t great thing with branches?" Others
said, "It is a forest that has slid down into the sea," and the gabble
and noise was great. Then the chiefs ordered some natives to go in a
canoe and observe and examine well that wonderful thing. They went,
and when they came to the ship, they saw the iron that was attached
to the outside of the ship, and they were greatly rejoiced at the
quantity of iron.

Because the iron was known before that time from wood with iron
[in or on it] that had formerly drifted ashore, but it was in small
quantity, and here was plenty. And they entered on board, and they
saw the people with white foreheads, bright eyes, loose garments,
corner-shaped heads, and unintelligible speech.

Then they thought that the people [on board] were all women, because
their heads were so like the women's heads of that period. They
observed the quantity of iron on board of the ship, and they were
filled with wonder and delight.

Then they returned and told the chiefs what they had seen, and how
great a quantity of iron. On hearing this, one of the warriors of the
chief said, "I will go and take forcible possession of this booty,
for to plunder is my business and means of living."

The chiefs consented. Then this warrior went on board of the ship
and took away some of the iron on board, and he was shot at and was
killed. His name was Kapupuu. The canoes [around the ship] fled away
and reported that Kapupuu had been killed by a ball from a squirt-gun.

And that same night guns were fired and rockets were thrown up. They
[the natives] thought it was a god, and they called his name Lonomakua,
and they thought there would be war.

Then the chiefess named Kamakahelei, mother of Kaumualii, said,
"Let us not fight against our god; let us please him that he may
be favorable to us." Then Kamakahelei gave her own daughter as a
woman to Lono. Lelemahoalani was her name; she was older sister of
Kaumualii. And Lono [Captain Cook] slept with that woman, and the
Kauai women prostituted themselves to the foreigners for iron.

Cook was one of the best of the navigators of the South Seas, a
devout churchman, and a believer in the decalogue of Moses. He thought
stealing or lying odious before the Lord and men. But the Polynesians
did not so think. Most of their possessions were in common, and telling
the truth was unimportant. If one asked them about anything they had
no interest in, they might tell the truth or might not. If they