, not only to food, cleanliness, ventilation, and an early administration of antiseptic provisions and medicines, but also to prevent as much as possible the chance of indisposition, by prohibiting individuals from carelessly exposing themselves to the influence of climate, or unhealthy indulgences in times of relaxation, and by relieving them from fatigue and the inclemency of the weather the moment the nature of their duty would permit them to retire, is to be ascribed the preservation of the health and lives of sea-faring people on long voyages."

"Those benefits did not long remain unnoticed by the commercial part of the British nation. Remote and distant voyages being now no longer objects of terror, enterprises were projected and carried into execution, for the purpose of establis.h.i.+ng new and lucrative branches of commerce between Northwest America and China; and parts of the coast of the former that had not been minutely examined by Captain Cook became now the general resort of the persons thus engaged."

The special zeal and consistency with which Cook is defended by the English navigators who knew him and were competent to judge of the scope of his achievements is due in part to the venom of his a.s.sailants. The historian of the Sandwich Islands, Sheldon Dibble, says: "An impression of wonder and dread having been made, Captain Cook and his men found little difficulty in having such intercourse with the people as they chose. In regard to that intercourse, it was marked, as the world would say, with kindness and humanity. But it cannot be concealed that here and there at this time, in the form of loathsome disease, was dug the grave of the Hawaiian nation; and from so deep an odium it is to be regretted that faithful history cannot exempt even the fair name of Captain Cook himself, since it was evident that he gave countenance to the evil. The native female first presented to him was a person of some rank; her name was Lelemahoalani. Sin and death were the first commodities imported to the Sandwich Islands."

We have already quoted Captain Cook's first words on this subject. He had much more to say giving in detail difficulties rather too searching to be fully stated. As for the charge that Cook personally engaged in debauchery, it rests upon the tradition of savages, who had no more idea than wild animals of the restraint of human pa.s.sion. It was debated among the islanders whether the white men should be a.s.sailed by the warriors, and it was on the advice of a native queen that the women were sent to make friends with the strangers; and this was the policy pursued. As for the decline of the natives in numbers, and the "digging the grave of the nation." the horror of the islands was the destruction of female infants, and also the habit of putting aged and helpless men and women to death. The general indictment against Captain Cook is that this amiable race was just about prepared for Christianity when he thrust himself forward as a G.o.d, and with his despotic licentiousness destroyed immediate possibilities of progress. In Sandwich Island notes by "a Haole" (that is to say, a white person) we see what may be said on the other side of the picture: "It becomes an interesting duty to examine their social, political and religious condition. The first feature that calls the attention to the past is their social condition, and a darker picture can hardly be presented to the contemplation of man. They had their frequent boxing matches on a public arena, and it was nothing uncommon to see thirty or forty left dead on the field of contest.

"As gamblers they were inveterate. The game was indulged in by every person, from the king of each island to the meanest of his subjects. The wager accompanied every scene of public amus.e.m.e.nt. They gambled away their property to the last vestige of all they possessed. They staked every article, of food, their growing crops, the dollies they wore, their lands, wives, daughters, and even the very bones of their arms and legs--to be made into fishhooks after they were dead. These steps led to the most absolute and crus.h.i.+ng poverty.

"They had their dances, which were of such a character as not to be conceived by a civilized mind, and were accompanied by scenes which would have disgraced even Nero's revels. Nearly every night, with the gathering darkness, crowds would retire to some favorite spot, where, amid every species of sensual indulgence they would revel until the morning twilight. At such times the chiefs would lay aside their authority, and mingle with the lowest courtesan in every degree of debauchery.

"Thefts, robberies, murders, infanticide, licentiousness of the most debased and debasing character, burying their infirm and aged parents alive, desertion of the sick, revolting cruelties to the unfortunate maniac, cannibalism and drunkenness, form a list of some of the traits in social life among the Hawaiians in past days.

