It really seems like things were going well, and took a turn for the worst in a very short period of time. The article says they buried him in the same fashion as they do with high chiefs, and islanders continued to ask about his return long after he was killed, indicating that he may have been seen as a god to the Hawaiians.
There's probably some urban legend to that. Cook arrived during Makahiki, Lono's holy season. Some historians claim his ship's cruciform masts were thought to resemble Lono's regalia. So, perhaps he wasn't mistaken for a god but for a foreign kahuna who was bringing holiday cheer to Hawaiiʻi.
That misunderstanding may have set the stage for tragedy. If the Hawaiians thought Cook and his sailors already understood Hawaiian culture, they might have been even more shocked when they inevitably made cultural gaffes.
And on the flip side, Cook's marines violently misunderstood when some of their ship's boats were taken. The Native Hawaiians may have believed that they were gifts, or free to use to come and go from Cook's ship anchored offshore.
@kasa_balavu: I had no idea about the rapes. That is unforgivable. Yuck. What a terrible thing.