and Ellis, who wrote five-and-thirty years ago, adopts a mixed orthography in respect of the above letters.

To Kalaniopuu, then, the great news was carried from Oahu; and the account of the strangers was embellished and added to in the usual manner with oral traditions. By Mohu's description the ships, as well as their crews, were animated beings, the latter perhaps seeming a parasitical life attached to the former, or to have the same relation which the coral insect bears to the common coral branch. A small piece of canvas procured from the English had been sent by the Chief of Kauai to the King of Oahu, who presented the rarity to his wife. It was not long before a public procession gave the fit opportunity for female vanity, and the queen walked proudly with the rag of canvas worn in the most conspicuous part of her dress. As that dress was particularly scanty, this exotic addition to it must have been well displayed, and attractive of much attention. It probably had an effect as dissipating to the wearer's mind as Hans Christian Andersen's red shoes at his confirmation.

Whilst Cook was absent, war had broken out between Hawaii and Maui; the king of the latter island being Kahekili-called by Cook and others Titeree. Kalanio puu, King of Hawaii, invaded his neighbour's island; and on that occasion he was accompanied by a youth in whom was already lighted the fire of military and administrative genius, who became afterwards a great conqueror, and the founder of the present dynasty of Hawaii-Nei-i. e. the whole group of Hawaii, as distinguished from the single island of Hawaii. This was Kaméhaméha, the future warrior king.

It is the effect both of sorrow and of success to make men superstitious. The war-gods were carried

in the forefront of the armies, and in battle the islanders trusted as much to the effect of terror produced by the frightful countenances of their idols on their enemy, as to their own prowess. The gods were at this juncture in exaltation; and the minds of those who trusted in them were more than usually accessible to any fresh manifestation of divinity. This particular state of feeling is woven up with the mixed narrative of events which follows.

On the 26th of November a pitched battle was fought, in which the invading king was triumphant. The victors at evening retired to Wailuku, a bay on the north side of Maui, to refresh themselves after the battle; and lo! a marvel awaits them: at morning they beheld in the bay the very islands of gods, report of which had been previously brought to them. Is not this the reward of victors? Can this be other than Lono returned to salute the conquerors? The belief that Cook was indeed Lono, a belief which that great navigator thought it his interest to acquiesce in, if not to cherish, became in the end a proximate cause of his untimely death. Kalaniopuu sent off a present to the ships of some hogs, and afterwards made a state visit to the commander on board, accompanied by the young Kaméhaméha. The latter, with a few attendants, remained on board all night, greatly to the consternation of those on shore, who seeing the vessels stand out to sea, supposed the god had carried away their young warrior, and made loud and bitter lamentations for his loss. Kaméhaméha was soon landed in safety, and Cook pursued his way for Hawaii, and on the 2nd of December arrived at Kohala.

CHAPTER VII.

THE TRAGEDY IN KEALAKEAKUA BAY.

CONTINUING his course round the island, occasion

ally trading with the natives, Cook's two ships anchored, January 17, 1779, in the bay on the western side of Hawaii, called variously Kaawaroa, Karakakoua, and Kealakeakua. The time of his arrival there was a week of tabu. An oppressive sacerdotalism united itself with an absolute monarchy in governing the nation. The priesthood and the kingship were obliged to respect each other; and their union, instead of counterbalancing the power which each possessed, and so ameliorating it to the common people, was an alliance which riveted the chain of feudalism more completely round that people's neck. One of the great instruments used by both king and priests for maintaining their power and their revenue, was the system of tabu or taboo. It was a consecration of any object, or person, or period of time, for some exclusive purpose; and it was enforced with sanguinary penalties. There were permanent tabus, as of the king's fish-ponds and bathingplaces: there were long-continued tabus, not taken off, in some cases, for many years; and there were shorter tabus, existing a week, or a single day. Sometimes a whole district, or an entire island, was placed under tabu, during the continuance of which it was excommunicated, no canoe or person being allowed to approach

it. In the tabu season, if it were strict,- for there was a lighter and a more stringent kind,—every light and fire was to be extinguished; all avocations were suspended; on that wave which all the people, young and old of both sexes, loved so much, no canoe might be inched; and in it none might bathe. No one might be seen out of doors; and as the purpose of the tabu would be frustrated by any sound emitted by animal or bird, to prevent such a catastrophe, the mouths of dogs and pigs were tied up; and as for the poor garrulous fowls, after having had their eyes bandaged, they were, by way of further precaution, put under a calabash, and their quietus made in double darkness. Such a tabu was a living death. Nothing that the Church of Rome. has effected by her severest ban approached its completeness; the silence of an Indian dhurna was not so depressing. The sacred chiefs alone, those who claimed origin from the gods, the king and the priests, were allowed locomotion. Before these the common people prostrated themselves with their faces in the dust; but neither priest nor king might touch anything themselves, and food was put into their mouths by other hands than their own. It was at such a season that Cook arrived in Kealakeakua Bay.

This bay is one of volcanic formation. In parts of it, as along the whole of its north-west shore, the deep water is close to land, so that a boat may pull close to the rocks, which are entirely formed of lava, dark, porous, and hard. At other places the bay has a beach composed of the same material; and at the head of the bay the lava rocks rise up steeply; and it would seem that at some time a land-slip or an earthquake had torn away a portion of the cliff, which has sunk below the level of the sea, and has left exposed in the face of the

rock caverns, through some of which can be traced the flow of lava from the volcano. These caves are used for places of sepulture.

Though silence reigned on sea and on shore when the 'Discovery' and 'Resolution' cast anchor in the bay, it is a proof that their commander had quite acquired the reputation of the returned Lono that the tabu was taken off in consequence of his approach. Great numbers of people then went on board, accompanied by a high chief, Palea. With the Hawaiians, Mokualii was the god of canoe-makers, and when the natives saw some of the seamen caulking the vessels, they pronounced them to be Mokualii's clan. Several of the ships' company were smoking cigars, and these received the name of Lonovolcano. Many women, as before, visited the vessels, and numerous persons of both sexes flocked round Cook and paid him divine honours. An old priest, who had once been a famous warrior, approached the captain. with the utmost veneration, threw over his shoulders a piece of red cloth, and offered a pig, pronouncing at the time a long oration. The Apostles at Lystra, when the priests under similar circumstances were preparing to sacrifice to them the garlanded ox, cried out with horror, 'We are men!' and prevented the intended rite; but in the history of Cook's behaviour at Hawaii we do not find that he deprecated the religious ceremonies of which he was frequently the object, or disclaimed the character of the god which the heathen people assigned to him.

The multitudes who were attracted to the bay were very great for a sparse population. Ledyard computed the number of persons at upwards of 15,000, and he states that 3,000 canoes were counted afloat at one time. The latter fact appears more remarkable than the

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