"Their drunkenness was intense. They could prepare a drink, deadly intoxicating in its nature, from a mountain plant called the awa (Piper methystic.u.m). A bowl of this disgusting liquid was always prepared and served out just as a party of chiefs were sitting down to their meals. It would sometimes send the victim into a slumber from which he never awoke. The confirmed awa drinker could be immediately recognized by his leprous appearance.

"By far the darkest feature in their social condition was seen in the family relation. Society, however, is only a word of mere accommodation, designed to express domestic relations as they then existed. 'Society' was, indeed, such a sea of pollution as cannot be well described. Marriage was unknown, and all the sacred feelings which are suggested to our minds on mention of the various social relations, such as husband and wife, parent and child, brother and sister, were to them, indeed, as though they had no existence. There was, indeed, in this respect, a dreary blank--a dark chasm from which the soul instinctively recoils. There were, perhaps, some customs which imposed some little restraint upon the intercourse of the s.e.xes, but those customs were easily dispensed with, and had nothing of the force of established rules. It was common for a husband to have many wives, and for a wife also to have many husbands. The nearest ties of consanguinity were but little regarded, and among the chiefs, especially, the connection of brother with sister, and parent with child, were very common. For husbands to interchange wives, and for wives to interchange husbands, was a common act of friends.h.i.+p, and persons who would not do this were not considered on good terms of sociability. For a man or woman to refuse a solicitation was considered an act of meanness; and this sentiment was thoroughly wrought into their minds, that, they seemed not to rid themselves of the feeling of meanness in a refusal, to feel, notwithstanding their better knowledge, that to comply was generous, liberal, and social, and to refuse reproachful and n.i.g.g.ardly. It would be impossible to enumerate or specify the crimes which emanated from this state of affairs. Their political condition was the very genius of despotism, systematically and deliberately conducted. Kings and chiefs were extremely jealous of their succession, and the more n.o.ble their blood, the more they were venerated by the common people."

Mr. Sheldon Dibble is a historian whose work was published in 1843. He complains most bitterly that the natives bothered the missionaries by trying to give them the benefit of native thought. They wanted to do some of the talking, and said very childish things, and were so intent on their own thoughts that they would not listen to the preachers. But it ought not to have been held to be an offense for a procession of heathen to march to a missionary's house and tell him their thoughts. That was an honest manifestation of profound interest--the slow ripening of a harvest field. Mr. Dibble's book is printed by the Mission Seminary, and Mr. Dibble says, page 21: "We know that all the inhabitants of the earth descended from Noah,"

therefore, the Hawaiians "must once have known the great Jehova and the principles of true religion." But the historian says on the next page that the Hawaiians were heathen from time immemorial, for, "Go back to the very first reputed progenitor of the Hawaiian race, and you find that the ingredients of their character are l.u.s.t, anger, strife, malice, sensuality, revenge and the wors.h.i.+p of idols." This is the elevation upon which Mr. Dibble places himself to fire upon the memory of the English navigator Captain James Cook. The first paragraph of the a.s.sault on Cook is this:

"How unbounded the influence of foreign visitors upon the ignorant inhabitants of the Pacific! If the thousands of our countrymen who visit this ocean were actuated by the pure principles of the religion of Jesus, how immense the good they might accomplis.h.!.+ But, alas! how few visitors to the Western hemisphere are actuated by such principles."

This is preparatory to the condemnation of Cook in these terms: "Captain Cook allowed himself to be wors.h.i.+pped as a G.o.d. The people of Kealakeakua declined trading with him, and loaded his s.h.i.+p freely with the best productions of the island. The priests approached him in a crouching att.i.tude, uttering prayers, and exhibiting all the formalities of wors.h.i.+p. After approaching him with prostration the priests cast their red kapas over his shoulders and then receding a little, they presented hogs and a variety of other offerings, with long addresses rapidly enunciated, which were a repet.i.tion of their prayers and religious homage.

