The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1879-05-03
THE PACIFIC
00mmertialA0bert
SATURDAY. A 8.
Monthly Letter from Europe-No. 81.
our kegular CorTespondent-l
LoSpox. March 25th. 1879.

Captain Cooks Centenary at Paris, 1 referred L
the Hawaiian account Of the great navigator
death, a synopsis Of which may be Of interest tc
Hawaiian readers even at this day. 1t was first
published in 1875 by Mr.. de varigny, ex-minister
Of Hawaii and author Of s' Fourteen Years in the
Sandwich Islands," in the shape Of q poem on
Captain Cook attributed to KuIa, an eyewitness
Of the massacre in Kealakekua Bay. 1t describes
how two forests were seen gently floating on the
waters: how Kupa and others were ordered to
swim up to them how they found them inhabit-
ed by gods. who breathed out fire and smoke
from their nostrils and mouths, had dazzling
white skins and sparkling eyes, wore skins of
various eoIors with holes in the sides, into which
they plunged their hands and which appeared
full Of treasures. A god with a thunderbOlt kills
Kupa's father. Bhereupon the other swimmers
take to fight. The priest declares that the foat-
ing island Is the war vessel Of the god LOnO, VINO
after numbering his wife through jealousy left
Hawaii bong ago to explore the seas and had now
returned, according to bis promise, after six gen
e~ratiOns. lie bids the natives take bananas,
eOeOannts and oranges, which are accepted. At
night LonO and Lis fellow gods shoot kissing
arrows OF fire at the stars, making some OF them
fall into the sea. Flames Of strange colOrs de-
scending from the trees Of the floating islands
and extraordinary sounds alarmed the natives.
Next day Lono lands, is treated as a god with
sacrifices and pFOstrations. but whether from an
ger or from having forgotten the language, he
makes no answer. Several Of his inferior gods
seize on the sacred fish destined for the altar,
others begin pulling up the palisades surround
ing the sacred enclosure, the Moral, where the
elders meet. King Kalaimano demonstrates, but
they laugh and persist. Lono comes up, crosses
the sacred boundary and is about to enter the
Moral. Kalaimano intercepts his progress, but
Lono rudeIy pushes him away. Kalaimano takes
Lono up in his arms and on his struggling to free
himself, presses him tightly. LOno cries out
with pain. "He cries, so he is not a god ex-
claims Kalaimano and kills him. The other
gods. who were pulling up the stakes, fly but the
natives fall on them and strange to say. their
blood flows like that Of mortals. Kalaimano
however while launching arrows from the shore,
is killed by the invisible fire. "Thus your
fathers" concludes Kupa, "saw the death in
one day Of their god and their chief"
In this song the two visits of Cooks vessels
are fused into one, and while Lieut.. King repre-
sents that the natives had stolen a boat and
attacked the sailors, that Capt. Cook was leading
away the chief az n hostage to secure redress,
that a woman melted an attempt to rescue him
and that Cook and his men fred to drive them
of, and that they then rushed on him and killed
with their knives, Kupa lays the blame on
the sacriIege of the visitors, and describes Cook
as killed by the chief alone. 1t is not often in
encounters between Europeans and barbarians
that we meet with the version given by the lat
ter, and as such the above is of great value,
though nearly n century elapsed before it was
to writing.
Besides the Paris celebration there was another
mmemorati Of Cooks centenary at Leipzig
by the Geographical Society OF that place, where
at DR.. Andree spoke on Cooks career and equal
led him to Columbus, Yasco dc CANA, Magellan
and Tasman.
In this connection 1 may also mention the diff
ferent memorials that have been erected to Cooks
memory in different parts Of the world, besides
the monument at Kealakekua Bay. In st. An
Church at Cambridge there is a mural
tablet erected by his widow, who survived him
for So years. 1t bears the inscription: sin
memory of Captain James Cook of the Royal
NAVY, one Of the most celebrated navIgators that
this or former ages can boast Of, who was killed
BY the natives Of OWyhee in the Pacific Ocean on
the 18th Of February, 1779, in the 5lst year OF
his age Below it is a shield bearing the globe
with n star above and below. There is also a
monument in shape Of n small tower in Bucking-
hamshire in the park Of Admiral Paliiser' COOK 8
captain, by whom it was erected in memory
Of his friend, and on the 18th of last month there
was unveiled in Hyde Park, Sydney, the great
bronze statue Of the navigator, already described
in these letters. At Randwick, q suburb OF
sydney, there stands another pedestal statue,
erected in 1875 by Capt. ThOs- Watson, an old
resident, at . cost Of E200 and unveiled by the {
late Commodore Goodenough, whose fate so
closely resembles Cooks. II stands facing Bot
INV Bay with the Pacific Ocean on the left. The
Of go ethnographieal objects, origina-
ting from Cooks third voyage when he discover {
ID Hawaii, was bought by order of the Emperor I
Franeis of Austria in 1S06 at the auction OF the .
Museum in London. and now forms a
part Of the great ethnographical collection at ]
Vienna. ,
NOTES :
Sugar making is now general throughout the {
West India Islands. In Porto Rico the rains
have retarded the grinding. In Trinidad the en-
ire crop from two estates amounting to 2OOO :
has been sold in advance at $40 per i
100 pounds. In Brazil the crop shows n large :
ie6cit.
In the course OF this summer n pioneer party
5000 Italians under the leadership of Menotti
the generals son, will sail IN four
steamers for New Guinea TO establish n colony
there and found 4 city to be called Hdhd-
hall send further particulars regarding this am
project in my next. During 1878 the
entire British emigration to Australia amounted
n &c 40. an increase OF over 5000 over the pre-
Eious year.
II. NJ. $. Shah, the flagship in the Pacific since
December, 1876, reached st. Helena Feb. 4th on
the way home, but sailed for Natal with rein
against the Zulus. Capt. Sir Geo.
z IL A IL IN n snrrar-