On the second day out, King remarked the crowds of canoes, "bringing as much provisions as if this was the first day." The ships were opposite Kawaihae Bay off the northwest coast of Hawai'i. On Saturday Brittanee said he knew of a snug harbor nearby. Cook decided to send him with Bligh to have a look. Around 2 P.M. on Saturday, after Bligh had put off for shore, a few squalls came up.
The storm at first was not a bad one. On Sunday Resolution lay for a time under mizzen stay sails. Bligh returned with no difficulty, without Koa, who was wrong about the harbor. The winds even moderated, so that Resolution sailed under single reefed topsails, although the Hawaiian passengers became seasick. When the puffs of wind became boisterous, the fore-topmast sail was split and several canoes in trouble were hoisted aboard. On Monday evening the topgallant yards were lowered to the deck.36
Then during the night of Monday, February 8, Resolution suddenly sprung--cracked--the head of her foremast. Everyone stared in disbelief. The foremast all over again. That was the mast that had been disabled in the storm two years before en route from Kerguelan Island to Tasmania (see Chapter 2, "The Lost Year"). An old leak also broke out afresh, but that was not nearly as serious as the grim sight of the fore-topmast, attached above the foremast, actually beginning to move and wobble when it should have been held rigid, even to tip a little as the ship rolled. The wooden supports (cheeks) that had been installed at Nootka Sound were found to be almost useless. Quickly the upper sails and yards were brought down; only the course could be carried on the lower mast.
A hurried conference was held. The entire mast assembly would have to come out. That required a beach. But where? What were the mariners to do? They dared not go to Maui, where they would have no certainty of finding a sheltered harbor, and the roadstead at Kauai was too exposed and altogether too far away. Their second probe of the Arctic would have to be postponed for some weeks. The ships would have to go back. In midmorning on Tuesday, February 9, after scarcely five days at sea, the ships put about and bore away south, "all hands much chagrin'd & damning the Foremast," wrote King.37 Cook had five days to live.
And so a disabled Resolution brought Cook back to Kealakekua Bay and to his exalted place in history.
Three years to the day had passed since the ships were commissioned, "& we can as yet but say that the Voyages may be abt half out," he added, not without a sigh. Because the Hawaiians would no longer accept hatchets, the armorers were busy at the forge making iron daggers.
It was a Thursday morning. Save for one or two canoes stealing along the shore and a few Hawaiians strolling on the rocky beach, the entire bay was deserted when the ships came to anchor on Thursday morning, February 11. If the mariners thought of anything ominous in not being met by whole fleets of canoes, no one said so. When Discovery dropped anchor about nine o'clock, the crew of Resolution, which had ar-rived an hour or so earlier, was already at work on the foremast. The empty bay meant that work could be done without interruption. No time was lost. For the rest of Thursday the crews of both ships prepared to unstep the mast. They unfastened the rigging, began to clear out the forehold, removed the sails and yards, and brought down the topmast to act as a derrick. The sailors continued this heavy work all day Friday. A definite urgency invested their labors.
It was disconcerting to be in an empty bay, knowing that very likely they were being watched from caves on the cliffs and from behind the trees and undergrowth all along that shore. They had imagined that the Hawaiians would rejoice to have them back again. A message came that the king had placed a tapu on the bay in preparation for his own visit. By Friday evening the forehold was cleared to get at the stepping of the foremast, and the pulleys and shears were in place for hoisting it out.38
The sailors on both ships were hardly flattered by having no welcoming fleets of canoes at hand. Cook was even less so when he was obliged to explain his presence to the inquisitive Kalani'-o'u, who, about midmorning on Saturday, finally put in his appearance with his chiefs to inquire solemnly about the sudden return. According to Burney, the king "appeared much dissatisfied" with the story about the foremast.40 Cook had an awkward time of it just getting through the interview, while the chiefs stood by gazing silently. With bemused and quizzical expressions on their faces, they peered at Cook in his discomfiture. Why had Lono come back? The host, having been lavish in his hospitality the first time, was surprised and inquisitive. All those sailors would have to be fed; he had no comprehension at all of how it could be that Lono's ship could ever be disabled.
At last the king and his entourage made their departure in his sailing canoe back to the village of Kaawaloa (or Kowrowa) where his house overlooked the bay, about one-quarter mile northeast of Resolution. Despite his misgivings, the king did lift the tapu, signalling the canoes to come out to trade fresh food for more iron, just as they had done before. Soon the various lovers returned. The lifting of tapu also marked the end of harmony almost as soon as it was established.
At the observatory on shore, King was having trouble of his own. William Hollamby, the quartermaster of Discovery, reported that mischievous Hawaiians on the cliffs overlooking the beach area were throwing stones and rolling rocks down at the watering party while shouting abuse. King, who was skilled at mollifying hot tempers, successfully interceded with the chiefs to have the harassment stopped. Cook, coming ashore just then, decided that strong measures were needed. His patience was exhausted; he ordered that when the next stone was thrown, the sentries should open fire with ball, whereupon King directed the sentries to load their muskets with ball instead of the usual small shot. This was definitely a new policy for Cook. Heretofore in the Pacific, he had ordered that the first warning shots fired at islanders should be with small shot, which wounded but did not kill.41 The Hawaiians had yet to learn that muskets could both wound and kill; they still had no fear of firearms of any kind.