"When he went on sh.o.r.e most of the people fled for fear of him, and others bowed down before him, with solemn reverence. He was conducted to the house of the G.o.ds, and into the sacred enclosure, and received there the highest homage. In view of this fact, and of the death of Captain Cook, which speedily ensued, who can fail being admonished to give to G.o.d at all times, and even among barbarous tribes, the glory which is his due? Captain Cook might have directed the rude and ignorant natives to the great Jehovah, instead of receiving divine homage himself.

"Kalaniopuu, the king, arrived from Maui on the 24th of January, and immediately laid a tabu on the canoes, which prevented the women from visiting the s.h.i.+p, and consequently the men came on sh.o.r.e in great numbers, gratifying their infamous purposes in exchange for pieces of iron and small looking-gla.s.ses. Some of the women washed the coating from the back of the gla.s.ses much to their regret, when they found that the reflecting property was thus destroyed.

"The king, on his arrival, as well as the people, treated Captain Cook with much kindness, gave him feather cloaks and fly brushes and paid him divine honors. This adoration, it is painful to relate, was received without remonstrance. I shall speak here somewhat minutely of the death of Captain Cook, as it develops some traits of the heathen character, and the influence under which the heathen suffer from foreign intercourse."

After setting forth the horrible character of the natives, Captain Cook is condemned and denounced because he did not refuse the homage of the ferocious savages, paid him as a superior creature. One of Cook's troubles was the frantic pa.s.sion the islanders had to steal iron. The common people were the property of the chiefs, and they had no other sense of possession. They gave away what they had, but took what they wanted.

Mr. Dibble shows his animus when he charges that Cook did not give the natives the real value of their hogs and fruit, and also that he had no right to stop pilferers in canoes by declaring and enforcing a blockade. This is a trifling technicality much insisted upon. Dibble's account of the death of Cook is this:

"A canoe came from an adjoining district, bound within the bay. In the canoe were two chiefs of some rank, Kekuhaupio and Kalimu. The canoe was fired upon from one of the boats and Kalimu was killed. Kekuhaupio made the greatest speed till he reached the place of the king, where Captain Cook also was, and communicated the intelligence of the death of the chief. The attendants of the king were enraged and showed signs of hostility, but were restrained by the thought that Captain Cook was a G.o.d. At that instant a warrior, with a spear in his hand, approached Captain Cook and was heard to say that the boats in the harbor had killed his brother, and he would he revenged. Captain Cook, from his enraged appearance and that of the mult.i.tude, was suspicious of him, and fired upon him with his pistol. Then followed a scene of confusion, and in the midst Captain Cook being hit with a stone, and perceiving the man who threw it, shot him dead. He also struck a certain chief with his sword, whose name was Kalaimanokahoowaha. The chief instantly seized Captain Cook with a strong hand, designing merely to hold him and not to take his life; for he supposed him to be a G.o.d and that he could not die. Captain Cook struggled to free himself from the grasp, and as he was about to fall uttered a groan. The people immediately exclaimed, "He groans--he is not a G.o.d,"

and instantly slew him. Such was the melancholy death of Captain Cook.

"Immediately the men in the boat commenced a deliberate fire upon the crowd. They had refrained in a measure before, for fear of killing their Captain. Many of the natives were killed."

