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CAPTAIN   COOK 


La|:ain  (,"ook. 


I-'jontispui. 


CAPTAIN    COOK 


BY 


WALTER   BESANT 


WITH  ILLUSTBAriOXS  BY  J.    MACFAlllASE 


3Lont(on 
MACMILLAN  AXD  CO.,  Limited 

NEW  YORK  :   THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 
1903 

All  rights  rexe>^.-ed 


First  Edition  printed  1890. 
Re/riiitcd  1892,  1S94.     Pfize  Library  1903. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER    I 

PAGE 

Birth  And  Education 1 


CHAPTER    II 
Before  the  Mx^st 18 

CHAPTER    III 
In  the  Royal  Navy 27 

CHAPTER   IV 

The  Great  Unknown  Ocean        ....       44 

CHAPTER   V 

Cook's  Three  Predecessors  .         .         .         .56 


CHAPTER   VI 

Cook's  First  Voyage    . 


COXTEXTS 


CHAPTER    VII 

PAGE 

A  Breathixo  Space  .         .         .         .         .82 


CHAPTET?    YIII 
The  Second  Voyage     .  .         .         .89 

CHAPTER    TX 
L.V.ST  Stay  at  Home 108 

CHAPTER   X 
The  Third  Voyage 115 

CHAPTER    XI 
The  De.\th 146 

CHAPTER   XII 
The  End  of  the  Voyage 172 

CHAPTER    XIII 
The  Ship's  Company 175 

CHAPTER    XIV 
The  La.st .184 


ILLUSTEATIONS 


PAGE 

Captain  Cook  ......  Frontispiece 

Cook's  escape  from  the  Indians  at  the  siege  of  Quebec        30 
The  natives  board  the  Dolphin  at  Tahiti     .  .  .59 

Captain  Cook  lands  at  Botany  Bay   .  .  .  .75 

The  Resolution  in  the  Antarctic  Ocean       ...        98 
Captain  Cook  makes  overtures  to  the  Maoris      .  .122 

Killing  walrus  for  food    .  .  .  .  .  .140 

The  death  of  Captain  Cook      .  .  .  .  .154 


CHAPTER   I 

BIRTH   AND   EDUCATION 

James  Cook  was  born  in  the  little  village  of  Marton,  in 
that  part  of  Yorkshire  known  as  Cleveland.  He  came 
into  the  world  on  the  27th  day  of  October,  in  the  year 
1728.  His  father,  an  agricultural  labourer,  removed  by 
a  single  step  from  the  lowest  level,  is  said  by  one  writer 
to  have  been  a  native  of  Northumberland,  and  by  others 
to  have  come  from  the  village  of  Ednam  in  Roxburgh- 
shire, the  birthplace  of  Thomson  the  poet. 

The  village  of  Marton  presents  few  points  of  interest. 
The  cottage  in  which  Cook  was  born  was  taken  down  a 
hundred  years  ago,  and  part  of  a  great  house,  which  in 
its  turn  is  now  gone,  was  built  over  its  site.  The  place 
is  at'  present  occupied  by  a  plantation.  The  only 
relic  of  Cook's  childhood  is  a  pump,  called  Captain 
Cook's  pump,  constructed,  it  is  said,  by  his  father. 
Probably  it  was  the  pump  in  use  by  the  tenants  of  the 
cottage.  The  village  consists  of  a  long  street  of  red  brick 
houses,  few  of  them  old.  The  church  was  rebuilt  in 
1848,  and  most  of  the  tombs  in  the  churchyard  are 
new. 

3.  ^  » 


CAPTAIN  COOK  chap. 


James  seems  to  have  been  the  second  of  a  large 
family  of  seven  or  eight, ^  or  even  more.  At  a  very  early 
age  he  was  set  to  work  on  the  fann  of  one  "William 
Walker,  a  wealthy  yeoman  of  Marton.  ]\Iary  Walker, 
his  wife,  seems  to  have  taken  the  trouble  to  teach  the 
child  his  letters.  This  is  the  origin  of  the  dame's 
school  and  the  village  dame  of  which  so  much  is  made 
in  Hartley  Coleridge's  Memoir.  Mary  Walker  lived  to 
the  age  of  eighty- nine,  dying  in  the  year  1789,  ten 
years  after  her  pupil.  It  is  hoj^ed  that  this  good  lady 
knew  that  the  lad  to  whom  she  had  shown  a  little  kind- 
ness was  none  other  than  the  great  sailor  who  filled  the 
world  with  his  name. 

At  the  age  of  eight,  in  the  year  1736,  the  boy  was 
removed  to  the  village  of  Great  Ayton,  between  four 
and  five  miles  south  of  Marton.  Here  his  father 
became  hind  to  Mr.  Skottowe,  then  lord  of  the  manor. 
Great  Ayton,  which  boasts  an  illustrious  roll  of  proprie- 
tors, had  passed  by  marriage  from  the  Coulsons  to  the 
Skottowes.  It  was  sold  early  in  the  century  to  a 
family  named  Eichardson.  The  word  "hind"  is  generally 
interpreted  to  mean  bailiff.  The  practice  in  the  Cleve- 
land district  was  then,  and  is  still,  for  the  landlord  to 


^  The  following  is  the  family  pedigree 


jAJtEs  Cook  =  Grace  — 
h.  1694       I       h.  1705 
d.  1779  d.  1768 


I  I  I  I  I  I  I  I 

John    James     Mary    Jane     JIan'    William  Margaret = James  Fleck,  Christiaiia  = 

b.  1727  b.  1728  b.  1732  b.  1737  ?*.  1740    b.  1746  b.  1748     I      fisherman,         Cocker. 

J.  1750  d.  1779  d.  1737  f?.  1742  «f.l741    d.  1748  d.  1798  of  Redcar.  I 

I  I  I 

Su  later.  Children.  Children. 

There  Avere  perhaps  other  children  who  died  in  infancy.  The  four 
between  James  and  ^Margaret  are  commemorated  on  the  tombstone  iu 
Great  Ayton  churchyard. 


GREAT  AVrON 


place  a  man  in  charge  of  a  small  farm,  giving  him  the 
farmhouse  for  his  residence,  and  paying  him  fixed  wages, 
receiving  in  return  the  whole  produce  of  the  farm.  This 
tenant  or  paid  labourer  is  called  the  landlord's  hind. 
Doubtless  this  was  the  position  held  by  James  Cook  the 
elder. 

At  Great  Ayton  four  more  children  at  least  were  born 
to  the  family,  and  four  died  and  are  buried  in  the 
churchyard.  Here  also,  in  the  year  1768,  Captain 
Cook's  mother  died,  aged  sixty-three  years,  happy,  we 
may  hope,  in  the  knowledge  that  one  of  her  sons  was  in 
command  of  a  king's  ship. 

The  village  of  Great  Ayton  is  a  much  more  consider- 
able j^lace  than  Marton,  and  far  more  interesting.  It 
lies  close  to  the  north  or  north-west  edge  of  that  splen- 
did stretch  of  hill  and  moorland  called  the  Cleveland 
Hills  or  the  Moors,  well  known  to  all  who  love  Whitby 
and  her  daughters,  the  seaside  hamlets,  each  in  its  glen, 
built  on  the  slopes  of  the  steep  hills  beside  the  sea. 
The  Cleveland  Hills  begin  close  to  the  village  of  Ayton. 
North  of  it  runs  the  long  ridge  of  Langbargh,  and  east 
of  it  rises  the  picturesque  hill  called  Eoseberry  Topping, 
a  thousand  feet  high,  crowned  with  its  conical  peak  of 
sandstone.  Through  the  village  runs  a  beck,  which  is 
crossed  by  a  wide  stone  bridge.  On  the  south  side  of  the 
stream,  evidently  the  poorer  part  of  the  village,  stands 
the  house  where  Cook's  father  dwelt.  It  is  said  to 
have  been  built  by  him,  when  he  gave  up  his  post  as 
hind  and  became  a  stone-mason.  It  is  a  stone  cottage 
of  three  or  four  rooms,  with  a  red-tiled  roof,  and  through 
the  open  door  one  catches  a  glimpse  of  a  garden  behind. 
Over  the  door  is  a  stone  with  the  initials   j^'q^    and 


CAPTA/N  COOK  CHAP. 


the  date  1755.  If,  as  is  most  probable,  these  initials 
mean  James  Cook  and  Grace  his  wife,  the  house  was 
not  built  till  the  son  was  already  twenty-seven  years  of 
age  and  long  since  flown  from  the  paternal  nest.  The 
father  was  also  sixty,  and,  if  he  lived  here,  must  have 
given  up  his  farm. 

Cook's  biogi-aphers  grandly  tell  us  that  the  boy  was 
placed  in  a  day-school  at  Ayton,  and  educated  at  Mr. 
Skottowe's  expense.  This  seems  very  magnificent  and 
truly  generous  on  the  part  of  Mr.  Skottowe.  I  believe 
that  this  gentleman  afterwards  proved  Cook's  friend  at 
the  most  important  juncture  in  his  life,  when  a  single 
step  decided  his  future.  But  upon  the  generosity  of 
the  education  one  need  not  insist.  I.  have  seen  the 
school.  It  was  held  on  the  ground-floor  of  a  cottage, 
built  originally,  as  the  inscription  above  the  lintel  in- 
forms us,  in  1704  by  one  Michael  Postgate ;  it  was 
l>ulled  down  in  the  year  1784,  and  then  rebuilt.  The 
later  structure  was  of  exactly  the  same  size  as  the 
former.  No  doubt,  as  village  schools  then  were,  the 
educational  advantages  of  Great  Ayton  were  considerable, 
and  a  boy  attending  the  school  from  the  age  of  eight  to 
that  of  twelve  may  have  acquired  a  good  foundation  for 
anything  which  he  might  subsequently  be  able  to  build 
upon  it.  The  school  has  since  been  refounded  and 
endowed  and  new  buildings  have  been  erected  for  it,  so 
tliat  it  has  become  a  very  creditable  school  indeed. 

The  viilage  now  contains  a  few  old  houses  and 
a  good  number  which  betoken  a  certain  amount  of 
comfort  and  wealth.  Tliere  is  a  large  square  with  a 
very  good  inn.  On  the  other  side  of  the  brook  is  an 
irregular  Place,  surrounded  by  old  and  somewhat  squalid 


GREA  T  A  YTON 


cottages.  The  old  church  has  been  deserted  and  suf- 
fered to  fall  into  decay,  and  a  new  chui'ch  has  been  built 
and  a  new  churchyard  close  to  the  old.  The  effect  is 
not  pleasing,  though  the  mouldering  church,  in  the  midst 
of  its  graves,  all  forgotten  and  neglected  together,  is  not 
■without  its  touch  of  pathos.  A  monument  stands  in  the 
churchyard  erected  by  Captain  Cook  to  the  memory  of 
his  mother.  His  father,  who  lived  to  be  eighty-five,  died 
at  Redcar  on  April  1st,  1779,  where  he  lived  with  his 
daughter  Margaret,  who  was  married  to  a  fisherman 
there.  He  is  described  in  the  register  of  deaths  as  a 
day-labourer. 

The  son  of  a  hind  of  Scotch  descent,  afterwards  a 
stone-mason,  and  of  a  Yorkshire  woman  of  like  position 
and  parentage,  James  Cook  had  little  backing  from  his 
family  and  his  connections.  Yet  if  we  were  to  have 
chosen  an  ancestry  which  in  those  days  would  have  given 
a  boy  the  best  chance  of  success,  it  would  have  been 
difficult  to  choose  a  better  stock  on  both  sides — on  the 
one  hand  the  Scotch  patience,  intelligence,  and  industry, 
and  on  the  other  hand  the  Yorkshire  independence  and 
self-reliance.  Add  to  this — a  quality  especially  essential  to 
success  in  that  century  of  endurance,  hard  fare,  and  con- 
tinual fighting — the  power  of  contenting  himself  with  the 
simplest  life  under  the  hardest  conditions.  What  the 
common  sailor  endured  ^vith  grumbling  Captain  Cook 
endured  with  cheerfulness.  This  also  he  owed  as  much 
to  his  parentage  as  to  the  habits  of  early  life. 

When  the  boy  reached  his  thirteenth  year,  and  it  was 
time  to  look  about  for  him,  it  was  resolved  to  apprentice 
him  to  one  Sanderson,  a  shopkeeper  of  Staithes  or  The 
Staithes.     The  existence  of  tombstones  in  Great  Ayton 


CAPTAIN  COOK 


churchyard  bearing  the  name  of  Sanderson  seems  to  ex- 
plain why  the  boy  was  sent  to  Mr.  Sanderson  of  Staithes. 
Perhaps  he  was  in  some  way  connected  with  the  family. 
Perhaps  the  Sanderson  of  Staithes  let  the  Sanderson  of 
Great  Ayton  know  that  he  was  in  want  of  a  boy.  Cer- 
tainly the  two  places  were  then  as  far  apart  and  as  distinct 
from  each  other  as  York  is  now  from  London.  In  one 
the  population  was  wholly  rural  and  agricultural,  in  the 
other  it  was  wholly  seafaring.  Between  the  two  villages 
there  lay  an  expanse  more  than  fifteen  miles  across. 
If  one  wanted  a  village  by  the  sea,  surely  Redcar  was 
nearer  than  Staithes,  and  ^Vhitby,  if  one  wanted  a 
great  commercial  centre,  was  as  near.  But  the  boy  was 
sent  to  Staithes.  He  would  reach  it  by  whatever  path 
led  across  the  moor,  probably  through  Lofthouse,  sacred 
to  the  memory  of  a  Loathly  "Worm.  No  doubt  such  an 
apprenticeship  would  seem  to  the  simple  village  folk  a 
chance  of  a  rise  in  the  world  for  their  boy.  It  was 
indeed  a  chance,  and  the  lad  seized  upon  it.  Yet  not 
quite  as  they  expected. 

Along  this  part  of  the  Yorkshire  coast,  from  Redcar 
round  to  Flamborough  Head  and  Bridlington,  high  cliffs 
present  their  faces  to  the  sea,  broken  at  intervals  by 
narrow  glens  formed  b}^  little  becks  or  brooks  making 
their  way  to  the  sea.  In  many  of  these  glens  lies  nestled 
a  village  or  a  to\vii.  Whitby  is  such  a  town,  built  in  a 
narrow  valley  upon  the  banks  of  a  stream.  Robin  Hood's 
Bay  has  such  a  town.  Runswick  Bay  has  another. 
Scarborough  is  an  overgrown  example  of  this  kind  of 
fishing  village.  The  Staithes  is  another  example.  It  is 
like  the  rest,  built  in  a  narrow  valley  upon  the  banks  of 
a  little  stream.     The  valley  is  so  narrow  and  so  deep 


THE  STAITHES 


that  the  place  is  quite  invisible,  whether  one  approaches 
it  by  the  road  or  by  the  cliff.  One  suddenly  turns 
towards  the  sea  by  a  steep  and  winding  way  and 
presentl}!^  discerns  the  red  roofs  of  the  town  below. 
Descending,  the  road  becomes  a  street,  narrow  and  of  evil 
smell ;  descending  still  lower,  the  street  becomes  the 
centre  and  market  of  the  town,  with  shops  and  public- 
houses;  a  little  farther,  and  the  beach  appears,  high  clifif  on 
either  hand  ;  the  one  on  the  north  running  up  to  a  point 
and  breaking  down  sheer — this  is  called  Coburn  Nab, — 
and  the  other  on  the  south,  called  Piercey  Nab,  a  more 
rounded  bluff;  both  are  of  nearly  the  same  height,  namely, 
just  over  four  hundred  feet.  A  bay  is  thus  formed,  partly 
sheltered  from  the  east,  but  exposed  to  the  north.  "  The 
Staithe"  is  a  wooden  pier  or  sea-wall,  not  that  which 
was  known  to  James  Cook  when  he  became  an  apprentice 
here,  but  one  of  much  more  recent  construction.  Piles 
of  timber  have  been  driven  into  the  ground  as  far  out 
to  sea  as  possible,  in  order  to  make  a  kind  of  groyne  and 
to  break  the  force  of  the  waves,  which  come  rolling  in 
from  the  north  with  great  strength.  In  the  bay  there 
are  dozens  of  boats  lying  moored  side  by  side  ;  on  the 
shore  there  are  dozens  of  boats  hauled  up ;  the  boats  in 
the  bay  are  filled  with  nets  and  gear  of  all  kinds ;  mostly 
they  are  painted  white  with  streaks  of  green,  blue,  or  red  ; 
among  them  are  lying — I  know  not  if  they  came  so  far 
a  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago — the  boats  of  Penzance  with 
their  stern  sails ;  you  may  know  them  by  their  rig.  In 
the  big  smacks  half  a  dozen  men  go  out,  but  two  or  three 
will  venture  out  even  in  one  of  the  little  cobles  which 
are  upset  so  easily  unless  dexterously  managed. 

