Captain James Cook

“ One man had the audacity to come within musket-shot, a-head of the ship; and, after slinging several stones at us, he waved Captain Cook’s hat over his head, whilst his countrymen on shore were exulting, and encouraging his boldness. Our people were all in a flame at this insult, and coming in a body on the quarter-deck, begged they might no longer be obliged to put up with these repeated provocations; and requested me to obtain permission for them, from Captain Clerke, to avail themselves of the first fair occasion of revenging the death of their commander. ”

“ Of all the voyages before Cook's, Carteret's showed most determination and true spirit of enterprise; and had his ship been better supplied, and more suited to the exigencies of such a long cruise, he would, but for one thing, have accomplished far more. This was the fatal disease, which no captain had as yet succeeded in warding off, and which hampered and defeated the efforts of the most enthusiastic. No man could go beyond a certain point in disregarding the health of his crew. ”

“ The fortitude of Captain Cook, being founded upon reason, and not upon instinct, was not an impetuous valour, but accompanied with complete self-possession. He was master of himself on every trying occasion, and seemed to be the more calm and collected, the greater was the exigence of the case. In the most perilous situations, when our commander had given the proper directions concerning what was to be done while he went to rest, he could sleep, during the hours he had allotted to himself, with perfect composure and soundness. Nothing could be a surer indication of an elevated mind ”

“ To all these great qualities Captain Cook added the most amiable virtues. That it was impossible for any one to excel him in humanity, is apparent from his treatment of his men through all his voyages, and from his behaviour to the natives of the countries which were discovered by him. The health, the convenience, and, as far as it could be admitted, the enjoyment of the seamen, were the constant objects of his attention; and he was anxiously solicitous to ameliorate the condition of the inhabitants of the several islands and places which he visited. ”

“ Perhaps no science ever received greater additions from the labour of a single man, than geography has done from those of Captain Cook. In his first voyage to the South Seas, he discovered the Society Islands; determined the insularity of New Zealand; discovered the straits which separate the two islands, and are called after his name; and made a complete survey of both. He afterward explored the eastern coast of New Holland, hitherto unknown; an extent of twenty-seven degrees of latitude, or upward of two thousand miles. ”

“ Captain Cook, being at the same time surrounded by a great crowd, thought his situation rather hazardous: he therefore ordered the lieutenant of marines to march his small party to the water-side, where the boats lay within a few yards of the shore: the Indians readily made a lane for them to pass, and did not offer to interrupt them. The distance they had to go might be about fifty or sixty yards; Captain Cook followed, having hold of Kariopoo's (Kalaniopuu's) hand, who accompanied him very willingly: he was attended by his wife, two sons, and several chiefs. ”

“ At midnight, a gale of wind came on, which obliged us to double reef the topsails, and get down the top-gallant yards. On the 8th, at day-break, we found, that the foremast had again given way, the fishes which were put on the head, in King George’s or Nootka Sound, on the coast of America, being sprung, and the parts so very defective, as to make it absolutely necessary to replace them, and, of course, to unstep the mast. In this difficulty, Captain Cook was for some time in doubt, whether he should run the chance of meeting with a harbour in the islands to leeward, or return to Karakakooa. ”

“ Cook returned to England, but did not long continue at home. In the beginning of the year 1764, his old and constant friend and patron, Sir Hugh Pallifer, was appointed Governor and Commodore of Newfoundland and Labradore ; upon which occasion he was glad to take Mr. Cook with him, in the fame capacity that he had sustained under Captain Graves. Indeed, no man could have been found who was better qualified for finishing the design which had been begun in the preceding year. ”

“ Among all those Englishmen who, from a humble origin, have risen to an honourable position, Captain James Cook is especially worthy of record. His parents were of the peasant class—his father having commenced life as a farm-labourer, and his mother being a cottager’s daughter. ”

“ The people, who kept abreast of the ship on the beach, made many signals; but whether they were intended to frighten us away, or invite us on shore, it is not easy to determine: we returned them by waving our hats and shouting, and they replied by shouting again. We did not put their disposition to the test, by attempting to land; because, as the island was inconsiderable, and as we wanted nothing that it could afford, we thought it imprudent as well as cruel to risk a contest, in which the natives must have suffered by our superiority, merely to gratify an idle curiosity ”

“ On 5th May, at a Council Meeting of the Royal Society, Captain John Campbell, R.N., proposed that Cook, who was in attendance, and had been appointed by the Admiralty to the command of the Endeavour, was a fit and proper person to be one of the observers for the Society in the Southern Seas. Cook was called in, and accepted the position in consideration of such a gratuity as the Society should think proper, and an allowance of 120 pounds per year "for victualling himself and another observer in every particular." ”

“ When he was informed of it, without betraying the least emotion, and affecting a total ignorance of the matter, he opened two or three of the nuts himself, signified that he was satisfied of the fact, and then went on shore and sent off a quantity of plantains and bananas. The ingenuity and the impudence of fraud are not solely the production of polished society.
Captain Cook, on the 23rd, had an interview with Waheatoua, the result of which was that our navigators obtained this day as much pork as furnished a meal to the crews of both the vessels. ”

“ If we consider his extreme abilities both natural and acquired, the firmness and constancy of his mind, his truly paternal care for the crew intrusted to him, the amiable manner with which he knew how to gain the friendship of all the savage and uncultivated nations, and even his conduct towards his friends and acquaintance, we must acknowledge him to have been one of the greatest men of his age, and that reason justifies the tear which friendship pays to his memory.' After such an encomium on Captain Cook, less regard may justly be paid to the deductions from it, which are added by Dr. ”

