Death of James Cook

James Cook led three separate voyages to chart areas of the globe unknown to the Kingdom of Great Britain.{{cite book |first=James |last=Cook |author-link=James Cook |title=The Three Voyages of Captain James Cook Round the World. ... |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h6UFAAAAMAAJ |year=1821 |publisher=Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown}} During his third and final voyage, he serendipitously encountered what are known today as the Islands of Hawaii.{{cite book |first1=Claus M. |last1=Naske |first2=Herman E. |last2=Slotnick |title=Alaska: A History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dXsCBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA55 |date=22 October 2014 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |isbn=978-0-8061-8613-9 |page=55}} He first sighted the islands on 18 January 1778 and landed on both Kauai and Ni'ihau.{{Cite book |last=Hough |first=Richard |title=Captain James Cook: a biography |date=1997 |publisher=Norton |isbn=978-0-393-31519-6 |location=New York |pages=311–315}}{{cite book |first=James L. |last=Erwin |title=Declarations of Independence: Encyclopedia of American Autonomous and Secessionist Movements |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pYrlk8fDC50C&pg=PA62 |year=2007 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-313-33267-8|page=62}}

{{Hawaii history}}

On 2 February 1778, Cook continued on to the coast of North America and Alaska, mapping and searching for a Northwest Passage to the Atlantic Ocean for approximately nine months. In November, he returned to the island chain to resupply, initially exploring the coasts of Maui and the Big Island of Hawaii and trading with locals, then making anchor in Kealakekua Bay in January 1779.{{Cite book |last=Hough |first=Richard |title=Captain James Cook: a biography |date=1997 |publisher=Norton |isbn=978-0-393-31519-6 |location=New York |pages=330–333}} Cook and his crew were initially welcomed and treated with honour,{{cite book |first=Jeff |last=Campbell |title=Hawaii |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TRXR69wo-rYC&pg=PA38 |date=15 September 2010 |publisher=Lonely Planet |isbn=978-1-74220-344-7 |page=38}} as his arrival coincided with the Makahiki season,{{cite book |first=Ruth M. |last=Tabrah |author-link=Ruth Tabrah |title=Hawaii: A History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZT7fAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA24 |date=17 December 1984 |publisher=W. W. Norton |isbn=978-0-393-24369-7 |pages=19–22}} an ancient New Year festival in honour of the god Lono of the Hawaiian religion, and a celebration of the yearly harvest.{{cite book |first=Marshall |last=Sahlins |author-link=Marshall Sahlins |title=How "Natives" Think: About Captain Cook, For Example |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=adVe-z1xuvsC&pg=PA32 |date=1 October 1996 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-73369-2 |page=3–}} The idea or suggestion that the Native Hawaiians considered Cook to be the god Lono himself is considered{{By whom|date=September 2024}} to be inaccurate and is attributed to William Bligh. It is conceivable that some Hawaiians may have used the name of Lono as a metaphor when describing Cook or other possible explanations other than Hawaiians simply assuming the explorer was their own deity.{{cite book |first1=Stephen H. |last1=Sumida |last2=Sumida |first2=S |title=AND THE VIEW FROM THE SHORE (cl) |date=May 2013 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g8wGGeZ8lcYC&pg=PA18 |publisher=University of Washington Press |isbn=978-0-295-80345-6 |pages=18–19}}

However, after Cook and the crews of both ships, {{HMS|Resolution|1771|6}} and {{HMS|Discovery|1774|6}}, left the islands, the festival season had ended and the season for battle and war had begun under the worship and rituals for Kūkaʻilimoku, the god of war.{{cite book |first=Melissa |last=Meyer |title=Thicker Than Water: The Origins of Blood as Symbol and Ritual |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GxHKAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA184 |date=4 February 2014 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-34200-5 |page=184}} Although Cook's sequential visits may have coincided with native traditional seasons, the natives had soured on Cook and his men by the time of Cook's initial departure. John Ledyard was the only American aboard Cook's ship during this time. Ledyard was present during the events leading up to and during Cook's death, and wrote a detailed account of the events in his journals.{{cite book |last=Ledyard |first=John |author-link=John Ledyard |editor-first=James |editor-last=Zug |editor-link=James Zug |title=The Last Voyage of Captain Cook: The Collected Writings of John Ledyard |series=National Geographic adventure classics |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lwyAAAAAMAAJ&q=the+last+voyage+of+captain+cook+the+collected+writings+of+John+Ledyard |date=2005 |publisher=National Geographic Society |isbn=9780792293477 |page=92}}

