THE FOLLOWING TEXT IS FROM A WEBSITE AT WWW.COFFEETIMES.COM.

"In Honolulu... Douglas discovered that he could not get return passage to England until much later in the year, so he sailed to Kohala in July, intending to hike the Laumai'a Trail skirting Mauna Kea at the 6,000 foot level. A black man named John went ashore with Douglas and was expected to accompany him on the hike to Hilo. John was a servant of Reverend John Diell, chaplain of the American Seamen's Friend Society in Honolulu.

"Mrs. Lyman wrote the first account of Douglas' demise in her journal dated July 14, 1834. "The report is that Mr. Douglas left the vessel at Kawaihae to cross over by land, engaged a foreigner for a guide and several natives to take along his baggage. The guide accompanied him till they passed all the pit falls dug to entrap wild cattle on the north side of Mauna Kea, he then left him to return. Soon after Mr. Douglas went back a short distance for something and in retracing his steps fell into a pit (into which a bullock had previously fallen) and was found dead a short time afterward. This was Sat. Morning."

"As the grave was being dug to bury Douglas' body, the Reverends Diell and Goodrich, as well as a carpenter engaged to build the coffin, noticed that the gashes on his head did not seem to be the type a bull's horns or hooves would inflict. They preserved the body by filling the stomach cavity and surrounding it with salt, shipped it off to Honolulu for further inspection, and began their own investigation. In one letter, they noted, "As far as we can ascertain, the guide (John) is an Englishman, a convict from Botany Bay, who left a vessel at these islands some years ago. He has a wife and one child with him..." But John had simply disappeared, not to be seen again.

"A bullock hunter, Charles Hall, who later became a pioneer coffee planter in Kona, was sent to gather information. Twelve years later, Hall's speculations became the subject of a friend's letter, who wrote: "Davis, (another bullock hunter) at whose house Douglas lodged the night before, affirms as Mr. Hall says, that he saw Douglas have a large purse of money which he took to be gold. None of any consequence was found after his death. Mr. Hall says he has no doubt in his own mind that Douglas was murdered by Ned."

"Speculation about the murder involved Englishman Ned (Edward) Gurney. Gurney was a shady character who had been convicted of larceny, sentenced to seven years in prison and sent to Australia's Botony Bay penal colony in 1819. Gurney had escaped and arrived in Hawai'i on board the Mermaid in 1822, where he built a mountain house thatched with grass, and survived as a bullock hunter. Douglas had breakfast at Ned's house on the morning of his death.

"Gurney was known to have stayed in Hawai'i until 1839, but after that records of him ceased. Over the years, various accounts of who killed David Douglas circulated until finally in 1896, 62 years after his death, the Hilo Tribune published an article titled, "Death of Prof. Douglas, a Bit Of History." Bolabola, a 70-year-old hunter who had lived (when he was ten) near Ned Gurney's house, told the reporter, "The haole (foreigner) was murdered, we all felt so at the time, but were afraid to say so and only whispered it among ourselves." Ten years later, the Hawai'i Herald reported an even more condemning rumor. A surveyor, A.B. Loebenstein, said he had heard from Native Hawaiians that Douglas was incautious enough to show some money when he was at Ned Gurney's house. The bullock hunter was seen following Douglas, but the natives were so afraid of Gurney, that they never dared tell of it. Gurney was said to have killed Douglas with an ax and then deposited his body in the bullock pit."