It was about five o'clock Saturday afternoon. Cook was checking on the carpenters at work on the foremast while King, not far away, remained busy at his observatory. Suddenly everyone was startled by a fusillade of musket fire directed from Discovery toward a canoe fleeing toward shore. Immediately they ran along the beach with two marines to intercept the canoe. Aboard Discovery, meanwhile, an audacious Hawaiian, notwithstanding the example set during the morning, had grabbed the tongs again and plunged over the side into a waiting canoe, which paddled swiftly away.
Those tongs were dear to the hearts of the Hawaiians. Having watched the forging of useful iron tools, such as daggers, they obviously wanted the tongs in order to do some forging of their own; in fact they often had tried to do so with bits of iron over open fires on the beach. The thief had scarcely disappeared over the side when Palea, visiting Clerke at the time, was ready to offer his services in retrieving the tongs, and at once set off in his own canoe. Clerke, having no wish to injure the thief and assuming that Palea would have the tongs back in no time, ordered that only warning shots be fired with muskets over the fleeing canoe; those were the musket shots that had alarmed Cook and King on shore. The fleeing canoe quickly outstripped musket range. Clerke also dispatched Edgar and Vancouver in the small cutter to give chase, but in their excitement they put off without their muskets. Resolution, witnessing the proceedings, also sent her pinnace to assist in the pursuit.
When Cook saw the canoes being followed hard by two of his boats, he ordered King to help intercept them all when they came up on the beach. King outran Cook and called to Vancouver, who waved helplessly toward shore; his reply was lost in the noise of the gathering crowd. The turbulent Hawaiians and the two canoes converged at the landing before King arrived. Amid taunts and confusion the thief made good his escape into the surging throng. Cook, in a fury, allowed himself to be diverted in another direction by several cunning bystanders who intruded themselves as guides. Whenever he asked where the thief went, they kept pointing a little further along the beach. King, not yet knowing the cause of the commotion, left his camp site and tried hard to catch up with Cook.
In preparing the principal and official account of this transaction, King did not say where along the beach the canoe had landed; this would have indicated the direction in which everyone was running. Probably Cook was diverted south. But the direction is immaterial because of what followed. The Hawaiians were treated to the undignified spectacle of the god Lono storming down the beach in the wrong direction with the youngful James King chasing after him.
Soon after the boats and canoe had reached the shore, Cook and King having already rushed away, the tongs suddenly appeared from somewhere in the crowd and were handed over to Edgar. Thinking that some punishment was still in order, however, he took it on himself to seize the thief's canoe with the intention of bringing it back to the ship as a prize. But Palea took exception to this initiative, since the canoe belonged to him, or so he claimed; he promptly pinned Edgar's arms behind his back. Someone from Resolution then gave Palea a whack on the head with an oar, an action that both freed Edgar and brought on Palea's defenders. Stones and insults flew. In the melee, the mob, having been edified by the sight of Lono running and sweating up and down the beach like any ordinary commoner or mortal, jumped the sailors, who were forced to flee as best they could to the cutter lying offshore, but not before receiving a sound thrashing. Various onlookers took to the cutter itself in order to extract the iron fittings. Edgar and Vancouver, who could not swim, were set upon with broken oars and more stones while others began to knock apart the pinnace, until Pales called off his gang of ruffians.
Having barely escaped a desperate situation, the sailors shortly thereafter had to prepare themselves to face Cook, who had become even more enraged when he found he had been tricked and led astray. Cook and King ended up about three miles down the beach before calling a halt in the gathering dusk, but they felt no danger to themselves. They retreated to the tents, exhausted, sweaty, and thoroughly upset by the deception. When the sailors arrived, Cook was so relieved at seeing them safe that he took out his frustrations on them with a heated reprimand for having left the ships without muskets, and especially at the sailors from Resolution for meddling in the affair without his express orders. The day's transactions were concluded when Palea, having returned a stolen hat, was assured that Cook would not kill him.42
Clerke's grieved comment, "our friendly connections having lull'd us into too great security," shows how far we have come from that age. Cook had so ingrained his abhorrence of violence into his sailors that the first impulse of Edgar and Vancouver was to dash off without reaching for their guns, for they knew perfectly well that likely they would be called to account if they had used them without his orders. Cook knew when muskets were to be fired, and he ordered whether ball or small shot were to be used. He had not come all that way just to kill. Losing his temper with his crew meant, at any rate, that they did not engage in wanton gun-fire, even though, when they did shoot, the muskets misfired half the time.
But the sailors on the beach had been set upon when they could not defend themselves. Cook made up his mind, King later reported, that "the behavior of the Indians would at last oblige him to use force," and that meant musket fire. The events of the day had gone too far. Clerke wrote sadly: "This was an unfortunate stroke as matters now stood, as it increas'd the confidence of these People which before was too much bordering upon insolence."43