During Cook's initial visit, he attempted to barter with the Hawaiians and ordered his men to remove the wood used to border the natives' sacred "Morai" burial ground, used for high-ranking individuals and depictions of their gods. Ledyard says in his journals that Cook offered some iron hatchets for the wooden border around the Morai and when the dismayed and insulted chiefs refused, Cook proceeded to give orders to ascend the Morai, chop down the fence and load the boats with the wood.{{cite book |last=Sparks |first=Jared |author-link=Jared Sparks |title=Life of John Ledyard, American Traveller |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ftw5AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA136 |access-date=12 February 2018 |year=1847 |publisher=C. C. Little and J. Brown |pages=136–139}} John Ledyard also tells of an episode where Captain Charles Clerke accused a native chieftain of stealing the Resolution's jolly boat. However, the boat was soon found and the native chief was incensed by the accusation. After staying in the bay for 19 days, Cook and his two ships sailed out of the bay.

File:Cook dagger.jpg in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada]]

Image:John Webber - 'Kealakekua Bay and the village Kowroaa', 1779, ink, ink wash and watercolor.jpg, artist aboard Cook's shipWilliam Hauptman, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/886088 "Webber before Cook: two water-colours after Sterne,"] The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 136, No. 1903 (April 1994), p. 237.]]

On 6 February Cook's ships left Kealakekua Bay. They were soon met with an unexpected hard gale which wrenched the mainmast of the Resolution. On 11 February, the Resolution returned again to Kealakekua Bay to make repairs. Ledyard writes on 13 February:

Our return to this bay was as disagreeable to us as it was to the inhabitants, for we were reciprocally tired of each other. They had been oppressed and were weary of our prostituted alliance...It was also equally evident from the looks of the natives as well as every other appearance that our friendship was now at an end, and that we had nothing to do but to hasten our departure to some different island where our vices were not known, and where our intrinsic virtues might gain us another short space of being wondered at.

While the Resolution was anchored in Kealakekua Bay, one of its two longboats was stolen from the ship by the Hawaiians.{{cite book |first=Jerry D. |last=Moore |title=Visions of Culture: An Introduction to Anthropological Theories and Theorists |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=We4N11-IrB4C&pg=PA336 |date=24 May 2012 |publisher=Rowman Altamira |isbn=978-0-7591-2219-2 |page=336}}

To try to obtain the return of the stolen longboat from the Hawaiians, Cook attempted to kidnap the aliʻi nui of the island of Hawaii, Kalaniʻōpuʻu. Possibly being quite sick at this point, Cook made what were later described as a series of poor decisions.{{cite book |first=James |last=Cook |title=The Explorations of Captain James Cook in the Pacific, as Told by Selections of His Own Journals, 1768–1779 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SiRwbO-jx-AC&pg=PA255 |year=1971 |publisher=Courier Corporation |isbn=978-0-486-22766-5 |page=256}}

File:Death of Captain Cook by John Cleveley the Younger, Aquatint Francis Jukes HMA I259817 TePapa.jpg, Aquatint by Francis Jukes]]

File:deathofcookoriginal.jpg

File:Death of Captain Cook.jpg]]

