Kidnapping of Kalaniʻōpuʻu by Captain James Cook

The attempted kidnapping of Kalaniʻōpuʻu by Captain James Cook and the decision to hold the ruling chief of the Island of Hawaii in exchange for their stolen long boat (lifeboat), was a fatal error on the part of the British navigator and the main cause of his death. His arrival in Hawaii was followed by mass migrations of Europeans and Americans to the islands that ended with the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii, the original, native monarchy of the islands.

Ships arrive during different seasons

HMS Resolution and HMS Discovery

James Cook led three separate voyages to chart unknown areas of the globe for the British Empire. It was on his third and final voyage that he encountered what we know today as the Islands of Hawaii. He first sighted the islands on 18 January 1778. He anchored off the west coast of the island of Kauai near Waimea and met with the local inhabitants to trade and obtain water and food for their continued voyage. On 2 February 1778, Cook continued on to the coast of North America and Alaska searching for a Northwest Passage for approximately nine months. He returned to the island chain to resupply, initially exploring the coasts of Maui and the big island and trading with the local inhabitants, then making anchor in Kealakekua Bay in January 1779. After Cook departed Kealakekua, he was forced to return in mid-February 1779 after a ship's mast broke in bad weather. When Cook had arrived in the islands, he initially was greeted with great honor, as his arrival coincided with the Makahiki, a festival celebrating the yearly harvest while worshipping the Hawaiian deity, Lono. However, after he and the crews of both ships, HMS Resolution and HMS Discovery, left the islands, the festival season had ended and the season for battle and war had begun under the worship and rituals for Kūkaʻilimoku, the god of war. On the night of 13 February, while anchored in Kealakekua Bay, one of only two long boats (lifeboats used to ferry to/from ship/shore) was stolen by the Hawaiians, testing the foreigners' reaction to see how far they could go with such a significant loss. The Hawaiians had begun openly challenging the foreigners. In retaliation, Cook tried to kidnap the aliʻi nui of the island of Hawaii, Kalaniʻōpuʻu. Being quite sick and ill tempered, Cook made several personal mistakes. The hostage attempt proved fatal. The idea or suggestion that the Native Hawaiians considered Cook to be the God Lono himself is considered to be inaccurate and is attributed to William Bligh. It is possible that some Hawaiians may have used the name of Lono as a metaphor when describing Cook or other possible explanations other than Hawaiians mistaking the explorer for their own deity.

Attempt to take the aliʻi nui hostage

The following morning of 14 February 1779, Cook and his men launched from Resolution along with a company of armed marines. They went directly to the ruling chief's enclosure where Kalaniʻōpuʻu was still sleeping. They woke him and directed him to come with them away from the town. As Cook and his men marched the ruler out of the royal enclosure, Cook himself had hold of the elder chief as they walked away from the town towards the beach. Kalaniʻōpuʻu's favorite wife, Kānekapōlei, saw them as they were leaving and yelled after her husband but he did not stop. She called to the other chiefs and the townspeople to alert them to the departure of her husband. Two chiefs, Kanaʻina (Kalaimanokahoʻowaha), the young son of the former ruler, Keaweʻopala and the king's personal attendant named Nuaa followed the group to the beach with the king's wife behind them pleading along the way for the aliʻi nui to stop and come back.

By the time they got to the beach, Kalaniʻōpuʻu's two youngest sons, who had been following their father believing they were being invited to visit the ship again with the ruler, began to climb into the boats that were waiting at the shore. Kānekapōlei shouted to them to get out of the boat and pleaded with her husband to stop. The ruler then realized that Cook and his men were not his friends and were not asking him to visit the ship, but forcing him. At this point he stopped and sat where he stood.

Death of Cook

Kaʻawaloa in 1779 by John Webber, artist aboard Cook's ship

Cook's men and the British Marines were confronted on the beach by an elderly kahuna who approached them holding a coconut and chanting. They yelled at the priest to go away but he kept approaching them while singing the mele. When Cook and his men looked away from the old kahuna, the beach was now swarming with thousands of Native Hawaiians. Cook yelled at Kalaniʻōpuʻu to get up but the ruler refused. As the townspeople began to gather around them, Cook and his men began to back away from the crowd and raise their guns. The two chiefs and Kānekapōlei shielded the aliʻi nui as Cook tried to force him to his feet. The crowd was now very hostile. Kanaʻina approached Cook, who reacted by striking the chief with the broad side of his sword. Kanaʻina instantly grabbed Cook and lifted the man. Some accounts state that Kanaʻina did not intend to hit Cook while other descriptions say the chief struck the navigator across the head with his leiomano. Either way, Kanaʻina released Cook where he fell to the ground. As Cook tried to get up, the attendant, Nuaa stabbed Captain Cook with a metal dagger. Four of the Marines: Corporal James Thomas; Privates Theophilus Hinks; Thomas Fachett and John Allen were killed; two Royal Marines were wounded.

Painting, Death of Captain Cook by Johann Zoffany 1795

The Marines fired as they fled, killing a number of Native Hawaiians including, possibly, High Chief Kanaʻina. They got into the boats and fled back to the ship where, with a spyglass a young William Bligh (the future captain of HMS Bounty) watched as Cook's body was dragged up the hill to the town where it was torn to pieces in full view of his ship's crew. In fact Cook's remains were treated differently: the esteem which the islanders nevertheless held for Cook caused them to retain his body. Following their practice of the time, they prepared his body with funerary rituals usually reserved for the chiefs and highest elders of the society. The body was disembowelled, baked to facilitate removal of the flesh, and the bones were carefully cleaned for preservation as religious icons in a fashion somewhat reminiscent of the treatment of European saints in the Middle Ages. Some of Cook's remains, thus preserved, were eventually returned to his crew for a formal burial at sea.