"Historian Dibble does not notice the evidence that Cook lost his life by turning to his men in the boats, ordering them not to fire. It was at that moment he was stabbed in the back. Dibble represents the facts as if to justify the ma.s.sacre of the great navigator, because he allowed the heathen to think he was one of their gang of G.o.ds. But this presumption ought not to have been allowed to excuse prevarication about testimony. The importance of Dibble's history is that it is representative. He concludes with this eloquent pa.s.sage: "From one heathen nation we may learn in a measure the wants of all. And we ought not to restrict our view, but, look at the wide world. To do then for all nations what I have urged in behalf of the Sandwich Islands, how great and extensive a work! How vast the number of men and how immense the amount of means which seem necessary to elevate all nations, and gain over the whole earth to the permanent dominion of the Lord Jesus Christ! Can 300,000,000 of pagan children and youth be trained and instructed by a few hands? Can the means of instructing them be furnished by the mere farthings and pence of the church? Will it not be some time yet before ministers and church members will need to be idle a moment for the want of work? Is there any danger of our being cut off from the blessed privilege either of giving or of going? There is a great work yet to be done--a n.o.ble work--a various and a difficult work--a work worthy of G.o.d's power, G.o.d's resources, and G.o.d's wisdom. What Christendom has as yet done is scarcely worthy of being called a commencement. When G.o.d shall bring such energies into action as shall be commensurate with the greatness of the work--when he shall cause every redeemed sinner, by the abundant influence of His Holy Spirit, to lay himself out wholly in the great enterprise, then there will be a sight of moral sublimity that shall rivet the gaze of angels."

We quote this writer as to what became of the remains of Cook: "The body of Captain Cook was carried into the interior of the island, the bones secured according to their custom, and the flesh burned in the fire. The heart, liver, etc., of Captain Cook, were stolen and eaten by some hungry children, who mistook them in the night for the inwards of a dog. The names of the children were Kupa, Mohoole and Kaiwikokoole. These men are now all dead. The last of the number died two years since at the station of Lahaina. Some of the bones of Captain Cook were sent on board his s.h.i.+p, in compliance with the urgent demands of the officers; and some were kept by the priests as objects of wors.h.i.+p." The "heart, liver, etc.," were of course given to the children to eat! The bones are still hidden, and presumably not much wors.h.i.+ped. The first of the remains of Captain Cook given up was a ma.s.s of his b.l.o.o.d.y flesh, cut as if from a slaughtered ox. After some time there were other fragments, including one of his hands which had a well known scar, and perfectly identified it. Along with this came the story of burning flesh, and denials of cannibalism. Mr. Dibble speaks of Cook's "consummate folly and outrageous tyranny of placing a blockade upon a heathen bay, which the natives could not possibly be supposed either to understand or appreciate." That blockade, like others, was understood when enforced. The historian labors to work out a case to justify the murder of Cook because he received wors.h.i.+p. As to the acknowledgment of Cook as the incarnation of Lono, in the Hawaiian Pantheon, Captain King says:

"Before I proceed to relate the adoration that was paid to Captain Cook, and the peculiar ceremonies with which he was received on this fatal island, it will be necessary to describe the Morai, situated, as I have already mentioned, at the south side of the beach at Kakooa (Kealakeakua). It was a square solid pile of stones, about forty yards long, twenty broad, and fourteen in height. The top was flat and well paved, and surrounded by a wooden rail, on which were fixed the skulls of the captives sacrificed on the death of their chiefs. In the center of the area stood a ruinous old building of wood, connected with the rail on each side by a stone wall, which next divided the whole s.p.a.ce into two parts. On the side next the country were five poles, upward of twenty feet high, supporting an irregular kind of scaffold; on the opposite side toward the sea, stood two small houses with a covered communication.

"We were conducted by Koah to the top of this pile by an easy ascent leading from the beach to the northwest corner of the area. At the entrance we saw two large wooden images, with features violently distorted, and a long piece of carved wood of a conical form inverted, rising from the top of their heads; the rest was without form and wrapped round with red cloth. We were here met by a tall young man with a long beard, who presented Captain Cook to the images, and after chanting a kind of hymn, in which he was joined by Koah, they led us to that end of the Morai where the five poles were fixed. At the foot of them were twelve images ranged in a semicircular form, and before the middle figure stood a high stand or table, exactly resembling the Whatta of Othaheiti, on which lay a putrid hog, and under it pieces of sugar cane, cocoanuts, bread fruit, plantains and sweet potatoes. Koah having placed the Captain under the stand, took down the hog and held it toward him; and after having a second time addressed him in a long speech, p.r.o.nounced with much vehemence and rapidity, he let it fall on the ground and led him to the scaffolding, which they began to climb together, not without great risk of falling. At this time we saw coming in solemn procession, at the entrance of the top of the Morai, ten men carrying a live hog and a large piece of red cloth. Being advanced a few paces, they stopped and prostrated themselves; and Kaireekeea, the young man above mentioned, went to them, and receiving the cloth carried it to Koah, who wrapped it around the Captain, and afterwards offered him the hog, which was brought by Kaireekeea with the same ceremony.