The  place   appears   to  be   prosperous,  though    men 


CAPTAIN  COOK 


grumble  :  on  the  Staithe  the  fisher-folk  stand  about  all 
day  long,  hands  in  pocket,  pipe  in  mouth.  No  Neapolitan 
could  seem  lazier ;  but  they  are  not  lazy  :  they  are  resting. 
An  hour  after  midnight  they  will  be  on  board  their  craft 
outward  bound  for  the  German  Ocean,  in  all  weathers 
short  of  a  gale,  and  in  all  seasons,  even  w^hen  the  north- 
east -wind  benumbs  them  with  its  icy  breath.  They  are 
not  lazy,  but  ashore  they  love  to  sit  and  stand  together 
all  day  long,  exchanging  few  words,  where  the  weaves 
wash  the  beach,  and  where  they  scent  the  fragrance  of 
the  fish  lying  on  the  shingle  above  the  reach  of  high 
tide,  and  where  they  can  keep  an  eye  upon  the  open  and 
watch  the  ships  that  sail  and  steam  past  them  on  the 
horizon.  There  is  every  indication  of  a  trade  by  which 
many  do  live  in  comfort ;  in  the  town  the  shops  are 
conducted — though  doubtless  on  a  more  liberal  scale — 
precisely  after  the  same  methods  as  those  prevalent  a 
hundred  years  ago.  That  is  to  say,  on  one  side  of  the 
door  is  the  grocery  department,  and  on  the  other  the 
drapery  ;  so  that  those  who  make  James  Cook  apprentice 
to  a  draper  do  not  lie,  nor  do  those  who  make  him 
apprentice  to  a  grocer,  since  his  master,  Mr.  Sanderson, 
followed  both  these  trades. 

The  fisher-folk  of  the  Staithes  at  the  present  day  are 
reported  to  be  a  moral  and  virtuous  people,  largely  com- 
posed of  temperance  men ;  they  are  further  said  to  be 
a  religious  folk  belonging  to  one  or  other  of  the  many 
nonconformist  Churches  represented  in  the  place.  The 
Church  of  England,  which  a  year  or  two  ago  had 
nothing  in  the  place  but  an  upper  chamber  rivalling 
the  conventicles  in  ugliness,  is  reported,  perhaps  wrongly, 
to  have  a  feeble  following.      The  parish  church  is  at 


THE  STAITHES 


Hinderwell  on  the  cliff,  a  mile  and  more  away ;  and  it  is 
in  its  churchyard  that  you  will  find  the  tombs  of  all  the 
master  mariners  of  the  Staithes. 

In  the  time  when  James  Cook  was  apprentice  here 
I  suppose  that  there  were  none  of  the  dissenting  chapels 
— nonconformity  was  still  a  thing  of  the  great  towns — 
and  that  such  of  the  fisher-folk  as  had  any  religion  at  all 
walked  up  the  hill  on  Sundays  to  Hinderwell.  We  may 
easily  believe  them  to  have  been,  like  all  other  fisher  and 
sailor  folk  of  the  time,  a  people  given  to  much  drink,  but 
never  careless  or  reckless  —  that  kind  of  sailor  is  not 
common  on  the  coast  of  Yorkshire.  Save  in  this  matter 
of  drink,  in  which  the  people  are  now  greatly  reformed, 
the  place  was  much  the  same  then  as  now.  The  bright- 
eyed,  clear-skinned  girls  ran,  then  as  now,  lightly  along 
the  steep  and  narrow  lanes  and  courts  of  the  to^^n, 
carrying  baskets  of  fish  on  their  heads ;  the  wives  sat 
in  their  porches  in  their  suu-bonnets  talking  and  knitting ; 
the  men  lounged  on  the  Staithe  talking  all  day,  if  it 
was  fine  and  not  too  cold.  When  it  rained  or  snowed, 
or  when  the  east  wind  was  too  bitter  even  for  their 
hardy  frames,  they  sat  together  in  the  bar  of  the  Cod 
and  Lobster,  the  Shoulder  of  Mutton,  and  the  Black  Lion, 
drinking  over  a  pipe  of  tobacco.  On  the  south  side  of  the 
main  street  the  narrow  courts  rose  steep  and  confined, 
each  with  its  flight  of  steps  ;  beyond  the  bay,  under 
Coburn  Xab,  they  were  building  ships, — always  one  ship 
at  least  on  the  stocks ;  perhaps  a  whaler,  perhaps  a  collier, 
perhaps  no  more  than  a  fishing  smack  or  a  coble  ;  but 
all  day  long  the  cheerful  hammer  rang,  and  the  ship- 
^\Tights  \vent  in  and  out  among  the  fisher-folk. 

He  who  visits  this  quaint  old  Yorkshire  town,  when 


CAPTAIN  COOK 


he  stands  upon  the  far  side  of  the  Cod  and  Lobster,  upon 
the  wooden  pier,  may  in  imagination  rebuild  a  row  of 
houses  along  the  shore  exactly  similar  to  those  which 
still  stand  upon  the  shore  behind  him.  Such  a  row 
actually  stood  there  in  the  year  1740,  and  among  them 
was  Mr.  Sanderson's  double  shop — the  grocery  on  one 
side,  and  the  drapery  on  the  other.  Under  the  counter 
— let  us  hope  that  of  the  latter  department,  where  there 
would  be  fewer  cockchafers,  beetles,  and  ear^vvigs — slept 
the  apprentice,  James  Cook.  All  apprentices  slept 
under  the  counter  in  those  days.  In  the  morning  he 
swept  out  the  shop,  put  things  in  their  places — they 
had  not  then  arrived  at  dressing  the  -windows;  this  done, 
he  had  his  breakfast — a  hunch  of  bread,  a  lump  of  fat 
bacon,  and  a  mug  of  small  ale  ;  this  despatched,  all  day 
long  he  fetched,  carried,  waited,  served,  and  listened  to 
the  instiiictions  of  Mr.  Sanderson.  He  also  listened, 
whenever  he  could  get  outside  the  shop,  to  the  talk  of  the 
seafaring  men  on  the  Staithe.  He  heard  many  things 
strange  and  wonderful ;  he  heard  how  the  men  went  forth 
at  night  in  all  weathers  to  catch  the  herring  and  the  cod  ; 
he  heard  how  some  of  them  had  served  on  colliers  and 
coasters,  and  so  knew  all  the  ports  and  the  humours  of 
each  from  Whitby  to  AVapping ;  how  some,  again,  had 
gone  forth  to  the  Arctic  seas  in  whalers  and  had  met 
with  perils  many  and  various  among  the  ice,  the  bears, 
and  the  great  whales;  nay,  there  were  some  who  had 
been  pressed  into  His  Majesty's  service,  fought  His 
Majesty's  battles,  and  returned  home  again  none  the 
worse  for  their  years  afloat — even  though  their  backs 
bore  marks  of  the  captain's  discipline. 

Now  to  some  boys,  when  they  hear  such  stories,  there 


SEA  SICJ^NESS 


falls  upon  their  senses  a  longing  so  mighty  that  it  over- 
powers them.  Like  the  rats  when  the  piper  of  Hamelin 
first  began,  like  the  children  when  his  flute  played  a 
second  time,  they  hear  strange  voices ;  they  see 
imaginary  splendours,  the  washing  of  the  waves  upon 
the  shore  falls  upon  their  ears  like  the  sweetest  music ; 
their  hearts  swell  only  to  see  a  black  collier  beating  up 
slowly  against  the  wind ;  and  presently  a  voice  not  to 
be  resisted  calls  upon  them  to  arise  and  betake  them- 
selves to  some  place  where  they,  too,  can  be  received 
upon  shipboard  and  become  sailors  for  good  or  for  evil. 
Alas !  this  was  generally,  in  James  Cook's  time,  for 
evil ;  the  sailor  had  then  things  to  encounter  the  like  of 
which  we  have  now  wellnigh  forgotten ;  there  was  scurvy 
at  sea,  there  were  ships  too  clumsy  to  answer  helm,  there 
were  worm-eaten  bottoms,  there  was  foul  water  to  drink 
and  not  enough  of  it,  salt  junk  to  eat  and  not  enough 
of  that ;  there  were  captains  who  could,  and  sometimes 
did,  lash  the  flesh  off  the  seaman's  back  for  a  word  or  a 
look  of  mutiny;  there  were  sharks  ashore  and  there 
was  the  enemj^  afloat.  Yet  nothing — not  the  warnings 
of  the  experienced  or  the  history  of  terrible  shipwrecks, 
or  the  certain  knowledge  of  these  things — could  keep  the 
young  sailor  ashore  or  make  him  prefer  the  counter 
to  the  deck. 

James  Cook  was  such  a  boy.  He  heard-  these  voices 
and  had  these  visions.  Perhaps  among  the  fisher-folk  of 
the  Staithes  there  may  have  been  one  or  two  who  had 
sailed  through  the  Strait  le  Maire  and  up  the  coast  of 
Chili  and  Peru  and  even  beyond  and  north  of  the  Island 
of  California,  escaping  from  the  Spanish  fleet  and  boldly 
tackling  the  biggest  and  strongest  Spanish  ship,  and  so 


CAPTAIN  COOK 


across  the  great  Pacific  Ocean,  on  the  parallel  of  latitude 
13°  N.,  to  the  Isle  of  Guam,  whence,  through  friendly 
seas  and  round  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  home.  There 
came  a  time  when  he  could  resist  no  longer,  and  he  fled. 

Legends  have  grown  up  around  this  Hejira,  from 
which  Cook's  life  should  be  dated.  It  is  said  that  he 
quan-elled  with  his  master ;  it  is  said  that  he  demanded 
to  have  his  articles  broken ;  it  is  further  said  that,  in 
order  to  pay  for  a  conveyance  from  the  Staithes  to  Whitby, 
he  stole  a  shilling  from  the  till.  The  preservation  of  the 
till  itself,  which  was  shown  until  quite  recently,  has  always 
been  considered  sufficient  proof  of  this  story  of  the  stolen 
shilling.  True  it  is  that  on  the  spot  certain  of  the  oldest 
inhabitants  endeavour  to  soften  down  the  story,  to  re- 
move from  it  the  more  tragic  elements — which  really 
constitute  its  strength,  and  lend  it  a  moral — by  alleging 
that  James  Cook  did  not  steal  a  shilling,  but  that  he 
exchanged  an  old  for  a  new  shilling,  by  which  his  master 
was  in  no  way  injured.  Now  the  mute  evidence  of  the 
till  in  no  way  supjDorts  this  explanation.  It  says  plainly, 
"Either  a  shilling  was  stolen  from  me,  or  it  was  not. 
Looking  into  the  receptacles  and  the  depths  of  me,  what 
do  you  think  ? " 

About  the  breaking  of  the  articles,  the  boy's  parents 
were  fifteen  miles  away,  and  practically  inaccessible  : 
articles  of  apprenticeship  were  not  broken  without  a 
great  deal  of  trouble  and  some  expense  ;  boys  who  want 
to  go  to  sea  have  never  troubled  themselves  about  legal 
foimalities;  they  run  away.  Robinson  Crusoe,  the 
leading  case,  ran  away.  James  Cook  ran  away ;  he  tied 
up  his  belongings — one  shirt  and  a  jack-knife — in  his 
only  handkerchief,  stole  out  of  the  house  one  summer 


THE   TESTIMONY  OF  THE  TILL 


morning  at  daybreak,  looked  across  the  bay  for  a 
moment,  marked  how  the  rising  sun  gilded  the  sails  of 
the  coi^ster  a  mile  out  at  sea,  looked  regretfully  at  the 
row  of  boats  lying  on  the  beach  or  anchored  in  the 
harbour,  and  then  strode  away  along  the  narrow  street 
of  the  town,  where  all  were  asleep  except  himself. 

And  as  to  that  conveyance  to  Whitby,  considering 
that  the  distance  is  no  more  than  nine  or  ten  miles,  or 
perhaps  a  little  more  by  way  of  the  cliff ;  that  there  was 
then  no  road,  except  a  bridle-path,  between  any  of  the 
villages  along  that  coast ;  that  there  were  then  no  carts, 
carriages,  or  vehicles  of  any  kind  running  between 
Whitby  and  the  Staithes ;  and  that  he  was  a  stout  and 
sturdy  lad,  we  may  without  difficulty  acknowledge 
that  he  did  the  little  journey  on  foot,  and  that  if  he 
took  that  shilling  at  all,  which  a  biographer  who  loves 
his  hero  may  be  permitted  to  doubt,  it  T.^as  to  provide 
himself  with  food  until  he  should  get  what  he  wanted — 
a  ship. 

This,  one  feels  quite  certain,  is  the  exact  truth.  But 
in  order  to  make  the  thing  perfectly  clear,  let  me  borrow 
a  page  from  the  Book  of  the  Things  Forgotten — a  work  too 
generally  neglected  by  the  historian. 

On  Monday  morning,  the  5th  July  1742,  Mr.  Sanderson, 
grocer  and  draper,  awoke  somewhat  later  than  usual  ;  he 
knew  it  was  later  because  he  heard  the  washing  of  the  waves 
upon  the  Staithe  ;  the  tide  was  up  ;  he  remembered  that  the 
high  tide  was  due  at  six  o'clock  that  morning — men  who  live 
by  the  sea  always  know  the  time  of  day  by  the  tide,  and  the 
time  when  high  tide  and  low  tide  are  due.  He  got  out  of 
bed,  therefore,  being  reminded,  at  the  same  time,  by  a  certain 
heaviness  of  head,  that  he  had  taken  more  beer  than  is  needful 
for  man's  refreshment  at  the  Cod  and  Lobster  the  night  before. 


14 


CAPTAIN  COOK  chap. 


