Tag: Captain Cook

For Sale: One Pocket Globe, Complete with History Lesson

Like most travelers, I’m a sucker for old maps and other travel ephemera. That’s why I spent way too much time clicking through the catalog after reading about the collection of Hawaii artifacts that went up for auction last week. The items included “an early issue of Ke Kumu Hawaii, the first newspaper printed in Honolulu; a copy of Lili’uokalani’s translation of the Kumulipo genealogy chant; and a 19th-century Hawaii flag hand-painted on silk.”

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The Unfortunate End of Captain Cook

captain cook statue Photo by avlxyz via Flickr (Creative Commons).
Photo by avlxyz via Flickr (Creative Commons).

The story of Captain Cook’s death—the anniversary of this unfortunate event just passed—is an object lesson in cultural misunderstandings.

Cook and his crew first blew into Kaleakakua Bay while the Pleadies were rising, during the festival of Makahiki. Hawaiian custom deemed that during this time, there was to be no fighting, no conflict of any kind.

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