"Whilst Captain Cook was aloft in this awkward situation, swathed round with red cloth, and with difficulty keeping his hold amongst the pieces of rotten scaffolding, Kaireekeea and Koah began their office, chanting sometimes in concert and sometimes alternately. This lasted a considerable time; at length Koah let the hog drop, when he and the Captain descended together. He then led him to the images before mentioned, and, having said something to each in a sneering tone, snapping his fingers at them as he pa.s.sed, he brought him to that in the center, which, from its being covered with red cloth, appeared to be in greater estimation than the rest. Before this figure he prostrated himself and kissed it, desiring Captain Cook to do the same, who suffered himself to be directed by Koah throughout the whole of this ceremony.

"We were now led back to the other division of the Morai, where there was a s.p.a.ce ten or twelve feet square, sunk about three feet below the level of the area. Into this we descended, and Captain Cook was seated between two wooden idols, Koah supporting one of his arms, whilst I was desired to support the other. At this time arrived a second procession of natives, carrying a baked hog and a pudding, some bread fruit, cocoanuts and other vegetables. When they approached us Kaireekeea put himself at their head, and presenting the pig to Captain Cook in the usual manner, began the same kind of chant as before, his companions making regular responses. We observed that after every response their parts became gradually shorter, till, toward the close, Kaireekeea's consisted of only two or three words, while the rest answered by the word Orono.

"When this offering was concluded, which lasted a quarter of an hour, the natives sat down fronting us, and began to cut up the baked hog, to peel the vegetables and break the cocoanuts; whilst others employed themselves in brewing the awa, which is done by chewing it in the same manner as at the Friendly Islands. Kaireekeea then took part of the kernel of a cocoanut, which he chewed, and wrapping it in a piece of cloth, rubbed with it the Captain's face, head, hands, arms and shoulders. The awa was then handed around, and after we had tasted it Koah and Pareea began to pull the flesh of the hog in pieces and put it into our mouths. I had no great objection to being fed by Pareea, who was very cleanly in his person, but Captain Cook, who was served by Koah, recollecting the putrid hog, could not swallow a morsel; and his reluctance, as may be supposed, was not diminished when the old man, according to his own mode of civility had chewed it for him.

"When this ceremony was finished, which Captain Cook put an end to as soon as he decently could, we quitted the Moral."

Evidently the whole purpose of Captain Cook in permitting this performance, was to flatter and gratify the natives and make himself strong to command them. The Captain himself was sickened, and got away as quickly as he could without giving offense. This was not the only case in which the native priests presented the navigator as a superior being. Perhaps the view the old sailor took of the style of ceremony was as there were so many G.o.ds, one more or less did not matter. Cook never attached importance to the freaks of superst.i.tion, except so far as it might be made useful in keeping the b.l.o.o.d.y and beastly savages in check. Bearing upon this point we quote W.D. Alexander's "Brief History of the Hawaiian People," pages 33-34:

"Infanticide was fearfully prevalent, and there were few of the older women at the date of the abolition of idolatry who had not been guilty of it. It was the opinion of those best informed that two-thirds of all the children born were destroyed in infancy by their parents. They were generally buried alive, in many cases in the very houses occupied by their unnatural parents. On all the islands the number of males was much greater than that of females, in consequence of the girls being more frequently destroyed than the boys. The princ.i.p.al reason given for it was laziness--unwillingness to take the trouble of rearing children. It was a very common practice for parents to give away their children to any persons who were willing to adopt them.

