OF THE SOUTH SEAS 351 



sion of this booty, for to plunder is my business and means of 

 living." 



The chiefs consented. Then this warrior went on board of 

 the ship and took away some of the iron on board, and he was 

 shot at and was killed. His name was Kapupuu. The canoes 

 [around the ship] fled away and reported that Kapupuu had 

 been killed by a ball from a squirt-gun. 



And that same night guns were fired and rockets were thrown 

 up. They [the natives] thought it was a god, and they called 

 his name Lonomakua, and they thought there would be war. 



Then the chiefess named Kamakahelei, mother of Kaumualii, 

 said, "Let us not fight against our god; let us please him that 

 he may be favorable to us." Then Kamakahelei gave her own 

 daughter as a woman to Lono. Lelemahoalani was her name; 

 she was older sister of Kaumualii. And Lono [Captain Cook] 

 slept with that woman, and the Kauai women prostituted them- 

 selves to the foreigners for iron. 



Cook was one of the best of the navigators of the 

 South Seas, a devout churchman, and a believer in the 

 decalogue of Moses. He thought stealing or lying 

 odious before the Lord and men. But the Polynesians 

 did not so think. Most of their possessions were in 

 common, and telling the truth was unimportant. If 

 one asked them about anything they had no interest in, 

 they might tell the truth or might not. If they had in- 

 terests, these were served by their replies. This is as in 

 diplomacy to-day, when the interests of one's country 

 allows prevarication, and even in Christian ethics both 

 patriotism and self-preservation, as well as hospitality, 

 permit flat falsehood. Our own spies are honest heroes, 

 and the man who would not deceive a man who sought 

 to kill him or burn his house would be considered a fool 

 and not worth saving. 



