Cook’s Death at Kealakekua Bay and the Later Lono Legend

Record summary

James Cook was killed at Kealakekua Bay in February 1779 after escalating conflict with Hawaiian authorities and inhabitants. Contemporary journals and later eighteenth-century accounts generated competing interpretations of whether Cook had been associated with the god Lono, a ritual procession, or neither in the simple form later popularized. This is a major lead for comparing eyewitness reporting, Hawaiian political history and European myth-making. The event itself is well documented, but the meaning of ceremonies and the strength of any Lono identification remain subjects of scholarly debate.