![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
|||||||
Returning from Unalaska to winter in Hawaii, Cook sighted the island on 26 November 1778. For the next seven weeks he sailed around the islands of Maui and Hawaii, looking for a suitable place to land and trading with the canoes that sailed out to them from the shore. Finally, on 17 January 1779, during the festival of makahiki, the Resolution and Discovery entered Kealakekua Bay and were greeted by huge crowds—Cook estimated up to 800 canoes filled the bay—and it is at this point that Cook’s journal stops. James King’s journal relates the ‘long and tiresome ceremony’ that Cook was honoured with on shore which included making offerings, wrapping Cook in a red cloth, addressing him as Lono and desiring him to prostrate himself and kiss an image of a god, which it appears he did. Afterwards, ‘two men with wands went before the Captain repeating the same word as before (Lono), & on which all prostrated themselves.’ The exact meaning of this ceremony has been hotly debated ever since, with many observers at the scene, and subsequent readers of the voyage journals, believing that it acknowledged Cook as an incarnation of the god Lono. A number of commentators saw Cook’s death less than a month later at the hands of the Hawaiians as a punishment from God for his presumption in allowing himself to be honoured thus. Others have questioned whether this interpretation might not be yet another example of Eurocentric presumption of superiority. |
|||
|
text only ~ merchandise ~ links ~ help ~ comments |
|||