On the morning of 14 February 1779,{{cite book |title=Book Notes: A Monthly Literary Magazine and Review of New Books |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_9kRAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA54 |year=1901 |publisher=Siegel-Cooper |page=54}} Cook and his men launched from Resolution along with a company of armed marines. They went directly to the ruling chief's enclosure where Kalaniʻōpuʻu was still sleeping.{{cite book |first=Daniel |last=O'Sullivan |title=In Search of Captain Cook: Exploring the Man Through His Own Words |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZHUAAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA224 |date=30 March 2008 |publisher=I.B.Tauris |isbn=978-0-85771-350-6 |page=224}} They woke him and directed him, urgently but without threat, to come with them. As Cook and his men marched the ruler out of the royal enclosure, Cook himself held the hands of the elder chief as they walked away from the town toward the beach. Kalaniʻōpuʻu's favourite wife,{{cite book |title=Oregon Teachers' Monthly |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yGQbAQAAIAAJ&pg=RA3-PA23 |year=1903 |page=3}} Kānekapōlei, saw them as they were leaving and yelled after her husband but he ignored her and did not stop. She called to the other chiefs and the townspeople to alert them to the departure of her husband. Two chiefs, Kanaʻina (Kalaimanokahoʻowaha),{{cite book |first=Sheldon |last=Dibble |author-link=Sheldon Dibble |title=History of the Sandwich Islands |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EwqpkYKuXSMC&pg=PA38 |year=1843 |publisher=Press of the Mission seminary |page=38}}{{cite book |last=Taylor |first=Albert Pierce |author-link=Albert Pierce Taylor |title=Under Hawaiian Skies: A Narrative of the Romance, Adventure and History of the Hawaiian Islands |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_2CmsAMr75wC |year=1922 |publisher=Advertiser Publishing Company, Ltd |location=Honolulu |oclc=479709 |page=66}} the young son of the former ruler, Keaweʻopala,{{cite book |first=Kanalu G. Terry |last=Young |title=Rethinking the Native Hawaiian Past |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JQLtAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA55 |date=25 February 2014 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-77669-7 |page=55}} and Nuaa, the king's personal attendant,{{cite book |editor1-first=A. Grove |editor1-last=Day |editor1-link=A. Grove Day |title=True Tales of Hawaii & the South Seas |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WnvWh9LM4IUC |date=1 December 1993 |publisher=Mutual Publishing LLC |page=318 |isbn=978-0-935180-22-0}} followed the group to the beach with the king's wife behind them pleading along the way for the aliʻi nui to stop and come back.{{cite book |first=Lynne |last=Withey |title=Voyages of Discovery: Captain Cook and the Exploration of the Pacific |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GiynU6HrSJUC&pg=PA387 |date=January 1989 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-06564-2 |page=387}}

By the time they got to the beach, Kalaniʻōpuʻu's two youngest sons, who had been following their father believing they were being invited to visit the ship again with the ruler, began to climb into the boats waiting at the shore.{{cite book |first=Ralph Simpson |last=Kuykendall |author-link=Ralph Simpson Kuykendall |title=The Hawaiian Kingdom |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ndDe5Un57x0C&pg=PA18 |date=1 January 1938 |publisher=University of Hawaii Press |isbn=978-0-87022-431-7 |page=18}} Kānekapōlei shouted to them to get out of the boat and pleaded with her husband to stop. The ruler then realized that Cook and his men were not asking him to visit the ship, but were attempting to abduct him. At this point he stopped and sat down.{{cite book |first=John H. |last=Chambers |title=Hawaii |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HZpfH2LJoJoC&pg=PA55 |year=2006 |publisher=Interlink Books |isbn=978-1-56656-615-5 |page=55}}

Cook's men were confronted on the beach by an elderly kahuna who approached them holding a coconut and chanting. They yelled at the priest to go away, but he kept approaching them while singing the mele.{{cite book |title=Hawaiian Historical Society Reprints |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ajsjAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA70 |year=1791 |publisher=s.n. |page=70}} When Cook and his men looked away from the old kahuna, they saw that the beach was now filled with thousands of Native Hawaiians.{{cite book |first=Stephen R. |last=Bown |title=Madness, Betrayal and the Lash: The Epic Voyage of Captain George Vancouver |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m5wcA_8onnEC&pg=PA30 |year=2008 |publisher=Douglas & McIntyre |isbn=978-1-55365-339-4 |page=30}} Cook told Kalaniʻōpuʻu to get up but the ruler refused. As the townspeople began to gather around them, Cook and his men began to back away from the hostile crowd and raise their guns. The two chiefs and Kānekapōlei shielded the aliʻi nui as Cook tried to get him to his feet.{{cite book |first=Richard |last=Tregaskis |author-link=Richard Tregaskis |title=The warrior king: Hawaii's Kamehameha the Great |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=giQxAQAAIAAJ |date=November 1973 |publisher=Macmillan |page=115|isbn=9780026198509 }}

David Samwell, surgeon of the *Discovery*, describes what happened next:

"While the king was in this situation, a chief, well known to us, of the name of Coho (Koho), was observed lurking near, with an iron dagger, partly concealed under his cloke, seemingly, with the intention of stabbing Captain Cook, or the lieutenant of marines. The latter proposed to fire at him, but Captain Cook would not permit it. Coho (Koho) closing upon them, obliged the officer to strike him with his piece, which made him retire. Another Indian laid hold of the serjeant's musket, and endeavoured to wrench it from him, but was prevented by the lieutenant's making a blow at him."

