Doubt About Its Fate

Captain Cook's Body

From Our Own Correspondent

Honolulu, Sept. 1.

WHAT happened to the body of the famed British navigator, Captain James Cook, after he was murdered by natives at Napoopoo in Kealakekua Bay of the island of Hawaii?

The records conflict. Ralph S. Kuyan dall, a present day authority on Hawaiian history, writes: “Most of the bones of Captain Cook were recovered and then buried beneath the waters of the bay.”

However, an equally well known his torian, Alexander, declares: “His remains were taken to a heiau (graveyard). His flesh was removed from the bones and burned. The bones were tied up with red feathers and deified.”

In a footnote Alexander added: “Some of the bones were kept in the temple of Lano on the east side of Hawaii and worshipped until 1819 when they were removed to some secret place.”

This week a roving journalist met an old Hawaiian woman, Komoku Naihi. who has lived all of her 107 years in Kealakekua Bay overlooking the spot on the beach where Cook met his death.

Through an interpreter, she told how in her youth she knew men who saw Cook die. This is her version of the great voyager’s untimely death in Feb., 1779: “His men had killed one of our chiqfs.

The news of this came while Captain Cook was ashore. The Hawaiians killed Cook in revenge.

“He was an enemy and was treated like one. No, they had not eaten him.

His flesh was used for fish bait and his entrails were hung on a tree. Some of his bones were returned to the white men later on.”