ore. The
stealthy paddle of treacherous spies could be heard through the dark
under the keel of the white men's ships. Cook's clothing, sword, hat,
were waved in scorn under the sailors' faces. The women had hurried to
the hills. The old king was hidden in a cave, where he could be
reached only by a rope ladder; and emissary after emissary tried to
lure the whites ashore. One pitch-dark night, paddles were heard under
the keels. The sentinels fired; but by lantern light two terrified
faces appeared above the rail of the _Resolution_. Two frightened,
trembling savages crawled over the deck, prostrated themselves at
Clerke's feet, and slowly unrolled a small wrapping of cloth that
revealed a small {207} piece of human flesh--the remains of Cook. Dead
silence fell on the horrified crew. Then Clerke's stern answer was
that unless the bones of Cook were brought to the ships, both native
villages would be destroyed. The two savages were former friends of
Cook's and warned the whites not to be allured on land, nor to trust
Koah, the leper priest, on the ships.

Again the conch-shells blew their challenge all night through the
darkness. Again the war fires danced; but next morning the guns of the
_Discovery_ were trained on Koah, when he tried to come on board. That
day sailors were landed for water and set fire to the village of the
cocoanut groves to drive assailants back. How quickly human nature may
revert to the beast type! When the white sailors returned from this
skirmish, they carried back to the ships with them, the heads of two
Hawaiians they had slain. By Saturday, the 20th, masts were in place
and the boats ready to sail. Between ten and eleven o'clock in the
morning, a long procession of people was seen filing slowly down the
hills preceded by drummers and a white flag. Word was signalled that
Cook's bones were on shore to be delivered. Clerke put out in a small
boat to receive the dead commander's remains--from which all flesh had
been burned. On Sunday, the 21st, the entire bay was tabooed. Not a
native came out of the houses. Silence lay over the waters. The
funeral service was read on board the _Resolution_, and the coffin
committed to the deep.

{208} A curious reception awaited the ships at Avacha Bay, Kamchatka,
whence they now sailed. Ismyloff's letter commending the explorers to
the governor of Avacha Bay brought thirty Cossack soldiers floundering
through the shore ice of Petropau