Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 12.djvu/75

 and, after examining the islands and shores of these advanced regions, went to the Sandwich Islands, which Cook proposed to survey in greater detail during the winter months. The ships anchored in Karakakoa Bay, in Hawaii, on 17 Jan. 1779, and remained there for upwards of a fortnight, during which time their people were well received by the natives, Cook himself being treated with an extreme respect that has been described as worship and adoration. On 4 Feb. the ships put to sea, but getting into bad weather, the Resolution sprung her foremast, and they returned to their former anchorage on the 11th. The demeanour of the natives seemed changed; thievish they had been all along; they were now surly and insolent, and their robberies were bolder and more persistent. On the 13th one of them was flogged on board the Discovery for stealing the armourer's tongs; but the same afternoon another again stole the tongs, jumped overboard with them, and swam towards the shore. A boat was sent in pursuit, but the thief was picked up by a canoe and landed. The officer in command of the boat insisted that the thief should be given up, and attempted to seize the canoe as a guarantee, a step which brought on a severe skirmish, out of which the English escaped with difficulty. The same night the Discovery's cutter, lying at her anchor buoy, was taken away, and so quietly that nothing was known of the loss till the following morning. On its being reported to Cook he went on shore with an escort of marines, intending to bring the native king off as a friendly hostage. The king readily consented to go on board, but his family and the islanders generally prevented him; they began to arm; they assembled in great numbers; and Cook, wishing to avoid a conflict, retreated to the boats. At the waterside the boats and the marines fired on the crowd; Cook called out to cease firing, and to the boats to close in. One only obeyed the order; the marines having discharged their muskets were driven into the sea before they could reload, and four of them were killed. Cook, left alone on the shore, attempted also to make for the boat. As his back was turned a native stunned him by a blow on the head; he sank on his knees, and another stabbed him with a dagger. He fell into the water, where he was held down by the seething crowd; but having struggled to land, was again beaten over the head with clubs and stabbed repeatedly, the islanders ‘snatching the daggers out of each other's hands to have the horrid satisfaction of piercing the fallen victim of their barbarous rage.’ The inshore boat was, meantime, so crowded with the fugitives and in such a state of confusion that it was unable to offer any assistance; the other, commanded by Lieutenant John Williamson, lay off, a passive spectator, and finally returned on board, leaving Cook's dead body in the hands of the savages. ‘The complaints and censures that fell on the conduct of the lieutenant were so loud as to oblige Captain Clerke publicly to notice them, and to take the depositions of his accusers down in writing. It is supposed that Clerke's bad state of health and approaching dissolution induced him to destroy these papers a short time before his death’ (, Narrative, &c.) Justice, however, though tardy, eventually overtook the miserable man, and nineteen years later he was cashiered for cowardice and misconduct in the battle of Camperdown—a sentence which Nelson thought ought rather to have been capital (Nelson Despatches, iii. 2). Cook's body was partly burnt by the savages, but the most of it was given up a day or two afterwards and duly buried. In November 1874 an obelisk to his memory was erected in the immediate neighbourhood of the spot where he fell, but the truest and best memorial is the map of the Pacific.

There is no reason to suppose that Cook's death was anything more than a sudden outburst of savage fury, following on the ill-will caused by the sharp punishment inflicted on the thieves. But the mere fact that this case was one of the first on record was sufficient to call more particular attention to it; and the exceptional character of the principal victim seemed to distinguish the tragedy from all others. Hence divers stories have been invented and circulated, which are at variance with the well-established facts and with the testimony of those who were either eye-witnesses of the murder, or received their knowledge from eye-witnesses. As compared with these, we cannot accept the story said to be current among the natives, that Cook was put to death for breaking the tapù, or giving orders to pull down a temple (Athenæum, 16 Aug. 1884). Another idea is that he had passed himself off as a god, accepting and requiring divine honours (Athenæum, in loc. cit.;, Letters, 9 Oct. 1784 (Bohn's edit.), iii. 136). But the allegation seems quite unfounded, and in any case had nothing to do with the attack and the massacre.

On 21 Dec. 1762 Cook married Miss Batts at Barking, and had by her six children, three of whom died in infancy. Of the others, Nathaniel, aged sixteen, was lost in the Thunderer in the West Indies 3 Oct. 1780; Hugh died at Cambridge, aged seventeen; James, the eldest, commander of the Spitfire sloop,