How the joke caused
Captain Cook's death the world knows; and the joke was becoming a
little frequent, a little bold, a little too grim for the white
traders' sense of security. The Sandwich Islanders had actually formed
the plot of capturing every vessel that came into their harbors and
holding the crews for extortionate ransom. How many white men were
victims of this plot--to die by the assassin's knife or waiting for the
ransom that never came--is not a part of this record. It was becoming
a common thing to find white men living in a state of quasi-slavery
among the {284} islanders, each white held as hostage for the security
of the others not escaping. Within three years three ships had been
attacked, one Spanish, one American, one English--the store ship
_Daedalus_ on the way out to Nootka with supplies for Vancouver. Two
officers, Hergest and Gooch of the _Daedalus_, had been seized,
stripped naked, forced at the point of spears up a hill to the native
village, and cut to pieces. Vancouver determined to put a stop to such
attacks. Arriving at the islands, he trained his cannon ashore,
demanded that the murderers of the _Daedalus's_ officers be
surrendered, tried the culprits with all the solemnity and speed of
English court-martial, sentenced them to death, had them tied up to the
mast poles and executed. That is the blot against Vancouver; for the
islanders had put up a trick. The real murderers had been leading
chiefs. Not wishing to surrender these, the islanders had given
Vancouver poor slaves quite guiltless of the crime.

In contrast to this wrong-headed demonstration of justice was
Vancouver's other act. At Nootka he had found among the traders two
young Hawaiian girls not more than fifteen and nineteen years of age,
whom some blackguard trader had forcibly carried off. The most of
great voyagers would not have soiled their gloves interfering with such
a case. Cook had winked at such crimes. Drake, two hundred years
before, had laughed. The Russians outdid either Drake or Cook. They
dumped the victims overboard where the {285} sea told no tales.
Vancouver might have been strict enough disciplinarian to execute the
wrong men by way of a lesson; but he was consistent in his strictness.
Round these two friendless savages he wrapped all the chivalry and the
might of the English flag. He received them on board the _Discovery_,
treated them as he might have treated his own sisters, prevented the