hostilities were settled?

[keannu]

Is this hostilities "an actual fighting or battle" or just "hatred or hostility"? The former seems a specific thing, while the latter is a mental one.

ex)Captain Cook was among the first to explore the unknown world. His three voyages, which started in the late 1760s and lasted throught the 1770s, were not successful in their goals, but they did much to advance geographic knowledge of the day. Cook was murdered in Hawaii during his third voyage after sailing as far north as Alaska. The natives thought him a god and treated the crew with great kindness, but eventually the welcome wore out and problems arose. Cook's method of dealing with trouble was invarialy to take the local chief hostage until hostilities were settled, but on this occasion he miscalculated the anger of the native mob....

[BobK]

The first [is what I think the writer meant]. It's pretty clumsy writing; to my ear, hostilities aren't settled .

b

[Tdol]

I'd take it to mean the first, though in a wider sense similar to a state of war.