508 



HISTORY OF THE SEA. 



savages from each others' hands, each one manifesting a brutal 

 eagerness to have a share in his destruction. 



" Thus fell," writes King, " our great and excellent com- 

 mander. After a life of so much distinguished and successful 

 enterprise, his death, as regards himself, cannot be reckoned 

 premature, since he lived to finish the work for which he seemed 

 designed, and was rather removed from the enjoyment than 

 cut off from the acquisition of glory. How sincerely his loss 

 was felt and lamented by those who had so long found their 

 general security in his skill and conduct, and every consolation 

 in their hardships in his tenderness and humanity, it is neither 

 necessary nor possible for me to describe : much less shall I 

 attempt to paint the horror with which we were struck, and the 

 universal dejection and dismay which followed so dreadful and 

 unexpected a calamity." 



When the consternation consequent upon the loss of their com- 

 mander had in some measure subsided, Clarke, the captain of 

 the Discovery, assumed the chief command of the expedition. 

 The ships were in such a bad condition, and the discipline 

 became so relaxed vupon the withdrawal of the master-mind, 

 that it was decided to employ pacific measures, rather than a 

 display of vigorous resentment, to obtain the restitution of the 

 remains of Cook and of the four massacred soldiers. The 

 moderation of the English produced no effect, however, the 

 natives using the bodies of the marines in sacrificial burnt- 

 offerings to their divinities. As they considered that of Cook 

 as of a higher order, they cut it carefully in pieces, sending 

 bits of it to different parts of the island. Upon the evening of 

 the 15th, two priests brought clandestinely to the ship the 

 portion they had received for religious purposes, — flesh without 

 bone, and weighing about nine pounds. They said that this 

 was all that remained of the body, the rest having been cut to 

 pieces and burned: the head, however, and all the bones, 