"No regular parental discipline was maintained, and the children were too often left to follow their own inclinations and to become familiar with the lowest vices.

"Neglect of the helpless. Among the common people old age was despised. The sick and those who had become helpless from age were sometimes abandoned to die or put to death. Insane people were also sometimes stoned to death."

Again we quote Alexander's History, page 49:

"Several kinds of food were forbidden to the women on pain of death, viz., pork, bananas, cocoanuts, turtles, and certain kinds of fish, as the ulua, the humu, the shark, the hihimanu or sting-ray, etc. The men of the poorer cla.s.s often formed a sort of eating club apart from their wives. These laws were rigorously enforced. At Honannau, Hawaii, two young girls of the highest rank, Kapiolani and Keoua, having been detected in the act of eating a banana, their kahu, or tutor, was held responsible, and put to death by drowning. Shortly before the abolition of the tabus, a little child had one of her eyes scooped out for the same offense. About the same time a woman was put to death for entering the eating house of her husband, although though she was tipsy at the time."

Captain Cook seems to have committed the unpardonable sin in not beginning the stated work of preaching the gospel a long generation before the missionaries arrived, and the only sound reason for this is found in Dibble's History, in his statement that the islanders steadily degenerated until the missions were organized.

Writers of good repute, A. Fornander, chief of them, are severe with Captain Cook on account of his alleged greed, not paying enough for the red feathers woven into fanciful forms. Perhaps that is a common fault in the transactions of civilized men with barbarians. William Penn is the only man with a great reputation for dealing fairly with American Red Men, and he was not impoverished by it. Cook gave nails for hogs, and that is mentioned in phrases that are malicious. Iron was to the islanders the precious metal, and they were not cheated. A long drawn out effort has been made to impress the world that Cook thought himself almost a G.o.d, and was a monster. The natives gave to the wonderful people who came to them in s.h.i.+ps, liberally of their plenty, and received in return presents that pleased them, articles of utility. Beads came along at a later day. The natives believed Cook one of the heroes of the imagination that they called G.o.ds. He sought to propitiate them and paid for fruit and meat in iron and showy trifles. His policy of progress was to introduce domestic animals.

Note the temper of Mr. Abraham Fornander, a man who has meant honesty of statement, but whose information was perverted:

"And how did Captain Cook requite this boundless hospitality, that never once made default during his long stay of seventeen days in Kealakeakua, these magnificent presents of immense value, this delicate and spontaneous attention to every want, this friends.h.i.+p of the chiefs and priests, this friendliness of the common people? By imposing on their good nature to the utmost limit of its ability to respond to the greedy and constant calls of their new friends; by shooting at one of the king's officers for endeavoring to enforce a law of the land, an edict of his sovereign that happened to be unpalatable to the new comers, and caused them some temporary inconvenience, after a week's profusion and unbridled license; by a liberal exhibition of his force and the meanest display of his bounty; by giving the king a linen s.h.i.+rt and a cutla.s.s in return for feather cloaks and helmets, which, irrespective of their value as insignia of the highest n.o.bility in the land, were worth, singly at least from five to ten thousand dollars, at present price of the feathers, not counting the cost of manufacturing; by a reckless disregard of the proprieties of ordinary intercourse, even between civilized and savage man, and a wanton insult to what he reasonably may have supposed to have been the religious sentiments of his hosts." This is up to the mark of a criminal lawyer retained to prove by native testimony that Captain James Cook was not murdered, but executed for cause. The great crime of Cook is up to this point that of playing that he was one of the Polynesian G.o.ds. Fornander says: "When the sailors carried off, not only the railing of the temple, but also the idols of the G.o.ds within it, even the large-hearted patience of Kaoo gave up, and he meekly requested that the central idol at least, might be restored. Captain King failed to perceive that the concession of the priests was that of a devotee to his saint. The priests would not sell their religious emblems and belongings for "thirty pieces of silver," or any remuneration, but they were willing to offer up the entire Heiau, and themselves on the top of it, as a holocaust to Lono, if he had requested it. So long as Cook was regarded as a G.o.d in their eyes they could not refuse him. And though they exhibited no resentment at the request, the want of delicacy and consideration on the part of Captain Cook is none the less glaring. After his death, and when the illusion of G.o.ds.h.i.+p had subsided, his spoliation of the very Heiau in which he had been deified was not one of the least of the grievances which native annalists laid up against him."