Then  he  dressed  leisurely,  and  descended  the  narrow  stair 
into  his  shop.  He  foimd,  to  his  astonishment,  that  the  place 
was  still  closed,  and,  as  the  sunshine  streaming  through  the 
upper  holes  of  the  shutters  showed,  that  the  floor  was  un- 
swept  and  nothing  set  out  upon  the  counter.  Mr.  Sander- 
son had  his  misgivings,  taught  by  past  experience.  He  said 
nothing  ;  he  crept  with  silence  and  great  caution  to  the 
corner  where  stood  the  instrument  with  which  he  daily 
admonished  his  apprentice,  grasped  it  and  stole  to  the 
counter  under  which  the  boy  made  his  bed  at  night,  intent 
on  giving  him  a  lesson,  short  and  practical,  on  the  duty  of 
early  rising — one,  he  thought,  that  should  leave  a  lasting 
iuipression.  There  was  no  boy.  The  blanket  was  thrown 
back,  the  sacking  on  which  he  lay  was  crumpled  up  :  the 
boy  had  left  his  bed.  Mr.  Sanderson  laid  down  the  stick 
and  tried  the  door  ;  it  was  unbolted  and  unlocked  :  the  boy 
had  therefore  gone.  Then  Mr.  Sanderson  sighed  and  replaced 
the  cane  in  its  comer.  It  would  wait  for  the  next  apprentice, 
for  this  one  had  run  away  and  gone  to  sea.  He  made  no 
inquiries,  and  had  no  doubts.  All  the  boys  who  M*ere 
indentured  to  this  good  man  ran  away  and  went  to  sea.  He 
could  not  keep  them,  though  he  flogged  them  every  day ; 
they  would  go  to  sea,  where  the  floggings  were  more  frequent 
and  more  various,  ranging  from  the  dread  cat  with  nine  tails 
to  the  handy  rope's  end.  They  would  go.  James  Cook  had 
only  followed  the  others.  He  remembered,  now  that  it  was 
too  late,  certain  symptoms  which  should  have  warned  him — 
a  new  restlessness  in  the  boy,  a  careless  weighing  of  the  brown 
sugar,  a  lavish  rendering  of  a  yard  of  "Welsh  flannel,  and  a  certain 
wistful  look  in  his  eyes  whenever  he  could  steal  to  the  door 
and  gaze  upon  the  water.  "Well,  he  had  gone  to  sea  ;  another 
apprentice  must  be  found  ;  perhaps  James  would  be  wrecked 
and  cast  away,  or  he  might  fall  overboard,  or  the  ship 
might  founder,  or  he  might  get  tired  of  the  sea  life,  and, 
being  unfitted  for  a  landsman's  drudgery,  turn  vagabond, 
highwayman,  footpad,  and  so  get  hanged  ;  or  he  might 
become  a  steady  and  useful  sailor,  and  come  back  to  give  an 
account  of  himself. 

With  these  thoughts  he  opened  the  till.     It  was  empty. 
He  remembered  leaving  a  bright  shilling  in  it  on  Saturday 


MR.  SANDERSON  15 


evening.  It  was  empty.  The  3'oung  \illain — he  had  robbed 
the  tin.  He  took  it  in  his  hand  and  went  to  the  door  ; 
hard  by  were  the  coble  men  leaning  against  the  posts. 

"  Men,"  said  Mr,  Sanderson,  "  ha'  ye  seen  James  Cook  ? 
He's  run  away  and  robbed  the  till  of  a  shilling." 

Up  spoke  a  gray-haired  mariner. 

"  Robbed  t'  till,  man  ?  Thou  robbed  it  thysel'  last 
night  to  pay  tha  reckonin'.  Art  too  drunk  yet  to  mind 
gaein'  oot  for  t'  money  ? " 

Mr.  Sanderson  retired  with  his  empty  till.  But  the 
word  had  been  spoken,  and  it  was  spread  abroad  in  the 
Staithes,  and  contradicted,  and  again  reported,  that 
James  Cook  had  not  only  run  away  to  sea  but  had 
robbed  the  till  of  a  new  shilling.  For  there  is  a  sticking 
quality  about  a  lie,  particularl}^  a  lie  -which  degrades,  if 
it  is  believed;  and  to  this  day  .  .  .  but  the  rest  we 
know. 

The  good  man  took  another  apprentice,  and  j-et 
another,  and  another.  They  all  ran  away  and  went  to 
sea,  except  one,  who  was  preparing  to  go  too  when  a 
putrid  fever  seized  him,  caused  by  the  stinking  fish. 
He  departed,  too,  but  not  in  the  same  way,  and  now 
lies  buried  in  Hinderwell  churchyard,  under  a  grassy 
mound,  and  is  forgotten.  The  shop,  as  has  been  already 
stated,  stands  no  longer.  The  Cod  and  Lohter,  then  the 
first  house  in  the  row  under  the  south  cliff,  is  now  the 
only  house  left.  For  a  few  years  after  the  flight  of 
James  Cook  there  arose  one  night  a  mighty  storm  of 
wind  and  rain ;  the  weaves  came  rolling  in  from  the  north, 
the  tide  ran  over  the  Staithes  and  flooded  the  lower 
part  of  the  town.  The  people  in  this  row  of  houses 
had  to  fly  for  their  lives,  and  one  by  one  the  buildings 
fell  and  ^were  washed  away  before  the  tide  went  down. 


i6  CAPTAIN  COOK  chap. 

All  but  the  old  tavern,  which  still  stands  to  show  the 
kind  of  hostelry  which  was  the  fisherman's  house  of  re- 
sort in  the  year  1740  or  thereabouts.  The  respectable 
Sanderson  saved  his  effects  and  furniture,  and  his  till. 
The  shop  was  reopened  in  a  house  higher  up ;  the 
house  still  stands,  but  the  shop  is  closed.  When  Mr. 
Sanderson  at  length  concluded  his  pilgrimage,  one 
Turner  took  it  over  in  his  place— Sanderson  having  no 
sons,  or,  which  is  possible,  all  Sanderson's  sons  having 
run  away  and  gone  to  sea.  Turner  in  due  course  gave 
place  to  one  Eow,  who  is  also  now  gone,  and  the  shop 
is  closed.  The  till  has  disappeared,  and  will  no  longer 
bear  evidence,  the  dumb,  helpless  thing,  to  an  invention. 
Perhaps  it  has  been  acquired  by  the  Library  of  the 
Royal  Geographical  Society,  or  it  may  be  among  the 
treasures  of  the  Royal  Society.  I  have  looked  for  it  in 
the  Museum  of  Whitby,  but  it  is  not  there. 

James  Cook  came  no  more  to  the  Staithes.  The 
people,  hoAvever,  heard  of  him.  He  was  seen  at  "Wliitby 
between  voyages.  Ten  years  or  so  later  the  news  came 
that  he  had  been  pressed  into  the  king's  navy.  And 
one  day,  twenty  years  and  more  after  he  had  run  away, 
the  news  came  to  this  little  port  that  Lieutenant  Cook 
— nothing  less,  if  you  please,  than  Lieutenant — had 
sailed  away  in  command  of  a  king's  ship,  bound  for  the 
Pacific  Ocean,  whither  men  go  to  fight  the  Spaniard. 
Never  before,  in  the  memory  of  man,  had  oflBcer  of  the 
Royal  Navy  come  from  the  Staithes.  Captains  of  fish- 
ins  smacks — even  of  colliers — but  Lieutenants  in  the 
Royal  Navy  %     Never. 

"  Why,  James  Cook  was  my  apprentice  ! "  said  Mr. 
Sanderson,  now  old  and  shaken  in  his  memory.     "He 


I  HIS  MEMORY  GREEN  17 

ran  away  and  went  to  sea,  and  he  robbed  the  till ;  ay, 
he  took  a  new  shilling  out  of  the  till.     This  very  till  it 

was — a  new  shilling.     Though  they  did  say "     But 

here  his  memory  failed  him. 

They  cherish  the  memory  of  James  Cook's  boyhood 
all  over  Cleveland.  The  strangers  who  visit  the  Staithes 
from  Whitby  or  from  Saltburn  are  told  where  was  the 
house  in  which  Cook  served  part  of  an  apprenticeship. 
At  Marton,  where  the  great  sailor  was  born,  there  is  a 
school  named  after  him.  At  Great  Ayton  they  show 
the  house  built  by  his  father,  after  the  great  sailor  had 
left  the  place,  and  the  schoolhouse,  rebuilt  after  the 
great  sailor  had  gone  away.  There  is  a  monument 
to  his  memory  erected  upon  a  hill  near  Ayton  for  all  the 
world  to  see ;  and  at  Whitby,  in  the  museum,  they  have 
his  portrait,  and  a  relic  or  two  from  the  Endeavour^  and 
a  collection  of  South  Sea  arms,  dresses,  and  implements, 
which,  though  presented  by  various  donors,  are  accepted 
by  the  visitor  as  placed  there  in  honour  of  Captain 
Cook,  and  if  you  make  your  way  to  the  little  street 
where  he  was  articled,  half  a  dozen  of  the  people  run 
forth  instantly,  to  point  out  the  house. 


CHAPTER  II 

BEFORE   THE   MAST 

The  boy,  as  the  book  above  quoted  goes  on  to  explain, 
turned  to  the  southward  when  he  reached  the  top  of  the 
cliff,  and  walked  across  the  fields  through  Hinderwell 
churchyard,  to  the  road  which,  in  the  year  1742,  was 
only  a  cross  country  track,  and  not  a  made  road  at  all, 
leading  to  the  village  of  Lythe.  Here  he  struck  into 
the  wa)^  along  the  cliff  made  by  those  who  searched  for 
jet  and  those  who  worked  in  the  alum  trade,  and  so 
walked  into  AVhitby,  which  he  reached  before  the  e^  ents 
already  narrated,  concerned  with  the  awaking  of  Mr. 
Sanderson,  happened.  It  was  not  yet  six  o'clock  when 
he  stood  upon  the  west  cliff — on  which  there  was  not  a 
single  house — and  looked  dovm.  upon  the  to"s^Ti  below. 

He  saw  a  closely -built  populous  place,  the  houses 
stuck  together  as  if  to  prevent  each  other  from  falling 
from  the  steep  sides  of  the  cliff  into  the  port  itself. 
There  were  few  streets  on  the  west  side  except  the 
Staithe  itself,  the  long  quay,  behind  which  the  houses 
began  ;  narrow  courts  with  stone  steps  led  up  between  the 
lower  houses  to  those  above ;  the  roofs  were  of  bright 
red  tiles;  the  coal  smoke  hung  over  the  town;  there 
was  an  inner  port  connected  with  the  outer  by  a  draw- 
bridge; already  the  town  was  astir.;  the  cobles  and  the 


CHAP.  II  WHITBY  19 

smacks  had  come  in  and  were  unlading  their  cargo  ;  a 
sale  was  going  on  loud  and  noisy ;  the  beadle  was  bawl- 
ing the  loss  of  a  mare— lost,  stolen,  or  strayed — and 
ringing  his  bell;  with  many  "yeo  hoes"  they  were 
warping  a  ship  out  of  harbour ;  from  the  dockyard  be- 
yond the  inner  port  there  came  the  beating  of  a  hundred 
hammers,  wielded  by  those  who  built  the  sturdy  "Whitby 
craft;  the  children  played  about  the  quay,  sliding  up 
and  down  the  ropes,  and  looking  at  the  casks  filled  with 
fish  to  be  sent  up  country  and  sold ;  the  carts  stood 
ready  of  those  who  were  waiting  to  carry  the  fish  about 
the  farms  and  villages ;  Whitby  was  awake,  and  in  the 
full  swing  of  work. 

It  was  then,  as  now,  a  busy  and  important  place  ;  it 
had  a  population  of  nearly  ten  thousand ;  many  ships 
were  built  there ;  it  furnished  ships  and  crews  for  the 
coal  trade  along  the  coast;  the  Whitby  ships  traded 
with  Norway,  Sweden,  Hamburg,  Bremen,  Dantzig,  and 
St.  Petersburg ;  a  large  part  of  the  Baltic  trade  was  in 
the  hands  of  Whitby ;  her  merchants  and  shipowners 
were  wealthy  and  responsible  persons ;  Whitby  sent  out 
whalers ;  Whitby  sent  to  London  iron,  stone,  alum,  and 
jet;  at  Whitby  there  were  made  ropes,  sails,  blocks, 
yards,  and  all  kinds  of  gear  wanted  for  ships;  and 
Whitby  Avas  the  centre  of  a  great  fisher}^ 

In  those  days  it  had  but  one  church,  the  old  church 
on  the  east  cliff,  up  the  long  flight  of  two  hundred 
steps.  It  was  so  crowded  on  Sunda}^  that  although  they 
had  not  yet  pulled  down  the  north  aisle  and  built  up  the 
large  square  structure  which  now  stands  there,  they  had 
already  begun  the  construction  of  the  galleries,  which  are 
stuck  all  about  the  church  wherever  one  can  be  placed ; 


20  CAPTAIN-  COOK 


they  had  also  ah-eady  squared  olT  the  roof,  put  in  the 
skylights,  and  modernised  the  windows.  The  name  of 
the  place  was  by  some  written  Whitebay ;  it  is  so  spelt 
on  the  tombstone  of  a  certain  minister  of  the  parish  who 
died  in  the  beginning  of  the  century;  but  this  was  pedantic. 
The  old  name  of  the  town,  Streoneshalh,  has  long  been 
forgotten,  which  is  a  thousand  pities ;  in  the  same  way 
the  old  name  of  the  little  hamlet  three  miles  north, 
Thordisd,  has  been  clean  forgotten,  and  changed  into 
East  Row,  which  is  indeed  a  drop. 

The  boy  saw  the  church  on  the  east  cliff,  and  behind 
it  the  ruins  of  St.  Hilda's  abbey  church — in  his  day  the 
central  tower  was  still  standing ;  he  saw  one  ship  going 
out  of  harbour,  and  another  ship  taking  her  cargo  on 
board.  He  walked  quickly  do'v\Ti  the  west  cliff  to  the 
quay,  boarded  the  ship,  and  doffed  liis  cap  to  the  mate. 

Under  the  east  cliff  there  is  nestled  the  oldest  part 
of  Whitby  town ;  here  is  the  old  town  hall,  built  upon 
a  great  central  pillar,  thicker  than  those  of  Durham 
Cathedral,  with  a  pillar  of  more  slender  diameter  for 
each  of  the  corners.  Here  are  two  narrow  streets  run- 
ning parallel  with  the  cliff,  and  half  a  dozen  courts  run- 
ning up  the  lower  slope  before  the  clifi'  begins.  Under 
the  to\Tn  hall  is  the  market;  as  you  see  it  to-day,  so 
James  Cook  saw  it  that  day  when  he  walked  in  from 
Staithes :  pigs  and  sheep,  poultry,  fruit,  and  vegetables 
are  sold  in  this  market.  For  fish  you  can  go  to  the 
quay  on  the  other  side.  Many  of  the  houses  in  this  part 
of  the  town  have  got  the  date  of  their  erection  over  the 
doors;  one  is  dated  1704,  another  1688,  and  so  on;  by 
far  the  greater  part  of  them  are  more  than  a  hundred 
years  old.    In  the  lower  of  the  two  streets,  courts  nearly  as 


WHITE  V  21 


narrow  as  the  Yarmouth  passages  run  down  to  the  water's 
edge,  or  to  houses  built  overhanging  the  water.  Some 
of  these  are  old  taverns ;  they  have,  built  outside,  broad 
wooden  galleries  or  verandahs,  with  green  railings,  and 
steps  to  the  water,  where  the  captains  or  mates  of  the 
colliers  could  sit  with  a  pipe  and  a  cool  tankard,  and 
gossip  away  the  time  between  dinner  and  supper,  looking 
out  to  sea  the  while  between  the  cliffs.  When  the  sailor 
is  not  afloat  he  loves  to  sit  where  he  can  gaze  upon  a 
harbour  and  ships  and  the  blue  water  outside.  At  the 
Baffled  Anchor,  for  instance,  even  a  sluggish  imagination 
can  easily  discern  James  Cook  himself,  in  his  rough  sea 
dress  and  tarred  hands,  sitting  among  his  friends  and 
shipmates — himself  already  having  gained  the  quarter- 
deck. He  is  a  silent  young  man;  he  refuses  not  his 
drink,  but  he  does  not  sing  and  bluster;  indeed,  the 
Whitby  mariners  were  ever  a  quiet  and  God-fearing 
folk,  though  in  the  matter  of  drink — but  were  they 
worse  than  the  landsmen  ?  A  picture  of  Whitby  of  this 
date  tells  little  that  one  who  knows  the  place  cannot 
discover  on  the  spot ;  the  reconstruction  of  the  town  of 
1742  needs  but  the  knocking  down  of  the  modern  part 
and  of  a  few  shop  fronts  and  recent  structures.  The 
build  of  the  Whitby  ship — in  the  picture  one  is  lying  in 
the  inner  harbour — has  been  little  modified.  She  is 
round  in  the  bow,  broad  and  square  in  the  stern ;  her 
lines  are  laid  for  room  rather  than  for  speed ;  her  length 
is  about  three  times  her  breadth.  In  the  picture,  just  as 
now,  the  houses  cluster  at  the  foot  of  the  east  cliff,  the 
dockyard  is  in  full  activity,  the  port  is  full  of  bustle 
and  business. 

