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MISSIONARY TOUR 
who had themselves said they knew nothing about 
them, or that they were now lost. 
The best conclusion we may form is, that part of 
Captain Cook’s bones were preserved by the priests, 
and were considered sacred by the people, probably 
till the abolition of idolatry in 1819: that, at that 
period they were committed to the secret care of some 
chief, or deposited by the priests who had charge of 
them, in a cave, unknown to all besides themselves. 
The manner in which they were then disposed of, will, 
it is presumed, remain a secret, till the knowledge of it 
is entirely lost. The priests and chiefs always appear 
unwilling to enter into conversation on the subject, 
and desirous to avoid the recollection of the unhappy 
circumstance. 
From the above account, as well as every other 
statement given by the natives, it is evident that the 
death of Captain Cook was unpremeditated, and re¬ 
sulted from their dread of his anger; a sense of danger, 
on the momentary impulse of passion, exciting them to 
revenge the death of the chief who had been shot. 
Few intelligent visitors leave Hawaii without making 
a pilgrimage to the spot where he fell. We have often 
visited it, and, though several natives have been our 
guides on different occasions, they have invariably con¬ 
ducted us to the same place. A number of cocoa-nut 
trees grow near the shore, and there are perforations 
through two of them, which the natives say were pro¬ 
duced by the balls fired from the boats on the occasion 
of his death. 
We have never walked over these rocks without 
emotions of melancholy interest. The mind invariably 
reverts to the circumstances of their discovery; the 
