On 14 February 1779 British explorer Captain James Cook was killed as he attempted to kidnap Kalaniʻōpuʻu, the ruling chief (aliʻi nui) of the island of Hawaii, and hold him hostage for the return of a cutter which Hawaiians had stolen. As Cook and his men attempted to take the chief to his ship, they were confronted by a crowd of Hawaiians at Kealakekua Bay seeking to prevent Kalaniʻōpuʻu leaving. In the ensuing confrontation, Cook, four British marines and 17 Hawaiians were killed.
In January 1778, during his third Pacific voyage, Cook had become the first known European to visit the Hawaiian Islands. His expedition returned to the islands in January 1779 and anchored in Kealakekua Bay. Relations between the British and Hawaiians were initially good, as Cook's expedition had arrived during the Makahiki season, a celebration of fertility and the god Lono. Although the Hawaiians called Cook "Lono" and treated him with reverence, scholars are divided on whether they considered him a deity.
Cook's expedition left the bay on 4 February but were forced to return a week later after one of its ships was damaged in a gale. However, the Makahiki season had ended and tensions between the British and Hawaiians increased. A series of thefts by Hawaiians and violent reprisals by the British culminated in the theft of the cutter and Cook's attempt to take Kalaniʻōpuʻu hostage for its return. After Cook was stabbed and beaten to death in the following affray, his body was dismembered by the Hawaiians and distributed to their chiefs – a mark of respect for a high-ranking adversary. Following reprisals by the British in which several more Hawaiians were killed, Cook's remains were returned to the British and were buried at sea with full military honours.
Following Cook's death, he was widely celebrated in Europe as a heroic explorer and humanitarian. However, some crew member accounts of his final voyage depicted him as hot-tempered and responsible for the mistreatment of indigenous people. For some decades after his death, many Hawaiians venerated him as an ancestral being, but as Christianity spread in Hawaii, his death was increasingly viewed as divine punishment.
The British naval officer, James Cook, led three voyages of exploration to the Pacific and Southern Oceans, conducted between 1768 and 1779. During his third and final voyage, Cook commanded an expedition consisting of HMS Resolution, HMS Discovery and their crew. He and his crew became the first known Europeans to encounter the Hawaiian Islands when they sighted the island of Oahu on 18 January 1778. In the following days Cook landed on Kauai then Niʻihau.
Return to islands and landing at Kealakekua Bay, Hawaii
On 2 February 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 Hawaii and trading with locals, then making anchor in Kealakekua Bay, Hawaii, on 17 January 1779.
News of the strange visitors had spread throughout the islands, and Cook and his crew were initially welcomed with great excitement, a crowd of about 10,000 gathering on the shore or rowing to the ships in canoes. The arrival of the British coincided with the Makahiki season, a New Year festival in honour of the god Lono of the Hawaiian religion, and a celebration of fertility and the yearly harvest. Cook was led ashore by a Hawaiian chief and a priest who conducted him to the Lono shrine (heiau) of Hikeau, at the southern end of the bay, where the priests had their main settlement. A crowd repeatedly shouted "Lono" and prostrated themselves as the procession passed. Priests led Cook through an elaborate ceremony at the shrine before he was conducted back to his ship.On 25 January the high chief (aliʻi nui) of the island, Kalaniʻōpuʻu, met Cook near the shrine where they conducted a ceremonial exchange of names and the symbols of their authority. Both Cook and Kalaniʻōpuʻu were referred to as Lono, and Hawaiians prostrated themselves when they passed. The anthropologists Gananath Obeyesekere and Marshall Sahlins have debated whether Hawaiians considered Cook to be the god Lono. Anthropologist Anne Salmond has argued that high chiefs were considered to be akua, descended from divine beings, and that both Cook and Kalaniʻōpuʻu were considered descendants of Lono.
While Cook and many of his crew had some knowledge of Polynesian languages and cultures, they were unaware of the significance of these ceremonies and rituals. Nevertheless, relations between the British and Hawaiians were initially good. The priests based in the settlement of Hikiau permitted the British to set up an observatory and camp near the shrine. Trade with the ships flourished, the Hawaiians particularly valuing iron goods. The British reported fewer thefts and tensions than had been the case in the other Pacific islands.
Tensions increased, however, when the Makahiki season ended and the season of the war-god Kū began. A Hawaiian was flogged for theft and some of the British beat Hawaiians for trivial reasons. When the British needed firewood, the priests allowed them to buy the wooden fence surrounding the shrine. Some sailors also took carved images from the shrine and the priests asked for the return of the main image. Sources are divided on the extent to which the incident offended the Hawaiians. Soon after, the priests allowed the British to bury a recently deceased sailor on the grounds of the shrine.
In early February Kalaniʻōpuʻu and the priests anxiously asked Cook when he was going to leave. After a final round of ceremonial exchanges of gifts, and celebrations involving boxing, wrestling and a fireworks display, Cook's expedition sailed out of Kealakekua Bay on 4 February.
The expedition soon encountered a hard gale which wrenched the mainmast of the Resolution. On 11 February they returned to Kealakekua Bay to make repairs. Marine Corporal John Ledyard later wrote: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.
The return of Cook (representing Lono) during the season of Kū was contrary to Hawaiian beliefs and caused tension between the priests of Lono and the chiefs who were associated with Kū. This time there were no welcoming crowds as the priests had placed a taboo (kapu) on the bay. The priests, however, gave the British permission to again set up a camp near the shrine so the Resolution's mast could be repaired. Kalaniʻōpuʻu questioned Cook about his return and was displeased with his answers. He was also displeased with the priests for allowing the British to set up a camp on the shore. Nevertheless, he lifted the kapu on the bay, and trade with the ships resumed.
The British soon noticed an increase in thefts and a more defiant attitude from the Hawaiians. A Hawaiian chief took the armourer's tongs from the Discovery and was punished with 40 lashes. The tongs were taken again but were returned the same day. When a British landing party tried to take a Hawaiian canoe in retaliation, a dispute followed in which a prominent chief named Palea was hit with an oar, and an angry crowd of about 300 Hawaiians responded by hurling stones and beating the landing party. On the same day a party gathering water for the ships was dispersed by Hawaiians, and a marine was pelted with stones. Following these disturbances Cook ordered his marines to load their muskets with ball rather than small shot, and ordered all Hawaiians off the ships.