The  Book  of  Tilings  Forgotten  narrates  that  the  ship  in 


CAPTAIN  COOK 


which  Cook  offered  his  services  was  ready  for  sea;  that 
he  was  taken  on  board  as  ship's  boy,  and  proved  him- 
self, during  the  voyage  to  London  port  and  home,  a  lad 
of  quick  parts  and  great  activity,  insomuch  that  the 
rope's  end  was  seldom  required  to  start  him,  and  the  mate, 
though  a  choleric  person,  found  it  unnecessary  to  cuff 
the  boy  unless  he  was  actually  within  reach.  Further, 
that  this  officer  interested  himself,  being  of  a  generous 
and  humane  disposition,  in  the  boy,  and  advised  him  to 
get  bound  to  the  owners  of  the  ship  for  a  term  of  years, 
holding  out  his  own  remarkable  rise  from  the  position  of 
apprentice  to  be  mate  or  first  lieutenant  of  the  collier. 
To  this  rank,  he  said,  the  boy  might  himself  reasonably 
and  even  laudably  aspire,  though  it  was  given  to  few  to 
reach  so  dizzy  an  elevation.  In  short,  he  persuaded  the 
boy  for  his  own  good. 

The  owners  of  the  ship  were  two  Quaker  merchants, 
brothers,  named  John  and  Henry  Walker.  They  lived 
together,  and  had  their  office  in  the  narrow  street 
now  named  Grape  Lane,  but  then  a  continuation  of 
Sandgatc.  Their  house,  now  converted  into  two,  still 
stands  —  a  plain,  Quaker -like  house.  These  worthy 
gentlemen  received  the  lad  as  their  apprentice,  bound 
to  them  for  three  years,  with  the  consent  of  his  father, 
and  perhaps  after  the  former  articles  with  Mr.  Sander- 
son had  been  torn  up  and  annulled. 

The  lad  served  out  his  time  as  apprentice  first  on  the 
Freelove,  of  450  tons,  employed  in  the  coal  trade ;  and 
afterwards  in  the  Tliree  Brother.<,  a  fine  new  ship  of  600 
tons,  on  the  rigging  and  fitting  of  which  he  worked 
while  ashore.     This  vessel  was  employed  for  a  time  as 


IN   THE    WHITBY    TRADE 


a  transport  ship.  In  1749  she  was  paid  off  at  Deptford, 
and  then  employed  in  the  Xorway  trade. 

AVhile  an  apprentice,  he  lodged  at  his  master's  house 
while  on  shore,  and  the  tradition  still  sur\4Yes  of  his 
sober  and  studious  conduct  during  those  times. 

In  the  year  1750  he  was  on  board  the  Marki 
belonging  to  Mr.  John  Wilkinson  of  Whitby,  employed 
in  the  Baltic  trade,  under  the  command  of  Captain 
Gaskin.  In  1751  he  served  on  board  a  Stockton  ship. 
In  1752  he  was  appointed,  by  Mr.  Walker,  mate  of  the 
Friendship^  of  400  tons.     He  was  also  in  the  coal  trade. 

Observe  that  for  three  years,  when  this  period  of  his 
life  came  to  a  close,  Cook  had  been  mate,  that  is,  second 
officer,  on  board  a  collier,  and  that  before  that  time  he 
had  been  an  able  seaman  in  the  same  trade.  A  rude 
training,  but  the  most  effective  possible.  It  taught  him 
seamanship  thoroughly;  it  taught  him  to  understand 
the  common  sailor,  and  to  feel  for  him.  But  it  was  not, 
one  imagines,  a  perfect  school  of  manners. 

As  regards  the  life  led  on  board  the  merchant  ship,  it 
seems  to  have  been  much  the  same  as  that  in  the  Royal 
Navy ;  the  men  were  perhaps  knocked  about  more  and 
flogged  less;  there  was  little  discipline,  but  much  swearing, 
cuffing,  and,  in  case  of  mutiny,  the  officers  had  to  be  ready 
to  fell  the  mutineers  Avith  the  first  weapon  that  came  handy 
— a  marline-spike,  a  cutlass,  or  anything.  As  for  the  rations 
and  general  living,  I  suppose  they  were  much  the  same 
on  a  merchantman  as  on  a  king's  ship,  and  we  shall  pre- 
sently see  how  the  men  lived  in  the  Royal  Xavy  in  the 
middle  of  the  eighteenth  century.  As  for  the  things 
that  the  boy  -would  learn,  they  would  be  all  summed  up 


24  CAPTAIN  COOK 


under  the  head  of  practical  seamanship ;  he  would  learn 
first  all  the  parts  of  a  ship  and  her  rigging ;  the  sails, 
the  running  and  the  standing  gear,  and  how  to  use  them ; 
he  M'ould  learn  how  to  sail  a  ship,  how  to  steer  her,  how 
to  save  her  in  time  of  storm  and  danger ;  in  the  thirteen 
years  that  he  worked  for  the  Quaker  brothers,  there  was 
plenty  of  time  to  acquire  a  thorough  knowledge  of  sea- 
manship. This  period,  indeed,  proved  the  foundation  of 
the  lad's  fortune;  he  became  a  sailor.  But  for  book 
learning  I  cannot  understand  how  he  could  acquire  any. 
The  captain  and  the  mate  would  have  one  or  two  of  the 
handbooks  used  by  all  sailors  ;  readers  of  this  series  have 
heard  from  ^Ir.  Clark  Eussell,  in  his  Life  of  Dampicr,  of 
a  sailor's  IFag goner ;  there  was  also  the  sailor's  Vade 
Mecum,  containing  all  kinds  of  practical  rules  and  inform- 
ation. Apart  from  such  books,  I  think  there  could 
have  been  nothing  to  help  the  boy.  He  preserved,  how- 
ever, the  thirst  for  reading  first  implanted  in  him  by 
Mistress  Walker  at  Marton ;  a  boy  with  an  active  and 
curious  mind  never  loses  that  thirst. 

It  is  also  reasonable  to  suppose,  since  he  was  pro- 
moted and  became  mate  of  his  vessel,  that  his  conduct 
and  ability  proved  satisfactory  to  his  employers ;  he 
would  probably  have  received  the  command  of  a  ship 
but  for  the  accident  which  changed  the  whole  current  of 
his  life,  and  enabled  him  to  achieve  the  glory  that 
belongs  to  the  great  navigators  of  the  world. 

Early  in  the  year  1755,  though  the  country  was  then 
nominally  at  peace  with  France,  it  was  felt  necessary 
for  the  protection  of  the  colonies  to  send  a  fleet 
to  the  American  station,  with  orders  to  attack  an}' 
French  squadron  which  might  be  found  in  those  -waters. 


II  OUTBREAK  OF  WAR  25 

where  it  ^Yas  assumed  that  they  could  be  sailmg  with 
none  other  than  hostile  intentions.  These  instructions 
were  given  openly,  and  were  communicated  to  the 
French  Court  by  the  ambassador.  The  king  replied 
that  the  firing  of  the  first  shot  would  be  regarded  as  a 
declaration  of  war. 

That  shot  was  fired  on  the  6th  of  June,  but  M'ar  was 
not  formally  declared  before  May  17th  in  the  follomng 
year.  This  was  the  last  struggle  by  which  Great 
Britain,  at  the  expense  of  millions  of  money  and  lives 
sacrificed  by  thousands,  succeeded  in  freeing  her  colonies 
from  the  European  Powers.  At  the  close  of  the  war  in 
1762,  the  whole  of  Canada,  the  islands  of  St.  John  and 
Cape  Breton,  Louisiana  east  of  the  Mississippi,  the  free 
navigation  of  that  river,  and  the  province  of  Florida, 
had  been  acquired  for  Great  Britain.  France  retained 
nothing  except  the  two  islets  of  St.  Pierre  and  Miquelon, 
which  she  still  keeps.  Unhappily,  the  peace  also  allowed 
her  the  right  of  fishing  on  the  banks  of  Newfoundland, 
which  was  withdrawn  from  Spain.  This  peace  was 
signed  in  1763.  Only  twelve  years  later  our  grateful 
colonists  took  advantage  of  the  expulsion  of  French  and 
Spaniards  to  throw  off  their  allegiance  to  the  British 
Crown,  without  accepting  any  part  of  the  burdens  laid 
upon  the  mother  country  in  her  long  struggle  for  their 
protection. 

The  imminent  war  caused  a  press,  both  hot  and 
heavy,  in  every  part  of  the  United  Kingdom.  Nowhere 
was  it  so  hot  as  in  the  port  of  London,  with  its  thousand 
ships  and  its  tens  of  thousands  of  sailors.  At  this 
moment  Cook's  vessel,  the  Friendshi])  of  Whitby,  was 
lying  in  the  river.     Although  he  was  now  a  mate  on 


26  CAPTAIN  COOK  chap,  ii 

board,  he  was  by  no  means  free  of  the  pressgang,  nor 
would  his  position  on  board  a  collier  help  him  to  any 
rating  on  board  a  man-of-war  above  that  of  able  seaman. 
There  was  a  way,  however,  better  than  that  of  being 
pressed  :  it  was  to  enter  as  a  volunteer.  It  must  be 
remembered  that  the  service  was  not  then  governed 
by  the  same  rigid  rules  as  now  prevail.  A  man  might, 
and  sometimes  did,  obtain  a  commission  in  the  navy 
without  going  through  the  preliminary  and  lower  ranks. 
The  branch  in  which  a  man  with  a  practical  knowledge 
of  seamanship  might  reasonably  hope  to  rise  was  that 
of  master's  mate  first  and  master  afterwards.  Also,  it 
was  not  the  branch  in  which  he  would  have  to  encounter 
aristocratic  influence  and  favouritism.  Young  gentle- 
men who  entered  the  navy  had  no  desire  to  become 
masters.  Those  who  went  into  this  line  were  practical 
sailors,  men  as  tough  and  often  as  rough  as  the 
common  seamen,  who  lived,  when  they  were  at  home, 
at  Wapping,  Poplar,  Shadwell,  and  Stepping,  if  they 
belonged  to  the  port  of  London ;  or  at  Point,  Gosport, 
and  certain  streets  outside  the  dockj^ard  walls  at  Ports- 
mouth if  they  belonged  to  that  town.  Cook,  at  that 
time  twenty-seven  years  of  age,  resolved  that  he  would 
not  be  a  pressed  man.  He  would  enter  as  a  volunteer. 
Accordingly  he  repaired  to  a  rendezvous  at  Wapjiing, 
Avhere  he  entered  as  an  able  seaman  on  board  the  Eagle, 
sixty  guns.  Captain  John  Hamer.  This  was  in  May 
1755.  In  October  of  the  same  year  Captain  (afterwards 
Sir  Hugh)  Palliser  was  appointed  captain. 


CHAPTER  in 


IN   THE   ROYAL   NAVY 


Between  May  1755  and  May  1759  is  a  period  of  foiir 
years.  Cook  became  again  an  able  seaman  serving 
before  the  mast.  But  he  was,  to  begin  with,  a  volunteer, 
and  he  had  been  mate  of  a  collier.  Therefore  he  was 
not  an  ordinary  pressed  sailor.  As  it  is  very  well 
known  that  Captain  Palliser  took  an  active  share  in 
whatever  was  going,  we  may  reasonably  conclude  that 
Cook  was  also  present  in  many  of  the  actions  of  the  time. 
The  war  began,  as  usual,  badly,  Boscawen  was  sent 
out  to  intercept  the  French  fleet  and  failed,  General 
Braddock  was  defeated  and  slain.  On  the  other  hand, 
our  cruisers  and  privateers  almost  annihilated  the  French 
trade  in  the  West  Indies.  As  many  as  eight  thousand 
French  prisoners,  with  three  hundred  merchant  ships, 
were  captured  in  those  seas.  Admiral  Holborne  Avas  sent 
out  with  a  powerful  fleet  to  co-operate  with  Lord  Loudon 
in  the  reduction  of  Canada,  but  nothing  was  done.  In 
1758  the  Pembroke  took  part  in  the  taking  of  Louisbnrg 
and  the  reduction  of  the  whole  island  of  Cape  Breton. 
In  this  action  five  French  frigates  were  taken  and  five 
destroyed.  The  French  islands  of  Guadaloupe,  Descada, 
and  Marie  Galante  Avere  taken.  In  1759  the  Eagle  re- 
turned to  England,  but  Cook  was  no  longer  aboard. 


28  CAPTAIN  COOK 


This  is  the  brief  record  of  those  four  years.  What 
share  Cook  had  in  these  actions  does  not  appear.  But 
when  fighting  begins,  no  one  on  board  can  avoid  his 
share  of  the  danger  at  least.  It  is  certain  that  from  the 
outset  Cook  could  never  have  been  confounded  with  the 
ordinary  able  seaman — nothing  is  more  clear  than  the  pro- 
found ignorance  and  the  brutality  of  the  common  sailor  of 
the  eighteenth  century.  He  had  no  forethought,  he  was 
childishly  dependent  on  his  superior  officers.  He  had, 
it  is  true,  the  common  virtues  of  discipline,  obedience, 
endurance,  and  bull-dog  courage ;  but  that  was  all.  He 
drank  as  much  as  he  could  get ;  he  threw  away  his 
money ;  he  lived  for  the  day.  When,  for  instance,  the 
Jiesohition  sailed  out  of  the  Arctic  Ocean,  we  read  that 
the  sailors  put  off  their  warm  clothes  and  began  kicking 
them  about  decks,  as  if  they  would  never  experience  any 
more  cold.  The  officers,  to  save  the  things,  collected 
them  and  laid  them  by  in  casks. 

A  man  who  understood  the  art  of  navigation  could 
not  remain  a  common  sailor.  In  the  naval  records  of 
the  time  one  reads  once,  and  once  only,  of  such  a  man. 
He  was  on  board  Sir  Cloudesley  Shovel's  ship,  the 
Assocuition.  This  wonderful  person  calculated  the  course 
of  the  ship,  he  discovered  that  the  officers  M'ere  out  in 
their  reckoning,  he  knew  that  they  were  dangerously 
near  the  Scilly  rocks;  he  said  so.  They  hanged  him 
for  mutiny ;  and  the  next  day  the  ship  ran  upon  these 
rocks,  and  behold  !  they  were  all  dead  men. 

What  probably  happened  was  this : — On  the  discovery 
that  there  was  on  board  an  able  seaman,  a  volunteer,  who 
understood  the  art  of  navigation,  the  man  would  have 
been  picked  out  and  kept  on  deck  engaged  in  navigating 


Ill  PROMOTION  29 

the  ship.  He  would  have  been  told  off  to  help  in  the 
duties  of  the  master.  One  solitary  scrap  of  paper  re- 
mains in  Cook's  handwriting  which  belongs  to  this  period. 
It  is  cut  out  of  a  book,  it  is  dated  "Wednesday,  Nov. 
3rd,  1756,"  and  it  contains  certain  calculations,  appar- 
ently in  navigation.  It  is  perhaps  a  rough  or  draft  log- 
book. Therefore,  a  year  after  his  volunteering.  Cook 
was  no  longer  a  common  sailor,  but  doing  the  work  of 
the  master's  branch.  Was  he  promoted  to  the  acting 
rank  of  master's  mate  ? 