“ Accordingly the boats of both ships, well manned and armed, were stationed across the bay; and, before I left the ship, some great guns had been fired at two large canoes, that were attempting to make their escape.
It was between seven and eight o’clock when we quitted the ship together; Captain Cook in the pinnace, having Mr. Phillips and nine marines with him; and myself in the small boat. The last orders I received from him were, to quiet the minds of the natives, on our side of the bay, by assuring them they should not be hurt; to keep my people together; and to be on my guard. ”

“ No people are more averse to every kind of innovation than seamen, and their prejudices are extremely difficult to be conquered. It was, however, by acting contrary to these prejudices, and by various deviations from established practice, that Captain Cook had been enabled to preserve his men from that dreadful distemper, the scurvy, which, perhaps, has destroyed more of our sailors, in their peaceful voyages, than have fallen by the enemy in military expeditions. ”

“ At this Captain Cook was heard to express his astonishment: he waved his hand to the boats, called to them to cease firing, and to come nearer in to receive the marines. Mr. Roberts immediately brought the pinnace as close to the shore as he could, without grounding, notwithstanding the showers of stones that fell among the people; but Mr. John Williamson, the lieutenant, who commanded in the launch, instead of pulling in to the assistance of Captain Cook, withdrew his boat further off, at the moment that everything seems to have depended upon the timely exertions of those in the boats. ”

“ I left the ships about four o’clock in the afternoon; and, as we approached the shore, I perceived every indication of a hostile reception. The whole crowd of natives was in motion; the women and children retiring; the men putting on their war mats, and arming themselves with long spears and daggers. We also observed, that, since the morning, they had 59thrown up stone breast-works along the beach, where Captain Cook had landed, probably in expectation of an attack at that place ”

“ It was a satisfactory proof of their friendly intentions, that there was not a single person amongst them who had with him a weapon of any kind; trade and curiosity alone appearing to be the motives which actuated their conduct. Among such multitudes, however, as, at times, were on board, it will not be deemed surprising, that some should betray a thievish disposition. One of them took out of the Resolution a boat's rudder; and made off with it so speedily, that it could not be recovered. Captain Cook judged this to be a favourable opportunity of shewing to these people the use of fire-arms ”

“ He landed, with the marines, at the upper end of the town of Kavaroah (Kaawaloa) : the Indians immediately [Pg 11] flocked round, as usual, and showed him the customary marks of respect, by prostrating themselves before him. There were no signs of hostilities, or much alarm among them. Captain Cook, however, did not seem willing to trust to appearances; but was particularly attentive to the disposition of the marines, and to have them kept clear of the crowd. He first enquired for the king's sons, two youths [4] who were much attached to him, and generally his companions on board. ”

“ Cleanliness of persons, bedding, clothes, and ship, were continually enforced. All these were foreign to the sailors of the time, and extraordinary it is that it was a man born in the lower rank of life, and brought up in a collier, who had the sense to perceive that in these lay the surest preventatives against this paralysing scourge.
Cook was promoted to captain—a proud position for the collier boy—and elected a Fellow of the Royal Society; perhaps even a greater distinction for a man of his bringing up. ”

“ No man had seen more of the Pacific, and he proved himself, during his short period of command, a worthy successor of Cook.
Captain Gore, who had been with Cook on his First Voyage, now succeeded, King being put as Commander into the Discovery, and the two ships made the best of their way home, viâ Macao and the Straits of Sunda, arriving at the Nore on October 4th, 1780, after an absence of four years and two months. During the whole of this voyage not the slightest symptom of scurvy appeared in either ship, so completely were Cook's precautions successful. ”

“ I know not how to account for the scurvy raging more in the one ship than the other, unless it was owing to the crew of the Adventure being more scorbutic when they arrived in New Zealand than we were, and to their eating few or no vegetables while they lay in Queen Charlotte’s Sound, partly for want of knowing the right sorts, and partly because it was a new diet, which alone was sufficient for seamen to reject it. To introduce any new article of food among seamen, let it be ever so much for their good, requires both the example and authority of a commander ”

“ The officer refusing to give it up, and being joined by the crew of the pinnace, which was waiting for Captain Cook, a scuffle ensued, in which Pareea was knocked down by a violent blow on the head with an oar. The natives, who were collected about the spot, and had hitherto been peaceable spectators, immediately attacked our people with such a shower of stones as forced them to retreat with great precipitation, and swim off to a rock, at some distance from the shore. ”

“ It will easily be supposed, that the lovers of science would, in general, be peculiarly attentive to the effects resulting from Captain Cook's discoveries. The additions he had made to the knowledge of geography, navigation, and astronomy, and the new views he had opened of the diversified state of human life and manners, could not avoid commanding their esteem, and exciting their admiration. With many persons of philosophic literature he was in the habits of intimacy and friendship; he was particularly acquainted with Sir John Pringle, at that time president of the Royal Society. ”

“ The ancient Kaoo, and about half a dozen more old chiefs, remained on shore, and took up their abode at the priests’ houses. During all this time, not a canoe was seen in the bay, and the natives either kept within their huts, or lay prostrate on the ground. Before the king left the Resolution, Captain Cook obtained leave for the natives to come and trade with the ships as usual; but the women, for what reason we could not learn, still continued under the effects of the taboo ”