ABSTRACT
The third voyage of Captain James Cook, in 1778–9, was his last, for he was killed in Hawaii, together with some of his crew. A number of Hawaiians also were killed. The mariners had gone to explore the navigable extremes of the Pacific North-West at Unalaska. The ships HMS Resolution and HMS Discovery stopped over at the islands of Kaua’i and Hawai’i en route both to and from their destinations. This chapter describes the interactions Cook and his expedition had with the local Hawaiian people as portrayed in the logs and journals of the European mariners and civilians. Following the Brass and Wilson methodology previously described, those records are used to analyse some key action sequences that expose the agency and involvement of social actors in decision-making. Some of these actors were not human. The crucial role of theft and utu as motivating factors in those actions that led to violent outcomes is also examined. Both European and Hawaiian interpretations of the action sequences are used in this chapter and the demise of both Marion du Fresne (New Zealand, 1773) and Cook (Hawaii, 1778–9) are compared in terms of both Polynesian and European cosmologies and world-views, and in terms of the people and sequences that culminated in similar tragic outcomes for all of those involved.