He  was  really  made  master's  mate  two  years  after  his 
enlistment,  and  appointed  to  the  PemhroJ:e,  on  board 
which  ship  he  took  part  in  the  reduction  of  Louisburg. 

He  was  not  without  some  interest.  The  then  member 
for  Scarborough,  Mr.  Osbaldiston,  wrote  a  letter  to 
Captain  Palliser  on  Cook's  enlistment,  recommending 
the  young  man  to  his  notice.  Why  should  Mr. 
Osbaldiston  interfere  in  his  behalf?  Fountain  Went- 
worth  Osbaldiston  was  the  fourth  son  of  an  Osbaldiston 
of  Hunmanby,  near  Filey.  They  were  a  very  considerable 
family,  lords  of  Havercroft.  There  were  five  sons,  two 
of  them  successively  members  for  Scarborough  ;  one  was 
Bishop  of  London,  All  died  without  issue.  It  is  a  long 
journey  from  Great  Ay  ton  to  Hunmanby,  but  we  may 
fairly  suppose  that  it  was  at  the  request  of  Mr.  Skottowe 
that  the  letter  was  written.  However  that  may  be,  in 
the  year  1759  Cook  was  promoted  to  the  rank  of  master, 
and  appointed  to  the  Gramjms  sloop.  May  the  10th.  When 
it  was  found  that  the  former  master  of  the  Gram^jus  had  re- 
turned to  his  ship.  Cook's  appointment  was  transferred  to 
the  Garland.  It  was  discovered  that  the  Garlaml  had  already 
sailed.  Cook  was  then  appointed  to  the  Mercury.  So  far, 
then,  this  young  man  had  done  pretty  well.  To  rise  from  a 


30 


CAPTAIN  COOK 


collier's  apprentice  to  be  master,  not  master's  mate,  but 
full  master,  on  board  a  king's  ship  by  the  age  of  thirty 
must  be  considered  creditable  indeed.  No  doubt  at  the 
time  Cook  thought  he  had  touched  the  highest  point. 

We  may  now  consider  how  far  advanced  he  was  at 
this  time  in  scientific  attainment.  His  practical  seaman- 
ship recommended  him  for  promotion.  What  was  it 
that  recommended  him  for  the  services  he  was  imme- 
diately to  perform?  Kippis  tells  the  story  in  words 
which  there  is  no  need  to  alter. 

The  destination  of  the  Mercury  was  to  North  America, 
where  she  joined  the  fleet  under  the  command  of  Sir  Charles 
Saunders,  which,  in  conjunction  with  the  land  forces  under 
General  Wolfe,  was  engaged  in  the  famous  siege  of  Quebec. 
During  that  siege  a  dangerous  and  difficult  service  was  neces- 
sary to  be  performed.  This  was  to  take  the  soundings  in 
the  channel  of  the  river  St.  Lawrence,  between  the  island 
of  Orleans  and  the  north  shore,  directly  in  the  front  of  the 
French  fortified  camp  at  Montmorency  and  Beauport,  in 
order  to  enable  the  admiral  to  place  ships  against  the  enemy's 
batteries,  and  to  cover  our  army  in  a  general  attack  which 
the  heroic  Wolfe  intended  to  make  on  the  camp.  Captain 
Palliser,  in  consequence  of  his  acquaintance  with  ]\Ir.  Cook's 
sagacity  and  resolution,  recommended  him  to  the  service, 
and  he  performed  it  in  the  most  complete  manner.  In  this 
business  he  was  employed  during  the  night  time  for  several 
nights  together.  At  length  he  was  discovered  by  the  enemy, 
who  collected  a  great  number  of  Indians  and  canoes  in  a 
wood  near  the  waterside,  which  were  launched  in  the  night 
for  the  purpose  of  surrounding  him  and  cutting  him  off. 
On  this  occasion  he  had  a  very  narrow  escape.  He  was 
obliged  to  run  for  it,  and  pushed  on  shore  on  the  island  of 
Orleans,  near  the  guard  of  the  English  hospital.  Some  of 
the  Indians  entered  at  the  stern  of  the  boat  as  ^Mr.  Cook 
leaped  out  at  the  bow;  and  the  boat,  which  was  a  barge 
belonging  to  one  of  the  ships  of  war,  was  carried  away  in 
triumph.      However,  he  furnished  the  admiral  with  as  correct 


Cook"s  escape  from  the  Indians  at  the  siege  of  (Quebec. — r.  30. 


Ill  FIRST  SERVICES  31 

and  complete  a  draught  of  the  channel  and  soundings  as 
could  have  been  made  after  our  countrymen  were  in  possession 
of  Quebec.  Sir  Hugh  Palliser  has  good  reason  to  believe 
that  before  this  time  Mr.  Cook  had  scarcely  ever  used  a 
pencil,  and  that  he  knew  nothing  of  drawung.  But  such 
was  his  capacity  that  he  speedily  made  himself  master  of 
every  object  to  which  he  applied  his  attention. 

Another  important  service  was  performed  by  Mr.  Cook 
while  the  fleet  continued  in  the  river  St.  Lawrence,  The 
navigation  of  that  river  is  exceedingly  difficult  and  hazardous. 
It  was  particularly  so  to  the  English,  who  were  then  in  a 
great  measure  strangers  to  this  part  of  North  America,  and 
who  had  no  chart  on  the  correctness  of  which  they  could 
depend.  It  was,  therefore,  ordered  by  the  admiral  that 
Mr.  Cook  should  be  employed  to  survey  those  parts  of  the 
river  below  Quebec  which  navigators  had  experienced  to  be 
attended  with  peculiar  difficulty  and  danger,  and  he  executed 
the  business  with  the  same  diligence  and  skill  of  which  he 
had  already  afforded  so  happy  a  specimen.  When  he  had 
finished  the  undertaking,  his  chart  of  the  riA^er  St.  Lawrence 
was  published,  with  soundings  and  directions  for  sailing  in 
that  river.  Of  the  accuracy  and  utility  of  this  chart  it  is 
sufficient  to  say  that  it  hath  never  since  been  found  necessary 
to  publish  any  other.  One  which  has  appeared  in  France  is 
only  a  copy  of  the  author's  on  a  reduced  scale. 

Such  were  the  services  which  he  performed  within  a 
few  weeks  after  his  appointment  as  master.  It  is  clear 
that  snch  w^ork  would  never  have  been  entrusted  to  a 
young  man  who  possessed  no  other  qualifications  than  the 
knowledge  of  handling  a  ship.  One  does  not  generally 
step  all  at  once  from  the  rank  of  able  seaman  to  the  pre- 
paration of  a  most  important  chart  and  the  examination  of 
a  difficult  sea-way.  Nor  were  Cook's  previous  services  the 
only  reason  why  he  should  be  selected  from  all  the  officers 
of  the  fleet  for  the  important  duty.  Special  knowledge, 
as  well  as  special  aptitude,  must  have  been  understood. 


CAPTAIN  COOK 


These  considerations  prove  that  he  already  possessed 
special  knowledge.  How  he  acquired  it,  by  whose  assist- 
ance, who  lent  him  liooks,  how  he  found  time  or  oppor- 
tunity, it  is  impossible  to  learn.  Most  of  this  knowledge 
must  have  been  learned  during  the  four  years  in  the  Eoyal 
Navy.  It  must,  however,  be  noted  that  there  is  no  other 
case  on  record  in  which  a  sailor  boy  starting  in  the  very 
lowest  place  with  the  humblest  origin  and  the  very 
smallest  outfit  of  learning,  has  so  far  succeeded  as  to  be 
promoted  at  thirty  to  the  rank  of  master  in  the  king's 
navy,  and  immediately  afterwards  to  be  selected  for 
the  performance  of  a  piece  of  work  requiring  great 
technical  knowledge,  and — one  would  think — consider- 
able experience. 

As  for  his  personal  appearance,  several  portraits 
remain  of  him.  The  best  seems  to  be  that  by  Webber, 
the  artist  of  his  third  voyage.  Every  biography  ought, 
at  that  point  when  the  keynote  of  the  character  is  struck, 
to  establish  clearly  in  the  mind  of  the  reader  the  true 
effigies  of  the  man.  One  is  not  interested  in  the  personal 
appearance  of  James  Cook,  mate  of  a  collier ;  but  when 
James  Cook  has  become  a  master  in  the  Royal  Navy, 
wlien  the  really  important  step  in  his  career  has  been 
taken  in  the  execution  of  special  service  by  special 
appointment,  it  is  time  that  we  should  learn  what 
manner  of  man  he  was  to  those  who  only  looked  upon 
him.  We  know  a  man  when  we  have  seen  him,  when 
we  have  spoken  with  him  or  heard  him  speak,  when  we 
have  read  his  books  or  his  letters,  and  when  we  know 
what  he  has  done.  Cook's  voice  is  not  often  heard ;  for 
the  most  part  others  speak  for  him  and  of  him ;  but  his 
portrait  remains. 


Ill  PERSONAL  APPEARANCE  33 

He  was,  to  begin  with,  over  six  feet  high,  thin  and 
spare ;  his  head  was  small ;  his  forehead  was  broad  ; 
his  hair  was  of  a  dark  brown,  rolled  back  and  tied  behind 
in  the  fashion  of  the  time ;  his  nose  was  long  and 
straight;  his  nostrils  clear  and  finely  cut;  his  cheek- 
bones were  high — a  feature  which  illustrated  his  Scotch 
descent ;  his  eyes  were  brown  and  small,  but  well  set, 
quick,  and  piercing ;  his  eyebrows  were  large  and  bushy ; 
his  chin  was  round  and  full ;  his  mouth  firmly  set ;  his 
face  long.  It  is  an  austere  face,  but  striking.  One 
thinks,  perhaps  wrongly,  that  without  having  been 
told  whose  face  this  is,  in  the  portrait,  we  might  know 
it  as  the  face  of  a  man  remarkable  for  patience,  resolu- 
tion, perseverance,  and  indomitable  coiu-age.  The  por- 
traits of  naval  worthies  are  sometimes  disappointing — 
the  faces  of  some  gallant  admirals  have  even,  if  one  may 
respectfully  use  the  word,  a  fatuous  expression,  no  doubt 
the  fault  of  the  rascal  painter.  That  of  James  Cook 
satisfies.  It  is  a  face  worthy  of  the  navigator.  Such 
was  the  appearance  of  the  man :  tall,  thin,  grave,  even 
austere.  As  for  his  personal  habits,  he  was,  as  all 
agree,  of  robust  constitution,  inured  to  labour,  and 
capable  of  undergoing  the  severest  hardships.  Every 
north-easterly  gale  that  buffeted  the  collier's  boy  in 
the  German  Ocean,  every  night  spent  in  battling  with 
the  winter  gales  between  Newcastle  and  the  port  of 
London,  helped  to  build  up  this  strength  and  endurance. 
He  was  able  to  eat  without  difficulty  the  coarsest  and 
the  most  ungrateful  food — on  what  luxuries  are  even  the 
mates  of  a  collier  nourished  %  "  Great  was  the  indiffer- 
ence with  which  he  submitted  to  every  kind  of  self- 
denial."      A  man  who  felt  no  hardships,  who  desired  no 

D 


34  CAPTAIN  COOK  chap. 

better  fare  than  was  served  out  to  his  men,  who  looked 
on  rough  weather  as  the  chief  part  of  life,  who  was 
never  sick,  and  never  tired — where  was  there  his  like? 

And  a  man  who  never  rested  :  he  was  always  at  work. 
"  During  his  long  and  tedious  voyages,"  '\\Tites  Captain 
King  after  his  death,  "  his  eagerness  and  activity  were 
never  in  the  least  degree  abated.  No  incidental  tempta- 
tion would  detain  him  for  a  moment ;  even  those  in- 
tervals of  recreation  which  sometimes  unavoidably 
occurred,  and  were  looked  for  by  us  yd\h.  a  longing  that 
persons  who  have  experienced  the  fatigues  of  service 
will  readily  excuse,  were  submitted  to  by  him  with  a 
certain  impatience  whenever  they  could  not  be  employed 
in  making  a  further  provision  for  the  more  effectual 
prosecution  of  his  designs." 

When  we  have  read  so  far  we  are  not  surprised  to 
hear  that  he  was  a  man  of  a  hasty  temper  and  liable  to 
passion.  A  man  who  was  never  tired,  never  wanting 
to  sit  down  and  rest,  impatient  of  enforced  leisure,  care- 
less about  luxuries,  incessantly  at  work, — how  should  he 
be  anything  but  hasty  and  passionate  when  he  found  his 
plans  obstructed  by  the  weakness  or  the  laziness  of 
men? 

All  that  follows  will  illustrate  the  fidelit}-  of  this  por- 
trait. The  man  commanded  unbounded  respect,  fear, 
obedience,  and  confidence  from  his  crew.  What  his 
private  and  intimate  friends  said  and  thought  of  him  is 
unknown  to  us.  Beneath  the  austere  commander  there 
was,  it  is  admitted  by  all,  a  kindly  and  human  heart.  We 
must  look  for  proof  to  the  journals  of  his  voyages,  be- 
cause of  his  private  letters,  there  survive  only  three  or 
four  addressed  to  his  friend  Mr.  John  Walker  of  Whitbv. 


in  HIS  PRIVATE  LIFE  35 

His  private  life — how  he  lived  and  talked  at  home  and 
among  his  old  friends  and  cronies — is  almost  as  much  lost 
to  us  as  the  private  life  of  Shakespeare.  Certainly  he  had 
some  friends — it  is  most  likely  that  he  had  very  few.  For, 
if  we  consider,  the  course  of  his  life  from  the  age  of  twent}^- 
seven  was  not  such  as  to  continue  the  old  friendships. 
The  rude  sailors  among  whom  his  boyhood  was  passed, 
the  rough  officers  of  the  merchant  service  among  whom 
he  spent  his  early  manhood — those  people  could  hardly 
have  anything  more  in  common  with  the  most  scientific 
officer  in  His  Majesty's  Xavy.  James  Cook,  master, 
occupied  a  rank  very  far  above  that  of  many  of  his 
former  associates.  When  one  rises  in  the  world  it  is 
necessary  to  abandon  many  old  acquaintances  ;  those 
left  behind  are  apt  to  complain,  but  they  forget  the 
great  gulf  that  success  and  promotion  make  between 
old  acquaintances.  Most  of  Cook's  old  shipmates  were 
still  before  the  mast;  the  rest  were  still  navigating 
merchant  vessels,  for  the  most  part  looking  on  a  warm 
room  in  a  Whitby  tavern,  with  a  pipe  and  a  glass  of 
punch,  as  the  only  occupation  worthy  of  a  sensible  man's 
time  ashore.  With  such  as  these  what  had  Cook  to  do  % 
Xor,  indeed,  would  he  readily  make  friends  in  the  nav}^ 
except  with  those  of  his  superior  officers  who  discovered 
his  worth  and  knew  how  to  value  his  qualities.  He  had 
few  private  friends ;  if  there  had  been  many,  legends 
would  have  survived  from  some ;  there  would  have  been 
old  men  proud  to  tell  how  Captain  Cook — the  great 
captain — was  an  old  friend  ;  how  he  would  come  and  talk 
during  the  brief  visits  home ;  what  things  he  brought  them 
from  abroad, — a  conch  from  Tahiti,  a  piece  of  coral  from 
New  Caledonia,  a  tomahawk  from  New  Zealand.    Long 


36  CAPTAIN  COOK  chap. 

after  life  is  over  for  every  great  man  there  survive  such 
memories,  for  they  have  had  their  private  friends ;  but 
Cook  had  no  friends,  and  no  such  memories  are  gathered 
round  his  name.  It  is  little  more  than  a  hundred  years 
since  Cook  was  killed ;  men  are  living  still  who  might 
have  talked  with  such  old  friends  of  Cook.  Why,  I 
myself,  I  who  write  this  book,  have  talked  with  a  man 
who  was  a  page  to  Marie  Antoinette  ;  I  myself,  but  little 
beyond  the  tenth  lustrum,  have  talked  with  one  who 
was  a  drummer-boy  to  Henri  Larochejaquelin ;  I  have 
talked  with  those  who  fouglit  at  Copenhagen,  the  Nile, 
and  Trafalgar ;  and  had  Captain  Cook  left  private  and 
personal  friends,  I  might  have  talked  with  their  sons, 
and  heard  what  things  the  great  man  had  said,  because 
their  memory  would  have  been  cherished  in  the  family. 
Again,  some  men  are  so  self-reliant,  and  some  are  so 
constantly  absorbed  in  their  work,  that  they  want  none 
of  the  sympathies  and  the  supports  of  friendship.  When 
Cook  speaks  of  friends  he  means  patrons.  I  cannot 
believe  that  there  were  officers  of  the  same  rank  witli  him- 
self with  whom  he  could  talk  of  the  social  life  of  which 
he  knew  so  little ;  nor  can  I  believe  that  there  were 
cronies  with  whom  he  would  sit  in  his  front  garden  in 
the  ^lile  End  Road,  a  cool  tankard  between  them  and  a 
pipe  of  tobacco  in  their  hands,  to  gossip  away  the  after- 
noon, and  while  the  hours  from  dinner  to  supper.  And 
I  cannot,  further,  believe  that  any  old  intimacies — had 
there  been  any — with  the  Whitby  shipmates  were  still 
maintained.  Therefore  I  think  that  Cook  had  very  few 
private  friends. 

