this post was submitted on 13 Feb 2024
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Other Pacific islands: seething jealousy they didn't think of that first.
The esteem which the islanders nevertheless held for Cook caused them to retain his body. Following their practice of the time, they prepared his body with funerary rituals usually reserved for the chiefs and highest elders of the society. The body was disemboweled and baked to facilitate removal of the flesh, and the bones were carefully cleaned for preservation as religious icons in a fashion somewhat reminiscent of the treatment of European saints in the Middle Ages. Some of Cook's remains, thus preserved, were eventually returned to his crew for a formal burial at sea. (on Wikipeda )
It's a complex story.
It is.
Cook was an explorer and worthy of respect. It's not like it's a casual jaunt to the other side of the world, it was an arduous task and a remarkable feat.
Unfortunately Cook's arrival heralded that age's colonialism, itself a mixed blessing.
It's only now, with the wealth of the world's history at our fingertips and an objective view of the past up to the present that lets us judge the effects of past events.