Hawaii Reading

I love to read about Captain Cook. My selection this trip is Captain Cook: Voyager Between Worlds by John Gascoigne. Reading in the exact location that Cook spent his last few weeks and seeing the sites of his last hours, gives an immediacy to the historic narrative.

I am imagining the people who lived in this place 250 years ago. I try to picture their society, and with the author of the book, to grasp how Cook saw them and they saw Cook and his ships.

Several ancient Hawaiian houses stood on the exact site of our condo complex. A few ruined foundations of ancient houses stand in between the apartment buildings here. The elite of that society appreciated a beautiful view as well as anyone today, I suspect. The population of this area was probably larger in pre-European-arrival days than it is now.

Of course, it's also sad to see how history has been disrespected, but on a large tract of waterfront land between the condos and the next hotel, a major archaeological reconstruction is ongoing.

As for the historic reading: I think this is around the fourth book on Cook that I have read. It's different from the others, more of a social history. From the first chapters -- which I read at the beach -- I learned quite a lot about his early life and the part of England where Cook came from.