The  post  of  master,  which  lasted  until   thirty  years 
ago,  when  it  was  followed  by  that  of  navigating  lieu- 


Ill  MASTER  IN  THE  ROYAL  NAVY  37 

tenant,  now  also  abolished,  was  the  survival  of  the  six- 
teenth and  seventeenth  century  practice  of  appointing  as 
captain  a  soldier  who  had  no  knowledge  of  navigation, 
but  was  to  command  the  fighting.  The  duties  of 
the  master,  as  laid  down  in  the  sailor's  Vade  Mecum  of  the 
year  1 780,  were  briefly  :  To  navigate  the  ship  under  the 
directions  of  her  superior  officer,  to  see  that  the  log- 
book was  kept,  to  inspect  all  stores  and  provisions,  to 
stow  the  hold,  trim  the  ship,  take  care  of  the  ballast, 
to  observe  coasts,  shoals,  and  rocks,  and  to  sign 
vouchers  and  accounts  In  other  words,  he  was  the 
chief  executive  officer  on  board.  His  scale  of  pay  shows 
the  importance  of  his  post.  It  varied  from  £4  a  month 
on  board  a  Sixth  Eate  to  £9  :  2s.  a  month  on  a  First  Eate. 
As  the  pay  of  a  lieutenant  did  not  exceed  £7  a  month 
on  a  First  Eate,  the  master  was  thought  of  more  import- 
ance than  a  lieutenant.  The  surgeon  was  paid  £5  a 
month  ;  the  captain  eight  guineas  a  month  on  a  Sixth 
Eate  and  £28  on  a  First  Eate.  Besides  their  pay  the 
officers  were  entitled  to  the  same  rations  as  the  men, 
and  though  they  commuted  the  rations  and  brought  on 
board  their  own  stores,  it  is  evident  from  the  low  rate 
of  pay  that  for  the  most  part  the  officers  must  have 
fared  very  little  better  than  the  men.  This,  indeed,  is 
abundantly  clear  from  the  pages  of  Smollett.  The  full 
weekly  allowance  of  provisions  for  every  man  was  as 
follows.  This  was  to  be  reckoned  apart  from  fresh 
fish,  which  was  ordered  to  be  distributed  as  caught 
without  any  reduction  in  the  regular  allowance.  On 
the  whole,  comparing  it  ^vith  the  modern  allowance, 
Jack  of  the  last  century  seems  to  have  been  better  off 
than  Jack  of  the  present. 


38  CAPTAIN  COOK  chap. 

Seven  pounds  of  biscuit.  One  quart  of  pease. 

Seven  gallons  of  beer.  Three  pints  of  oatmeal. 

Two  pounds  of  pork.  Six  ounces  of  butter. 

Four  pounds  of  beef.  Twelve  ounces  of  cheese.^ 

As  regards  water,  one  ton  of  water  was  allowed  for 
every  hundred  men  per  month.  There  were  no  rations 
of  rum,  but  the  regulations  [)rovided  that  on  foreign 
voyages,  where  beer  could  not  Ix;  procured,  the  men  might 
have  half  a  pint  of  rum,  brandy,  or  arrack  in  lieu  of 
beer.  As  yet  no  tea,  coffee,  or  cocoa  was  served  out  to 
the  sailors.  The  national  drink  —  the  drink  of  the 
people — was  beer ;  they  drank  beer  for  breakfast,  beer 
for  dinner,  beer  for  supper,  and  beer  at  all  other  times 
when  they  could  get  it.  A  gallon  of  beer,  four  quarts 
or  eight  pints,  is,  it  must  be  confessed,  a  plentiful  allow- 
ance— an  affectionate  and  kindly  allowance — for  the 
daily  drink ;  its  substitute,  when  there  Avas  no  beer,  of 
half  a  pint  of  rum  or  brandy  would  be  more  than  most 
of  us  moderns  would  care  to  take  in  the  day,  however 
much  diluted.      No  tobacco  was  served  out;   but  the 

^  On  compariug  the  daily  allowance  of  the  last  with  that  of  the 
present  centvu-y  we  have 

THE^^  Now. 

One  pound  of  biscuit.  One   pound    and    a    quarter    of 

biscuit,    or   one  pound   and  a 
half  of  bread. 
One  gallon  of  beer.  One   ounce    cocoa^    one  -  quarter 

ounce   tea,  two  ounces  sugar, 
half  gill  rum. 
Six-sevenths  of  a  pound  of  meat.         One  pound  of  meat. 
One-seventh  of  a  quart  of  pease.  Half  a  pound  of  vegetables. 

Three-sevenths  of  a  peck  of  oat-     \ 
meal.  | 

Six  -  sevenths    of    an    ounce    of     \  No  oatmeal,    no   butter    and  no 

butter.  f     cheese. 

One  and  five-sevenths  of  an  ounce     I 
of  cheese.  J 


THE  RATIONS  39 


purser  could  sell  it  to  the  men  "in  some  public  place," 
and  in  quantities  not  exceeding  two  pounds  for  any  one 
man  in  one  month.  Half  a  pound  of  tobacco  a  week — 
over  one  ounce  a  day — is  a  liberal  allowance.  Jack,  no 
doubt,  already  practised  afloat  the  delectable  and  delicate 
habit  of  chewing,  but  as  he  was  only  allowed  tobacco 
when  off  duty,  he  must  have  found  it  difficult  to  get 
through  an  ounce  a  day.  That  they  did  smoke  pipes  is 
certain  from  the  general  instructions  in  the  duties  of  a 
lieutenant  that  he  is  not  to  permit  smoking  between 
decks.  As  for  the  use  of  wine  by  the  officers,  nothing  is 
said.  The  captain's  table  seems  to  have  been  always  pro- 
vided with  Madeira,  a  favourite  wine  at  sea  ;  that  of  the 
officers  would  be  perhaps  supplied  from  their  own  stores 
as  long  as  these  held  out ;  but  it  must  be  remembered 
that  very  few  of  the  officers  were  men  of  private  fortunes, 
and  even  a  lieutenant's  pay  would  not  stand  the  daily 
exhibition  of  Madeira.  I  can  find  no  allusion  to  the 
drinking  of  tea  or  coffee  in  Cook's  Voyages  either  as  a 
daily  practice  or  an  exceptional  thing.  But  they  had 
some  vessels  on  board  which  they  could  use  as  teapots, 
because  they  are  mentioned  by  name  when  the  spruce  tea 
brewed  in  Dusky  Bay  is  described.  Certainly  Captain 
Cook  was  not  brought  up  on  tea,  coffee,  or  chocolate. 

In  September  of  the  same  year  Cook  was  trans- 
ferred from  the  Mercury  to  the  Northumberland,  a  first- 
rate  man-of-war,  the  Admiral's  ship.  They  wintered  at 
Halifax ;  during  the  winter  Cook  is  said  to  have  first 
begun  the  study  of  geometry,  mathematics,  and  astro- 
nomy. The  amount  of  mathematics  required  for  the 
practice  of  marine  surveying,  taking  observations, 
making    charts,   calculating  latitudes  and  longitudes,  is 


40  CAPTAIN  COOK  chap. 

not  very  considerable  ;  but  that  a  man  should  actually 
begin  the  study  of  mathematics  after  thirty,  and  after 
performing  surveys  and  making  charts,  can  hardly  be 
believed.  That  Cook  spent  a  laborious  winter  working 
at  those  branches  of  mathematical  science  which  are 
concerned  "vnth  navigation,  that  he  advanced  himself 
considerably,  and  that  he  brought  a  clear  head  and  a 
strong  ^W11  to  the  work,  may  be  and  must  be  believed. 

The  Northuniberland  returned  to  England  in  the 
autumn  of  1762,  and  on  December  21st  of  that  year 
Cook  was  married.  The  following  is  the  entry  in  the 
parish  register  of  St.  Margaret's,  Barking,  Essex. 

James  Cook  of  y®  Parish  of  St.  Paul,  Shadwell,  in 
y*  county  of  Middlesex,  Bachelor,  and  Elizabeth  Batts  of 
y^  Parish  of  Barking  in  y®  county  of  Essex,  Spinster,  were 
married  in  this  church  by  y®  Archbishop  of  Canterbury's 
licence  this  21st  day  of  December  one  thousand  seven 
hundred  and  sixty-two. 

By     George  Downing, 

Vicar  of  Little  Wakering,  Essex. 

The  signatures  follow  with  those  of  the  witnesses. 

I  am  indebted  to  the  Eev.  Canon  Bennett  of  Shrewton, 
Wilts,  for  information  respecting  Elizabeth  Batts  which 
no  one  else  now  possesses.  She  belonged  to  a  highly 
respectable  middle-class  family,  connected  with  various 
manufactures  and  industries.  Charles  Smith,  her  grand- 
father, was  a  currier,  carrying  on  business  in  Bermondsey. 
His  son  Charles  was  a  shipping  agent  in  the  Custom- 
House.  His  daughter  Mary  married,  first,  one  John 
Batts,  who  was  in  business  at  Wapping ;  and  secondly, 
John  Blackburn,  in  business  at  Shadwell.  Mrs.  Cook's 
first  cousin,   Charles  Smith,   became  a  very  successful 


MARRIAGE  41 


manufacturer  of  watches  and  clocks.  His  house  and 
factory  were  in  Bunhill  Row.  His  eldest  son  Isaac,  who 
accompanied  Captain  Cook  in  his  first  and  second  voyages, 
subsequently  retired  with  the  rank  of  admiral.  His 
second  son  Charles,  of  Merton  Abbey,  possessed  consider- 
able property  in  Merton  and  elsewhere.  For  Cook  to 
marry  into  so  substantial  and  respectable  a  family  marks 
a  social  lift  corresponding  to  his  promotion  in  the  navy. 
There  is  more  to  say  about  this  lady  later  on.  Mean- 
time, my  authority,  who  remembers  her  perfectly  well 
—  she  lived  to  a  very  advanced  age — bears  testimony 
to  the  full  that  her  appearance  in  age  showed  how 
singularly  beautiful  she  must  have  been  in  youth,  that 
her  manners  were  good  and  full  of  dignity,  and  that 
she  was  well  educated.  She  loved  to  tell  how  on  the 
day  of  her  wedding  she  walked  with  Mr.  Cook  across 
the  meadows  to  the  church.  Therefore  she  was  living 
outside  the  town  of  Barking.  As  her  grandfather  came 
originally  from  Essex,  she  was  probably  staying  with 
relations.  The  newly-married  pair  went  to  live  in  Shad- 
well,  where  Mrs.  Cook's  mother,  then  Mrs.  Blackburn, 
resided.  Afterwards  they  removed  to  the  Mile  End 
Road. 

Cook  was  now  thirty-four  years  of  age.  The  spells 
of  domestic  felicity  which  he  was  destined  to  enjoy 
were  both  short  and  few.  Four  months  after  his 
marriage  his  services  were  applied  for  by  Captain 
Graves,  who  had  obtained  a  grant  for  the  survey  of 
Newfoundland.  Accordingly,  in  April  1763,  he  went 
out  and  surveyed  the  islands  of  Miquelon  and  St. 
Pierre,  which  had  been  ceded  to  the  French  by  the 
Treaty  of  Peace,  and  were  about  to  be  occupied  by  them. 


42  CAPTAIN  COOK  chap. 

This  job  finished,  lie  returned  to  England.  Early  in 
1764,  however,  his  constant  friend  and  patron,  Sir 
Hugh  Palliser,  having  been  appointed  Governor  and 
Commodore  of  Newfoundland  and  Labrador,  offered 
Cook  an  appointment  as  marine  surveyor  of  those 
shores.  A  schooner,  the  Grenv'dle,  was  placed  under 
his  command,  and  in  April  he  sailed  for  his  station. 
Every  autumn  he  returned  to  England,  and  every 
spring  he  went  out  again.  This  is  proved  by  the 
dates  of  his  children's  births.  The  work  lasted  till  the 
year  1767.  During  these  four  years  he  executed  a 
great  amount  of  surveying,  and  drew  charts  which 
are  still  in  use.  He  also  explored  a  part  of  that  great 
island  of  Newfoundland,  the  interior  of  which,  is  still 
almost  as  little  known  as  in  the  days  when  Cook  dis- 
covered its  chain  of  lakes  and  followed  up  the  streams. 
In  1766  he  contributed  a  paper  to  the  Eoyal  Society  of 
London,  entitled  "  An  Observation  of  an  Eclipse  of  the 
Sun  at  the  Island  of  Newfoundland,  5th  August  1766, 
with  the  Longitude  of  the  Place  of  Observation  deduced 
from  it."  There  were  not  many  officers  in  the  Eoyal 
Navy  of  that  time  Avho  were  capable  of  taking  such  an 
observation,  or  of  making  any  deductions  from  it. 

In  the  autumn  of  1767  he  returned  home,  his  work 
in  America  completed,  and  thus  the  second  chapter  of 
his  life  closed.  He  was  now  thirty-nine  years  of  age ; 
he  had  been  at  sea  for  five-and-twenty  years.  But  the 
best  part  of  his  life  was  before  him ;  all  its  honour,  its 
highest  interest,  its  best  excitement,  its  greatest  rewards. 
What  followed  were  years  of  endurance  and  hardship ; 
he  was  prepared  for  them  by  his  long  service  on  the 
cold  and  stormy  waters  of  the  German  Ocean,  by  the 


RETURN  HOME  43 


rough  and  simple  fare  on  which  he  had  subsisted  from 
childhood,  by  his  long  companionship  with  rough  and 
illiterate  sailors,  whose  wants,  whose  virtues,  and  whose 
vices  he  knew  better  than  any  other  officer  of  his 
time. 

