Nuhou, Volume I, Number 6, 9 December 1873 — What did Cook know about Lono? [ARTICLE]

What did Cook know about Lono?

BhGrtly after Captain Gook landed ori Hawaii and amongBt a people wlio eaw \vhite men and the English ]ai3guage for the f!rst t!me 5 tho great navigator wae euvrounded by a crowd of excited savageB, who proBtrated and palavered as eome Polyneeianß will do to thie clay, arid who crie<ī Lono ! Lmp ! nnd who might have "bried oat Humbogo-bogOj and the liero of tlie oecasion would have underetood just as mueh as he did bv the erying out of the other name. Who eould have explained to Ooōk eō shortly after his arrivalj among a newly diseovered people, the charaeter ;,nd hietory of Lono ; that he wae a crazy ehief who had killed hie wife and had eailed away and wae loet; but wae now supposed to have ieturned in ihe pereon of the jEnglieh Oapiaia, with a gold laee eoat and ā eocked hat ? Cook eould not urideretoo<3 what wae meant by the ery of Lono ; and that he was pereonating a crazy deified kanaka ; and there is nol a particle of proof that he did understand whal was and yet the| editor of the Friend, after preeenting eome mere| opinione of men who know nothing of the mat-: ter ? aeeerts very emphatieal]y thatto our (his) j mind it ie clear ae daylight tliat the great Navi- j gator did at the iime comprehen3 the nature of the eeremoniaL ,, Thie is like the epirit of elander that prevaile in tbie country, Sdmebody may have heard a native etory to the ptejudice of eome offfe elee and the hearer of the etory repeatB it witlr mean inelnuation ; and a third party who hae no other a heareay opinion,Baye it mustbe so ftnd ie ae " elea? ae noonday t " What proof ie there in repeating (ae the Frknd publiehed onee before) the letter of Cowper ; a man though gifted to utter some beautiful linee ; yet had a j eickly mind, and needed a constant nureing oare to preeerve a proper mental eqīiilibrium ? What value aleo, ie there in the opinion of'Manley. llopkine 3 who is an imperfeot re!ator of iinperfoct. teetimony ? And ae for the 'nlledgod " natlve testimony " copied fiom the Hawaiian Spcctator } j it ie nothing more than a repctitjon of the*bigote\l ■ prejudic<|d and elanderoue opinion df Bfngham,j when it> eaye that for thie and n other eaueee," Captain Cook was elain ov ,f emitten of God/' What narrow 5 euperetitioue view? of trente; and what to assert dogmatīeally the eaueee of tlie waye of Providenee. Why wae! MagJ!lan elain ? And hy d!d Balboa, Mendana > QuiroB, Oxenham. CaTendieh, !,a Pevou?e, Pu Freßie. Behring, and ahno?t evcry PaolHo navi- t

gator and ndventurer meet wit!» u f=ad or vlulent! fate? I>ut whj do we leaeon ? To eoine minde» j every fate or iinal end of inai) h a mercy or a j jadgment s just as his aetion, or opinīone, or even natiooality may aecord 01* dieagree wlth their prejudiced viewe, We eay in the worde of the Ilawaiian Church Monthiy ttyit " thoee circumetanBcB of reverence ] (to Captain Cook) whieh eye-witueKwy (especial]j ' Capt. King) were at a lose to esplain, have fur- j nished 6ubeequent writers with tbe on\y basie of! tbeir that Cook consciouelj-allowed j the riatives tc recvive anu worsnip him as a gou,'' ] called Lono. Captain King Bays, " Capt Cook went bj thie j name (Ororio, or Lono,) but we could never learn j ite precise i;neaning. Sometime6 .they applied it j to an invi6ible being. We aleo found that it wae j the liiie of ,a chief of great rank and power in j "the island, Avho resemblei pretty mueh the Delai | Lama of the Tartare, and the ecclc6W6t-ical Emperor of the Japanese. And Lord Bjron in his i account of fche islande that had Capt. Cook j had a knowledge of the tradition of Lono, he ] would have liad a different appreeiation of the ! ■remai'kable. attentione shown to liim ; and this author diBtinetly etatee afc page 25 of his work, that the received Cook with honorß whieh he imaginevl ineant nothing but friendly respeut/' I£it ean be proven by additional testimony,— nioie Ihan the reading world is now in possession of —that Cook acquieseeu in u priestlj fraud ; that he &id, as we will ( euppoee a case like a stranger wlio ehould now land on Ilawaii and be hailed 6ome euperstitious kanakae as tlie long lost Boki,jind he should acquiesce in this fraud, and faieelj a character to impose upon a ...ci'edulous inultitude, tlien in that case if such a eaee of wiilful imposition ean be proven against Captain Copk, his 6landerei , B will have some oeeaeion for their present language, but as it is what ie said to ignore the fair fame of a great man, whoep name must ever be olie of the forcmoBt iu the Paeiiie is without foundation and B©eajs inpircd bj prejudice and narrownese of view6.