The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-02-05
OLD TIMES
IN KALI ia
Number of interesting
Accounts.
BY DR.. BISHOP
Captain Cooks Death Claimed 70
Be the Result of His
Own Rage. !

d
youth. No more interesting matter has
been published for long time and ka-
maainas will delight in the wit and dis
cernment of the writer The following
is the installment in the February is
sue:
Very prominent in these reeollections
is an aged native lady named kekupuo-
he. She must have been about IS years
of age and still vigorous She lived about
half way from our house to the church,
in premises of superior sort, BETTING
her rank. She had been youthful wife
of the elderly King KaTaniopuu. or Ter
reoboo, as Captain Cook called him She
was by her royal husbands side when
Captain Cook was trying to lead him to
his boat, and saw the great navigator
slain. Kepuohe had strong but rather
pleasant face covered with fine wrinkles,
lof lighter complexion than most of the
lpeople Her short, thick, white hair
Ibristled densely around her forehead, so
las wildly to appear in my memory to-
day. She had husband of inferior
rank, large, fat man much her junior,
of whom / remember chiefly his remark
able skill in expectorating, making shots
with great accuracy at some yards dis
lance through the door. The old lady.
being royal, guarded herself from sor-
Gerry by the use of a spittoon.
Being ignorant of the language
heard nothing directly of her story. My
father often spoke of the circumstances
of Cooks death, as he had gathered them
from many different eye-witnesseS. Their
Testimony all concurred in imputing it to
Ia momentary rage provoked by Cook s
extreme violence and injustice. They had
universally believed him to be an incar-
nation of the great god Lono, had dedf-
Gated to him their best heiau, and had
there offered to him solemn sacrifices of
baked pigs. which he seemed to under
stand and accept But they had become
much incensed by his removing the pail
sades of the sacred heiau to his ship for
firewood. A boat had consequently been
stolen from his ship and broken up.
Cook, greatly enraged, embargoed the
bay with patrol boats, and attempted to
seize the King and hold him as hos
tage. Just as he was leading the King
towards the boat, the news arrived that
a high chief had been shot while cross
ing the bay. The frenzied people i'm
mediately slew the great Discoverer, who
was really the victim of his own mad
ness.
Another prominent native was Naihe,
the husband of Kapiolani. who lived at
IKaawaloa Like Kuakini and Hopu, he
always appeared in our presence in pants
and a jacket.
an orator and spokesman for the King
and chiefs. 1 never knew OF him in that
capacity. He was a rather aged man or
spare form and ordinary height, and of
considerable quiet dignity. kona district
was the residence of quite a number of
chiefs of inferior rank, who were sup
ported by the labor of their many serfs
from the produce of the rich uplands.
| occasionally chair or camphor trunk
might be seen in the nice matched cot
tages of such natives of rank, besides
the mats. tapas, calabashes and wooden
bowls and trays which constituted their
furniture Cloth of any kind was scarce.
Kuakini was disposed to monopolize such
trade as came from occasional whalers
touching at Kaawaloa. He possessed
large quantities of foreign goods stored
up in his warehouses, while his people
went naked. / often heard my father
/ tell of once seeing one of kuakinis large
double canoes loaded deep with bales OF
broadcIoths and Chinese silks and satins
which had become damaged by long
storage They were carried out and
dumped into the ocean. Probably they
had been purchased by the stalwart Gov
ernor with the sandalwood which, In
1.-THE twenties was such mine of wealth
to the chiefs, but soon became extirpat-
led
My recollection is that very few of the
people in those early days possessed any
other form of lamp than kukui kernels
strung upon the stiff cocoanut midr1bs
$50 as to form candles about twenty
Inches long. These were held In the
hand and nut after nut success1vely
knocked off as it became burned out
remember at our night embarkatons II
the Governors canoes near his house
THAT we were lighted by torches made
Iup of five or six kukui candles wrapped
together in lauhala leaves, and burning
with a great flare and smoke. On oul
Journey in the interior of Hawaii we en-
countered stone lamps which were mere
" a followed stone containing some
kind of grease in which laid wick o.
twisted tapa. The people commonly pro
cured fire by friction of wood, although
some of them had old files, from which
they elected sparks by strokes from
gun-f1int 1t was common to carry fire II
a slow-burnng tapa-match, especial!
when they wanted to smoke. 1 first saw
fire obtained from wood at our camp OF
Mauna Kea- A long, dry stick of sof
hau or linden wood was used. A SINAI
stiff splinter of very hard wood was hei'
in the right hand, and the point ruboet
with great force and swiftness in deel
groove formed in the soft wood by TN
friction A brown powder soon appeare'
in the end of the groove, began t
caught into a little nest of dry fiber AM
gently blown into fame, which sool
grew into an immense campfire.
Iron implements were not very abund
ant at that time among the people, al
though the neolithic age of poiisne'
stone-cutting implements had ended 500
after Cook had bought "fathom" hog
for a knife apiece made of hoop-iron
Large numbers of the natives owned Ill
tie AIDES formed of a bent steel plane
Iron tightly dashed to a hardwood nan
die composed of a small branch with
piece of the tree-stem attached to !
with these sharp-edged AIDES they woui
deity dub away and carve out almos
any desired smoothing Of timber. Anotf
er common iron implement was the OF
or dagger. The ancient form of 90, the
st;fl in common use, was long stick
hardwood with a fiattened point bel
paddle-fashion by the squatting lahore
who would rapidly clean the ground
weeds and break up the soil two or tnre
inches deep. The iron 90 was a gres
iinprov ement,. being a thin oval blad
point with a socket into which the ior