One  knows  not  what  may  have  been  his  ambition ; 
probably  to  continue  in  survey  work  and  cartography ; 
one  hardly  supposes  that,  after  such  an  office  as  Cook 
had  held  in  Newfoundland,  he  would  greatly  desire  to 
sail  as  master  even  on  a  first-rater.  He  could  hardly 
have  looked  for  such  work  as  fell  into  his  hands.  Many 
men,  it  is  said,  fail  because  they  never  get  a  chance  of 
showing  the  world  what  they  can  do.  This  may  be 
true  of  one  or  two  professions — the  bar,  for  instance,  or 
medicine,  but  it  is  not  true  of  any  other  calling. 
Least  of  all  is  it  the  case  in  the  services,  where  a  man 
must  be  discovered  if  he  be  a  good  man.  There  is, 
however,  a  better  way  of  putting  it.  Many  a  man 
might  rise  to  the  highest  distinction,  as  well  as  those 
who  do,  had  they  the  chance.  As  it  is,  their  chances 
lead  them  only  to  the  lower  heights.  Thus  there  may 
have  been  other  men  in  the  service  as  well  qualified  as 
James  Cook  to  command  on  a  voyage  of  discovery.  I 
doubt  it — but  there  may  have  been.  The  man  was 
ready,  the  chance  came  to  him,  and  he  proved  himself 
equal  to  his  fortune. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE   GREAT  UNKNOWN   OCEAN 

On  the  25th  day  of  September,  in  the  year  1513,  Balboa 
first  caught  sight  of  the  great  Pacific  Ocean. 

For  two  hundred  years  and  more  the  Spaniards 
regarded  the  Pacific  as  their  own  possession ;  the  sea 
seemed  closed  to  the  world,  except  by  one  difficult  and 
dangerous  portal.  This  entrance  itself  was  defended 
not  only  by  its  difficulties  and  dangers,  but  by  a  strange 
superstition.  Everybody,  it  was  observed,  who  had  to 
do  with  the  first  passage  by  Magellan  came  to  a  bad 
end.  The  cajjtain  was  murdered  in  a  brawl  by  the 
natives  of  the  Philippines ;  Ruy  Falero,  one  of  his 
company,  died  raving  mad;  the  sailor  De  Lepe,  who 
first  sighted  the  straits  from  the  mast-head,  was  taken 
prisoner  by  the  Algerines,  became  renegade,  and  em- 
braced the  faith  of  the  False  Prophet,  by  which,  of 
course,  he  lost  his  everlasting  soul.  Nay,  Balboa  him- 
self was  beheaded.  And  when  ships  afterwards  began 
to  attempt  the  straits,  they  were  constantly  driven  back 
by  M'inds  and  storms,  which  seemed  to  have  been  engaged 
in  the  service  of  the  Castilian  king. 

The  first,  however,  to  sail  u})on  these  waters  was  Ponce 
de  Leon,  two  years  after  their  discovery.  He  caused 
two  or  three  small  boats  to  be  carried  across  the  isthmus. 


CHAP.  IV  ITS  FIRST  SAILORS  45 

and  sailed  along  the  coast  about  Panama.  In  the  year 
1517  he  founded  the  city  of  Panama,  four  miles  from  its 
present  site.  He  also  attempted  to  build  ships  on  the 
Pacific  coast,  but  was  forced  to  desist,  because  the  timber 
he  used  became  instantly  penetrated  and  devoured  by 
worms. 

Let  us  follow  briefly  in  this  chapter  the  histor}^  of 
discovery  in  the  Pacific  Ocean  from  the  first  launch  of 
Ponce  de  Leon's  boats  to  the  time  when  Cook  sailed 
upon  his  first  voyage.  You  may  take  a  great  sheet  of 
paper  and  lay  down  on  its  eastern  side  a  short  line  of 
the  coast  round  Panama ;  on  the  western  side  some  im- 
perfect fragments  of  the  great  islands  of  Borneo,  Sumatra, 
and  Java.  The  whole  of  the  sheet,  save  for  these  frag- 
ments, must  be  painted  black — it  is  absolutely  unknown. 
As  one  navigator  after  another  traverses  the  ocean,  a  new 
line  of  light  runs  out  wherever  he  leaves  the  beaten  track. 
Each  voyage  outside  that  beaten  track  leaves  a  belt  of 
light  no  more  than  twenty  miles  in  breadth.  You  will  see 
that  even  after  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  the  blackness 
of  great  portions  is  wholly  unrelieved  by  any  such  broad 
line  of  light.  You  will  understand  by  such  a  method 
what  kind  of  task  lay  before  the  men  who  set  forth 
upon  a  voyage  of  discovery  upon  those  unknown  waters. 

It  was  only  six  years  after  the  discovery  by  Balboa, 
namely  in  the  year  1519,  that  Magellan  found  and 
passed  through  the  straits  which  bear  his  name ;  when 
he  emerged  into  the  Pacific  his  idea  was  to  sail  across  to 
the  Moluccas ;  he  therefore  held  a  N.  W.  course,  one 
which,  unfortunately  for  him,  caused  him  to  pass  by  all 
the  great  archipelagoes  and  the  coast  of  Australia.  He 
found  certain  small  islands,  but  their  names  and  positions 


46  CAPTAIN  COOK  chap. 

cannot  -vnth  any  certainty  be  laid  down.  His  ship 
reached  the  Moluccas  in  safety,  but  without  her  captain, 
who  was  lying  buried  in  the  Philippines. 

In  the  year  1525  a  very  important  expedition  was 
sent  out  to  the  Pacific  by  the  King  of  Spain.  It  was 
commanded  Ijy  Don  Garcia  Jofre  de  Loyasa,  and  con- 
sisted of  seven  ships  and  four  hundred  and  fifty  men. 
He  achieved  the  passage  of  the  straits  in  safety,  coasted 
Chili  and  Peru,  and  having  reached  the  latitude  of 
13^  N.  he  steered  a  westward  course  along  that  parallel 
and  arrived  at  the  Ladrones.  His  course  was  afterwards 
blindly  followed  by  the  Spaniards,  which  was  the  cause 
why,  while  they  held  almost  undisturbed  possession  of 
those  seas,  they  made  no  progress  in  its  exploration.  It 
was  Loyasa  who  discovered  the  north  coast  of  Papua. 
Meantime,  in  the  far  east,  the  extension  of  trade  was 
causing  the  discovery  of  new  lands.  Sanvedra,  sailing 
from  Gilolo,  followed  the  coast  of  Papua  for  a  good 
distance,  and  discovered  in  lat.  5°  N.  the  islands  which 
he  called  Los  Pintados  and  Los  Buenos  Jardines.  In 
1542  Japan  was  first  visited. 

In  the  same  year  Yillalobos  crossed  the  Pacific  on  the 
same  parallel  as  Loyasa.  After  this  very  little  was  done 
for  some  years.  Many  attempts  proved  failures  :  some 
through  the  difficulties  of  the  straits,  some  through  bad 
weather,  some  through  the  death  of  the  captain.  The 
islands  of  Juan  Fernandez  and  Masafuera  were  discovered 
in  1563 ;  those  of  the  Galapagos  in  1550. 

A  chart  of  the  Pacific  in  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  about  fifty  or  sixty  years  after  its  discovery, 
shows  the  western  coast  of  South  America  laid  down 
tolerably  well,  except  that  of  Southern  Chili ;  the  coast 


DRAKE  SEES  IT  47 


of  North  America  has  been  followed  as  far  north  as 
California,  which  in  some  maps  appears  as  an  island, 
and  in  others  as  a  peninsula.  On  the  eastern  side  of 
the  chart  one  observes  a  part  of  China,  a  part  of  Japan, 
the  Philippines,  Celebes,  Timor,  and  the  Ladrones. 
There  are  one  or  two  small  islands  laid  down  with  no 
certainty  of  latitude  or  longitude,  and  the  north  coast  of 
Papua  is  indicated.  Nothing  whatever  is  as  yet  known 
of  Australia  and  New  Zealand.  There  is,  how^ever,  an 
imaginary  southern  continent  laid  down  with  great  bold- 
ness. The  existence  of  Terra  Australis  Incognita  had 
in  fact  already  begun  to  haimt  men's  minds.  It  was 
said  that  Juan  Fernandez  had  actually  landed  on  this 
continent  and  found  there  a  white  people,  ci\alised,  well 
formed,  well  clothed.  It  was  within  a  month's  sail  of 
Chili.     But  no  one  else  ever  found  this  continent. 

It  was  in  the  year  1573  that  Drake  climbed  the  hill 
and  the  tree  upon  its  summit  from  which  could  be  seen 
both  the  Atlantic  and  the  Pacific  Oceans.  "  Almighty 
God  ! "  he  exclaimed,  "of  Thy  goodness  give  me  life  and 
leave  to  sail  once  in  an  English  ship  upon  that  sea." 
Now  there  was  with  the  party  that  day  an  Englishman 
named  John  Oxenham — spelt  Oxnam.  This  man,  a 
fellow  full  of  resolution,  conceived  a  brilliant  project. 
He  would  get  together  a  party,  cross  the  isthmus  with 
them,  capture  first  a  small  ship  and  then  a  big  ship,  and 
rove  the  seas,  plundering  the  Spaniards  and  sailing 
whithersoever  they  listed.  He  partly  carried  this  pro- 
ject into  execution.  That  is  to  say,  he  got  together  his 
company,  crossed  the  isthmus,  and  falling  upon  a  small 
craft  in  the  Bay  of  Panama  took  possession  of  it.  No 
more  curious  story  belongs  to  this  time  of  adventure. 


48  CAPTAIN  COOK  chap. 

But  the  attempt  ended  badly,  because  the  party  were 
not  strong  enough  to  take  a  bigger  ship  and  had  to  run 
ashore,  where  they  were  all  captured  and  hanged.  Thus 
the  Pacific  destroyed  the  first  Englishman  as  well  as  the 
first  Spaniard  who  attempted  it.  The  toll  of  blood  thus 
exacted,  the  ocean  lay  open  to  Drake.  It  is  remarkable 
that  he  coasted  North  America  to  lat.  48°  N.  in  the 
hope  of  finding  a  passage  to  the  Atlantic.  Two  hundred 
years  later  Cook  went  out  upon  exactly  the  same  errand. 

The  way  being  now  known,  the  distance,  and  the 
comparative  safety  of  the  passage,  voyages  across  the 
Pacific  from  New  Spain  to  the  Philippines  and  back 
again  now  began  to  be  not  infrequent.  Many  accounts 
remain  of  such  voyages ;  from  America  westward  the 
ships  always  kept  in  the  same  parallel — that  of  13°  N. 
— as  nearly  as  possible.  There  was  a  fair  wind  and  an 
open  sea.  The  voyage  generally  took  eighty  days.  From 
the  Philippines  to  New  Spain  the  same  course  could 
not  be  always  kept,  but  there  was  little  deviation. 

The  English,  meanwhile,  were  by  no  means  unmindful 
of  this  ocean,  into  which  Drake  had  led  the  way.  Two 
or  three  unsuccessful  attempts  were  made, — that  in  the 
year  1582  by  Edward  Fenton  and  Luke  "Ward  to  get 
through  the  straits;  that  in  1587  by  Withrington  and 
Lister. 

But  in  1586  Cavendish  sailed  ^^^th  his  squadron  of 
three  ships, — the  Desire  of  one  hundred  and  twenty 
tons,  the  Content  of  sixty,  and  the  Hugh  Gallant  of  forty, 
with  crews  numbering  one  hundred  and  twenty-three 
in  all,  and  carrying  two  years'  provisions.  He  sailed 
along  the  coast  as  far  north  as  California,  thence  steered 
on  a  south-westerly  course  for  the  Ladrones.     On  the 


IV  CA  VEND  IS  H  49 

way,  as  all  the  world  knows,  he  fell  in  with  the  great 
plate  galleon  and  captured  her.  Never  Avas  such  a 
splendid  prize  as  that  of  this  great  ship.  She  had 
122,000  pesos  of  gold  on  board,  besides  an  immense 
quantity  of  satins,  silk,  musk,  and  all  kinds  of  precious 
things.  Naturally  this  good  fortune  stimulated  imitators. 
Cavendish  himself  made  a  second  attempt,  but  the  great 
galleon  was  not  to  be  taken  by  every  one.  One  after 
the  other  half  a  dozen  attempts  were  made,  and  all 
failed.  In  1594  Sir  Richard  Hawkins,  for  instance,  had 
the  bad  luck  to  be  taken  prisoner — he  and  his  ship  the 
Daintij.  Such  a  misfortune  daunted  even  the  English 
courage  for  a  while.  In  the  course  of  these  voyages, 
however,  the  Falkland  Islands  were  discovered  by 
Captain  John  Davis,  who  had  already  made  three 
attempts  to  find  the  North -AYest  passage,  and  whose 
name  survives  in  our  maps  in  Davis'  Straits. 

Meantime  the  Spaniards  continued  their  voyages  of 
discovery,  but  in  a  languid  way,  having  indeed  already 
more  upon  their  hands  than  they  could  well  manage. 
Mendana,  in  1595,  departing  from  the  usual  track, 
sailed  across  the  ocean,  following  as  closely  as  possible 
lat.  14°  S.  He  was  rewarded  by  the  discovery  of  the 
Marquesas,  New  Hebrides,  and  Santa  Cruz  groups,  and 
in  1600  a  Spanish  expedition  was  sent  to  sail  along  the 
west  coast  of  North  America.  Towards  the  end  of  this 
century  the  Dutch  appeared  in  these  seas.  In  1595  the 
"  Five  Ship  "  expedition  from  Rotterdam  set  sail ;  they 
followed  the  usual  line,  but  steered  northwards  and 
touched  at  Japan.  In  1598  Oliver  van  Noort  made  the 
now  familiar  voyage  in  lat.  13°  N. 

During  the  seventeenth  century  the  troubles  and  civil 
E 


50  CAPTAIN  COOK 


wars  at  home  kept  the  English  quiet.  It  is  the  century 
of  the  Dutch.  The  Spaniards,  however,  in  the  course 
of  a  voyage  in  search  of  the  southern  continent  dis- 
covered— it  was  in  1606 — the  coast  of  Terra  Austrahs. 

As  for  the  Dutch,  they  sent  out  Joris  Spilbergen  in 
1615,  who  sailed  up  the  coast  and  defeated  the  Spanish 
fleet.  They  sent  out  Le  Maire  and  Schouten,  who  dis- 
covered the  Strait  of  Le  Maire,  to  the  great  uneasiness 
of  the  Spaniards ;  they  also  found  the  Admiralty 
Islands  and  New  Ireland.  In  1626  the  great  Nassau 
fleet  sailed  round  the  world,  but  seems  to  have  done 
little.  In  1639  the  Dutch  sent  out  an  expedition  to 
examine  the  east  coast  of  Great  Tartary  and  to  discover 
the  Gold  and  Silver  Islands.  But  of  course  the  greatest 
Dutch  na^^gator  was  Tasman,  whose  famous  voyage  was 
begun  from  Batavia  in  the  year  1642.  It  Avas  not  until 
1667  that  the  French  sailed  upon  the  Pacific. 