Contrast this flagrancy in advocacy of the cause of the barbarous natives with the last words Cook wrote in his journal. We quote from "A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean," by Captain James Cook, F.R.S., (Vol. II., pages 251-252):

"As it was of the last importance to procure a supply of provisions at these islands; and experience having taught me that I could have no chance to succeed in this, if a free trade with the natives were to be allowed; that is, if it were left to every man's discretion to trade for what he pleased, and in what manner he pleased; for this substantial reason, I now published an order prohibiting all persons from trading, except such as should be appointed by me and Captain Clarke; and even these were enjoined to trade only for provisions and refreshments. Women were also forbidden to be admitted into the s.h.i.+ps, except under certain restrictions. But the evil I intended to prevent, by this regulation, I soon found had already got amongst them.

"I stood in again the next morning till within three or four miles of the land, where we were met with a number of canoes laden with provisions. We brought to, and continued trading with the people in them till four in the afternoon, when, having got a pretty good supply, we made sail and stretched off to the northward.

"I had never met with a behavior so free from reserve and suspicion in my intercourse with any tribe of savages as we experienced in the people of this island. It was very common for them to send up into the s.h.i.+p the several articles they brought for barter; afterward, they would come in themselves and make their bargains on the quarter-deck.

"We spent the night as usual, standing off and on. It happened that four men and ten women who had come on board the preceding day still remained with us. As I did not like the company of the latter, I stood in sh.o.r.e toward noon, princ.i.p.ally with a view to get them out of the s.h.i.+p; and, some canoes coming off, I took that opportunity of sending away our guests.

"In the evening Mr. Bligh returned and reported that he had found a bay in which was good anchorage, and fresh water in a situation tolerably easy to be come at. Into this bay I resolved to carry the s.h.i.+ps, there to refit and supply ourselves with every refreshment that the place could afford. As night approached the greater part of our visitors retired to the sh.o.r.e, but numbers of them requested our permission to sleep on board. Curiosity was not the only motive, at least with some, for the next morning several things were missing, which determined me not to entertain so many another night.

"At eleven o'clock in the forenoon we anch.o.r.ed in the bay, which is called by the natives Karakaooa, (Kealakeakua), in thirteen fathoms water, over a sandy bottom, and about a quarter of a mile from the northeast sh.o.r.e. In this situation the south point of the bay bore south by west, and the north point west half north. We moored with the stream-anchor and cable, to the northward, unbent the sails and struck yards and topmasts. The s.h.i.+ps continued to be much crowded with natives, and were surrounded by a mult.i.tude of canoes. I had nowhere, in the course of my voyages, seen so numerous a body of people a.s.sembled in one place. For, besides those who had come off to us in canoes, all the sh.o.r.e of the bay was covered with spectators, and many hundreds were swimming around the s.h.i.+ps like shoals of fish. We could not but be struck with the singularity of this scene, and perhaps there were few on board who lamented our having failed in our endeavors to find a northern pa.s.sage homeward last summer. To this disappointment we owed our having it in our power to revisit the Sandwich Islands, and to enrich our voyage with a discovery which, though the last, seemed in many respects to be the most important that had hitherto been made by Europeans, throughout the extent of the Pacific Ocean."

This is the end of Cook's writing. His murder followed immediately. He fell by the hands of people for whom his good will was shown in his last words. The concluding pages of the journal answer all the scandals his enemies have so busily circulated.