The account continues:

"A man threw a stone at [Cook]; which he returned with a discharge of small shot… he expostulated strongly with the most forward of the crowd… One man was observed, behind a double canoe, in the action of darting his spear at Captain Cook, who was forced to fire at him in his own defence, but happened to kill another close to him…"

Following these escalating exchanges, the situation on the beach rapidly deteriorated. The crowd pressed in more tightly around Cook and his men, who had become separated in the growing confusion. Cook is reported to have abandoned the attempt to remove Kalaniʻōpuʻu and began signaling to the boats offshore to assist with an evacuation. Amid the noise and disorder, he found himself increasingly isolated near the shoreline as the tension gave way to violence.

Kanaʻina angrily approached Cook, who reacted by striking the chief with the broad (flat) side of his sword. Kanaʻina jumped at Cook and grabbed him. Some accounts state that Kanaʻina did not intend to hit Cook while other descriptions say the chief deliberately struck the navigator across the head with his leiomano.{{cite book |first=Glyndwr |last=Williams |author-link=Glyndwr Williams |title=The Death of Captain Cook: A Hero Made and Unmade |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RfbMHdsFom8C&pg=PA37 |year=2008 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-03194-4 |page=37}} Either way, Kanaʻina pushed Cook, who fell to the sand. As Cook attempted to get up, Nuaa lunged at him and fatally stabbed him in the chest with a metal dagger, obtained by trade from Cook's ship during the same visit. Cook fell with his face in the water. This caused a violent, close-quarters melee between the Hawaiians and Cook's men.{{cite book |first=John |last=Meares |author-link=John Meares |title=Hawaiian Historical Society. Reprints (1787, 1788 and 1789) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=USMOAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA76 |year=1791 |page=76}}

Four of the Royal Marines (Corporal James Thomas and Privates Theophilus Hinks, Thomas Fachett, and John Allen) were killed and two were wounded. The remaining sailors and marines, heavily outnumbered, continued to fire as they retreated to their small boat and rowed back to their ship, killing several of the angered people on the beach, including possibly High Chief Kanaʻina. Cook's ships did not leave Kealakekua Bay until 22 February; they had remained for another week to continue repair of the mast and collect better-quality drinking water.

A young William Bligh, the future captain of {{HMS|Bounty||6}}, later claimed to have been watching with a spyglass from Resolution as Cook's body was dragged up the hill to the town by the Native Hawaiians, where they tore him to pieces.{{cite book |first=Vanessa |last=Collingridge |author-link=Vanessa Collingridge |date=2003 |title=Captain Cook: The Life, Death and Legacy of History's Greatest Explorer |publisher=Ebury Press |isbn=978-0091888985 |page=413}} Despite the enmity, the Hawaiians had prepared his body with funerary rituals usually reserved for the chiefs and highest elders of society. Hawaiians placed value on bones, particularly the long bones, such as in the legs, and would remove them from the rest of the body for keeping. Hawaiians never practiced cannibalism and no evidence has ever been found for the assertion.https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/how-the-foolish-rumour-that-hawaiians-ate-cook-began/xpl1a9z86 After requests from the British, some of his remains were returned to his crew for burial at sea.{{harvnb|Collingridge|2003|p=413}}

• Death of Cook, several paintings
• List of kidnappings

{{clear}}

{{reflist|30em}}

{{Captain James Cook|state=collapsed}}

Category:1779 crimes in Oceania

Category:1779 in Hawaii

Category:Ancient Hawaii

Category:Battles involving Great Britain

Category:Battles involving Hawaii

Category:Conflicts in 1779

Category:History of Hawaii

Category:James Cook

Category:Kidnappings