HOW THE END CAME.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20088, 27 October 1928, Page 5 (Supplement)

HOW THE END CAME.

MURDERED AT HAWAII.

A MISCHANCE UNEXPECTED.

SAD NEWS FOR THE WORLD

The Pacific has been unkind to many venturers upon its. long-unknown waters, as if it tolerated with ill grace invasion of its remote privacy. For Cook to return in safety from two prolonged exploratory voyages was somewhat remarkable, hut ho was not to escape a third time; and the blow was struck from a quarter whence he least expected it. * On December 1, of 1778, ( ;iftcr the expedition among ths islands off Alaska, tide Resolution reached the Sandwich group again. There, on this visit, the islands of Maui and Hawaii were discovered. George Gilbert, of the Resolution, a junior member then of her rating, expressed in his journal the delight of this renewed acquaintance with the life of such tropic islands. The joy that we experienced on our arrival here is only to be conceived by ourselves, or people under like circum- - stances; for after suffering excess o£ hunger and a number of other hardships most severely felt by us for the space of r.ear ten months, we had now come into a delightful climate, where we had almost everything we could wish for in great profusion: and this luxury was still heightened by o\ir having been at a shorter allowance of provision this last passage than over we were at before. Diverse Accounts. Cook's comment on the welcome given by the Sandwich Islanders on this occasion is enthusiastic, yet makes 6trange reading for those who now know what was soon to befall him. I had never met with a behaviour so free from reserve and suspicion, in my intercourse with any tribes of savages, aa we experienced in the people of this island. ... It is to be observed to their honour that they never once attempted to cheat lis in exchanges, nor to commit a theft. They understand trading as well as most people, and seemed to comprehend clearly the reason of our plying upon the coast. We could not but bo struck with the uingularity of the scene; and perhaps there were few on board who ever lamented our having failed in our endeavours to find a northern passage homeward last summer. To this disappointment we owed our having it in our power to revisit the Sandwich Islands, and to enrich oi|r voyage with a discovery which, though Hie last, seemed in many respects to be the most important that liaiiThitherto been made by Europeans throughout the extent of the Pacific Ocean.

These, according to one transcriber, were the last written words of Captain Cook. It is not certain that lie penned them all. A caveat has been entered by Sir Walter Besant against the' dictum of the closing sentence. " What is Hawaii?" he asks. "What arc all the Sandwich Islands together—compared with New Zealand and Australia?" The point may be left; more memorable is the c&nfidence uttered, a confidence soon to be proved misplaced, for it was at the hands of these very people*' that Cook was to meet his death. How it all came about has had many tellings, some of them mutually contradictory. At first the natives were profusely kind, so kind, indeed, that they were in danger of want through excessive hospitality. Cook noted this risk. .'But the natives bore no very obvious resentment toward the men in danger of outstaying their welcome. A Change of Attitude.

On February 4 the Resolution left. A week or so later both ships came x back, 'ihe Resolution having sprung her foremast in a gale. There were no signs of welcome. Quarrels arose about water unci other things. Finally, one. of the Discovery's cutters was stolen. Cook went ashore, resolved to make an ijxample of the thief. He would even capture the king and take him aboard, there to be kept until the cutter should ,bo given up. An eye-witness, Hopkins, tells what followed.

Cook having come on shore nnd had an interview with Kalaniopuu, the two wulkcd •together toward the shore, Cook designing -,:o take the king on board his ship and detain him there till the missing boat uhould bo restored. The peoplo seeing this, and having their suspicions already roused, thronged round and objected to the king's ijoing further. His wife, too. entreated v.hat ho would not go on board tho ships. Kalaniopuu hesitated. While ho was standing in doubt a man came running from the other side of the bay crying. " It is war. The foreigners have fired at a ennoe from one of their boat 3 and killed a chief!" On hearing this tho people became _ enraged and tho chiefs wero alarmed, fearing that Cook would put tho king to' death. Again !iia wife, Kanona, used her entreaties that ae would not go on bonrd, and the chiefs joined with her, the peoplo in the meantime arming themselves with stones, clubs, and iipears. The king sat down, und Cnptaih Cook, who seemed agitated, began walking •jowai'd his boat. Wlulst doing so ,i native attacked him with a spear. Cock turned and with his double-barrelled gun shot the :aian who struck him. Some of the people ihen threw stones at the Englishman, which ncing seen by his men in the boats, they :ired on tho natives. Cook endeavoured to atop the firing, but on account of the noise ,rie was unable to do so. He then tinned !o speak to the people on shore, when uomeone stabbed him in the bark with a ;pall<sn, or ditgser, and at the same fime_ a apenr was driven into his, body. He feil into the water and spoke no more.

There was courage on the part of all iSxcept tho lieutenant commanding the launch, hut coinage could do no more :;lian take some vengeance, obtain lor the .mortal remains of the commander " every ceremony due to iiis rank, an,d »teer a course homeward. Look was dead! With all the speed then ; ;:he tidings /lew round the wond. lie bad made the greatest discovery o, a.l.