In  1670  Captain  Narborough  made  his  chart  of  the 
Straits  of  Magellan.  This  was  the  only  important  British 
voyage  of  discovery  belonging  to  the  century.  To  the 
end  of  this  century  belongs  the  period  of  the  Buccaneers, 
which  has  been  already  treated  at  length  in  this  series  by 
Mr.  Clark  Russell  in  his  Life  of  Dampier.  The  adven- 
tures of  the  Cygnet,  the  Roebuck,  the  Cinque  Ports,  the 
Buke,  and  the  Duchess — the  names  of  Morgan,  Sawkins, 
Dampier,  Edward  Cooke,  "Woodes  Rogers,  Clapperton, 
and  Shelvocke — belong  to  the  Rovers;  those  of  Com- 
modore Anson,  Byron,  Wallis,  and  Carteret  to  the  time 
when  the  Spaniards  could  no  longer  pretend,  even  on 
the  authority  of  the  Pope,  to  regard  the  Pacific  as  their 
private  lake.  No  nation  in  the  world  has  ever  had  such 
splendid  Oi)portunities  as  Spain.     One  reads  at  school 


IV  THE  HAPPY  SPANIARD  51 

how  Athens,  when  its  population  grew  too  large,  could 
ship  off  a  whole  colony  to  some  island  not  far  removed 
— one  envies  the  simplicity  of  emigration  in  those  days. 
But  a  far  greater  ocean  than  the  Mediterranean  was  given 
to  the  Spaniards.  From  the  year  1513,  when  the  Pacific 
was  discovered,  down  to  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth 
century — that  is  to  say,  for  two  hundred  and  fifty 
years,  the  Spaniard  lived  secure,  fearing  no  danger, 
from  generation  to  generation,  in  the  warm  air  that  he 
loved,  with  a  subject  race  to  work  for  him,  in  luxury, 
at  ease,  without  anxiety,  and  wealth}^  beyond  any  dream 
possible  to  the  proud  and  poor  hidalgo  of  the  mother 
country.  It  was  an  ideal  life.  And  it  lasted  for  eight 
long  generations.  During  this  time  there  was,  doubt- 
less, a  continual  stream  from  the  old  world  of  those  who 
wished  to  share  m  these  good  things.  Those  who  came 
first  got  the  best ;  but  there  was  enough  and  to  spare 
had  the  Spaniard  continued  to  possess  the  spirit  of 
enterprise.  But  he  did  not;  he  gave  no  welcome  to 
fresh  blood  ,  he  lost  the  old  spirit  of  adventure  ;  he  even 
lost  his  old  courage ;  he  became  greedj",  jealous,  and 
lazy  Had  such  a  chance  come  to  Great  Britain,  every 
island  in  the  Pacific  would  have  been  explored  long 
before  the  eighteenth  century;  and  if  there  had  not 
been  planted  upon  every  island  a  little  colony  of  ruling 
Britons  under  their  native  flag,  it  would  have  been 
because  there  were  not  enough  Britons  to  go  round. 

I  say  that  the  Spaniards  were  practically  undisturbed. 
What  did  the  successful  raids  of  Drake,  Cavendish,  and 
the  rest  amount  to  in  all  ?  Once  or  twice  the  English 
devils  took  the  great  galleon.  But  only  once  or  twice 
in  all  these  years.    Now  and  again,  a  town  was  assaulted 


52  CAPTAIN  COOK  chap. 

and  taken  by  these  pirates.  But  how  many  towns  were 
taken?  How  often  were  towns  taken?  There  Avas 
fighting  at  Panama,  at  Guayaquil,  at  Acapulco,  at  Payta 
— but  where  else  %  The  Spanish  Americans  feared  little 
danger ;  they  ran  few  risks ;  from  generation  to  genera- 
tion they  grew  richer  and  lazier ;  the  old  courage  of  the 
Spaniard  had  entirely  left  him  by  the  third  generation ; 
he  could  no  longer  fight ;  life  had  become  too  easy  for 
him.  But  he  remained  in  possession  because  there  were 
none  to  turn  him  out. 

All  tliis  was  changed  by  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  It  seemed  as  if  the  great  southern  continent 
was  actually  going  to  be  discovered  at  last,  and  that  it 
would  not  belong  to  Spain ;  an  immense  and  apparently 
wealthy  country  called  Papua  was  now  known  to  exist ; 
Japan  and  China  had  to  be  reckoned  with ;  the  Dutch 
had  possession  of  Java  and  were  pushing  eastwards ; 
English  ships  were  exploring  the  ocean  —  once  the 
Spaniard's  own  ocean  —  in  all  directions;  the  French 
themselves,  last  in  the  field,  had  appeared ;  and  it  was 
evident  to  all  that  Spain  could  no  longer  even  pretend 
to  keep  out  the  other  nations.  And,  besides,  the 
English  brain  was  fired  with  the  thought  of  the  Pacific, 
as  in  Queen  Elizabeth's  time  it  had  been  fired  with  the 
thought  of  the  West  Indies.  Reports  came  home  of 
lovely  islands ;  the  English,  though  as  yet  they  knew 
nothing  of  Hawaii  or  Tahiti,  had  heard  of  Juan  Fer- 
nandez and  Masafuera ;  they  had  read  the  Voyages  of 
Woodes  Rogers,  of  ClajDperton  and  Shelvocke ;  with 
Anson  they  had  visited  the  lovely  Tinian,  with  its 
strange  avenues  of  pillars ;  they  knew  of  the  Galapagos, 
the  sea -lions  of  California,  the  Spice  Islands  and  the 


IV  THE  SOUTHERN  CONTINENT  53 

Ladrones,  the  Tierra  del  Fuego  and  its  miserable 
people. 

The  long  smouldering  theory  of  the  southern  con- 
tinent revived  again.  Scientific  men  proved  beyond  a 
doubt  that  the  right  balance  of  the  globe  required  a 
southern  continent;  otherwise  it  would  of  course  tip 
over.  Geographers  pointed  out  how  Quiros,  Juan  Fer- 
nandez, and  Tasman  had  all  touched  at  various  points  of 
that  continent.  Men  of  imagination  spoke  of  treasures 
of  all  kinds  which  would  be  found  there,  and  would 
belong  to  the  nation  which  should  discover  and  annex 
this  land  ;  they  laid  it  do^vn  on  the  maps  and  reckoned 
up  the  various  kinds  of  climate  which  would  be  enjoyed 
in  a  country  stretching  from  the  Southern  Pole  through 
forty  degrees  of  latitude.  The  most  extravagant  ideas 
were  formed  of  what  might  be  found ;  fictitious  travels 
fed  the  imagination  of  the  people;  men  confidently 
looked  forward  to  acquiring  a  prolonged  rule  over  other 
golden  lands,  such  as  had  been  for  nearly  three  hundred 
years  the  making  and  the  unmaking  of  Spain.  In  every 
age  there  is  always  a  grasping  after  what  seems  to 
promise  the  sovereignty  of  the  world.  In  every  age 
there  is  a  Carthage  to  be  destroyed ;  and  in  every  age 
thei'c  are  half  a  dozen  countries  each  of  which  is  eager 
and  anxious  to  enact  the  part  of  Rome. 

Such  is,  in  brief  outline,  the  story,  many  times  told 
but  always  new,  of  the  principal  voyages  of  discovery 
on  the  great  Pacific  Ocean.  It  would  be  tedious  and 
beyond  these  limits  to  attempt  further  details  or  to 
follow  the  tracks  of  these  hardy  sailors.  To  those  who 
love  a  tale  of  peril  and  of  courage,  there  is  no  better 
reading  than  that  of  the  old  voyagers  from  Columbus, 


54  CAPTAIN  COOK  chap. 

the  first  of  modern  navigators,  down  to  Captain  Cook, 
the  last. 

We  have  seen  the  chart  of  the  Pacific  at  the  end 
of  the  sixteenth  century.  Let  us  look  at  it  in  the 
eighteenth  before  Cook  began  to  sail  upon  it.  The 
chart  of  1750  shows  a  very  considerable  advance 
upon  that  of  1570.  In  the  map  attached  to  Gordon's 
Geographij  of  1740  there  are  certain  instructive  and  sug- 
gestive things.  For  instance,  New  Guinea  and  New 
Holland  are  united.  Only  the  west  coast  of  New  Holland 
is  given ;  there  is  a  small  corner  or  angle  of  land  which 
represents  the  whole  of  New  Zealand.  California  is  an 
island ;  the  Ladrones  are  named  and  lie  between  lat. 
10°  N.  and  20°  S.  There  are  also  certain  scattered  groups 
of  islands  nameless,  and  apparently  set  down  at  random. 
The  map  is  exactly  similar  to  that  illustrating  Shelvocke's 
voyage  (1726),  save  that  in  Shelvocke's  map  the  islands 
are  named. 

Turning  to  the  letterpress,  Gordon  says,  under  the 
heading  of  "  Terra  Magellanica  "  :  "  Many  things  equally 
foolish  as  ridiculous  are  related  of  this  country  and  its 
inhabitants,  with  which  I  shall  neither  trouble  myself 
or  the  reader."  And  in  Section  XIII,  "  Concerning  Terra 
Australis,"  he  says : 

By  Terra  Antarctica  we  understand  all  those  unkno^\Ti 
or  slenderly  discovered  countries  towards  the  southern  Parts 
of  the  Globe ;  the  chief  of  which  do  bear  the  names  of  New 
Guinea,  New  Zealand,  New  Holland,  and  (which  may  com- 
prehend them  and  all  the  rest)  Terra  Australis  Incognita. 
Which  southern  countries,  though  they  belong  not  to  the 
continent  of  America,  yet  we  choose  to  mention  them  in  thiy 
place,  since  the  southmost  part  of  the  continent  of  S.  America 
doth  extend  itself  farther  towards  the  S.  than  anv  Part  or 


VOYAGES  ROUND  THE   WORLD 


55 


Headland  of  the  old  Contiueiit.  .  .  .  Leaving  tliem  therefore 
to  the  discovery  of  future  ages,  we  pass  on. 


NOTE  TO  CHAPTER  IV 


The  following  is  a  complete  list  of  voyages  round  the  world 
from  Magellan  to  Anson. 


Sailed  from 

Sailed. 

Returned. 

Ferdinand  Magellan 

Seville 

Aug.  10,  1519 

Sept.  8,  1522 

Sir  Francis  Drake 

Plymouth 

Dec.  20,  1577 

Sept.  16,  1580 

Sir  Thomas  Caven- 
dish 
Oliver  van  Noord 

Do. 

July  25,  1586 

Sept.  9,  1588 

Goeree 

Sept.  13,  159S 

Aug.  26,  1601 

George  Spilbei-gen 
The  Nassau  Fleet 

Texel 
Schouten 
&  Le  ]\Iaire 

Aug.  8,  1614 
June  24,  1615 

July  1,  1617 
Do. 

Cooke,  Cowley,  and 

Virginia 

Aug.  23,  1683 

Jan.  21,  1686 

Dampier 
William  Dampier 

Do. 

Do. 

Oct.  12,  1686 

Dampier  and  Funnel 

The  Downs 

Aug.  9,  1703 

Sept.  16,  1706 

Woodes  Fiogers  and 

Bristol 

June  15,  1708 

Aug.  1,  1711 

Courtney 
John  Clapperton 
George  Shelvocke 

Plymouth 
Do. 

Feb.  15,  1719 
Do. 

June  1722 
Aug.  1,  1722 

Roggewein 
Commodore  Anson 

Texel 
St.  Helens 

July  17,  1721 
Sept.  18,  1740 

July  11,  1723 
June  15,  1744 

CHAPTER  V 

cook's  three  predecessors 

So  greatly  has  the  fame  of  Cook  eclipsed  that  of  his 
predecessors,  that  we  are  inclined  to  forget  that  his 
century  produced  other  great  navigators  besides  himself. 
Not  to  speak  of  foreign  expeditions,  there  were  the 
voyages  of  Anson,  Byron,  Wallis,  and  Carteret,  which 
must,  in  justice  to  Cook  himself,  be  touched  upon  before 
his  own  voyages  are  considered.  Commodore  Anson's 
course  presents  no  features  of  great  interest.  Like  most 
of  the  early  navigators,  he  steered  northward  after 
passing  through  the  Straits  of  Magellan,  touched  at  Juan 
Fernandez,  coasted  South  America,  stood  in  at  Panama, 
went  out  to  sea  again,  appeared  ofif  Acapulco,  and  then 
sailed  in  the  parallel  of  13°  N.  to  the  Ladrones.  He 
added  little  to  the  geography  of  the  world. 

Commodore  Byron's  voyage  (1764-1766)  was  almost 
as  barren  of  results,  although  like  Magellan  he  seemed 
to  avoid  discovering  the  archipelagoes  between  which  he 
passed  by  a  kind  of  miracle.  He  had  with  him  the 
Dol})hin,  a  man-of-war  of  the  sixth  rate,  carrying  thirty- 
six  guns,  with  a  complement  of  three  lieutenants,  thirty- 
seven  i)etty  officers,  and  one  hundred  and  fifty  men,  and 
the  Tamar  sloop,  sixteen  guns,  imder  Captain  Mowat, 
with  three  lieutenants,  twenty-seven  petty  officers,  and 


CHAP.  V  COMMODORE  BYRON  $7 

ninety  men.  His  general  instructions  were  to  sail  in 
the  southern  seas  and  to  make  such  discoveries  and 
observations  as  he  should  find  possible.  These  instruc- 
tions were  not  communicated  to  the  men  until  they  were 
well  out  at  sea.  Double  pay  was  promised,  with  other 
advantages.  He  sailed  to  Port  Desire,  north  of  the 
Straits,  sighting  the  Falkland  Islands  on  the  way.  He 
then  sailed  into  the  Straits  as  far  as  Port  Famine,  when 
he  was  forced  to  put  back  again.  He  visited  the  Falk- 
lands — they  had  formerly  been  known  as  Hawkins's 
Maiden  Land  or  Pepys'  Land — and  then  made  another 
attempt  to  get  through  the  Straits.  They  entered  this 
terrible  strait  on  Sunday,  February  17th,  and  came  out 
of  it  on  Tuesday,  April  9th — that  is  to  say,  the  passage 
of  the  Straits  took  them  fifty-one  days,  which  must  not 
be  considered  a  very  long  time,  considering  the  time 
spent  by  some  ships  in  the  passage.  Cajitain  Wallis 
afterwards  spent  four  mouths  getting  through.  De 
Bougainville  took  one  day  longer  than  BjTon.  The 
weather  during  the  whole  time  that  Byron  was  in  the 
Straits  he  describes  as  "dreadful  beyond  all  descrip- 
tion." 

On  April  26th  the  ships  were  off"  Masafuera.  After 
leaving  this  island  Byron  sailed  north  into  lat.  26° 
S.,  when,  like  Magellan,  he  took  a  W.N.W.  course,  and 
ran  half-way  across  the  ocean  without  sighting  any 
land.  He  then  arrived  at  the  northern  end  of  the 
Society  Islands,  discovering  certain  of  the  smaller  out- 
lying islands,  but  missing  Tahiti  and  the  more  im- 
portant places.  He  then  sailed  N.W.  for  the  Ladrones, 
discovering  one  or  two  insignificant  islands  on  the 
way. 


58  CAPTAIN  COOK 


It  is  an  interesting  voyage,  but  one  feels  that  the 
gallant  commodore  was  not  anxious  to  linger,  and, 
indeed,  his  crew  were  suffering  too  much  from  scurvy  to 
allow  further  delay.  Captain  Cook,  in  his  place,  would 
have  put  in  at  some  island  where  he  could  have  relieved 
and  refreshed  his  men,  and  would  then  have  turned 
back.  But  it  is  not  every  commander  who  can  discover 
islands;  Byron  had  not  la  main  lieiireuse.  Nor  is  it  every 
commander  who  loves  the  perils  of  an  unknown  sea. 
Byron  on  his  return  was  made  Governor  of  New- 
foundland, and  afterwards  commanded  a  fleet  to  opjiose 
the  Comte  d'Estaign  in  1777.      He  died  in  1786. 

The  DolpMn,  being  refitted,  was  sent  out  again  in  the 
year  of  her  return,  under  command  of  Captain  Samuel 
Wallis,  who  had  with  him  the  Swallow  sloop,  Captain 
Carteret,  and  the  Prince  Frederick  store-ship.  Great 
attention  was  paid  on  this  voyage  to  the  shipment  of 
medicines,  portable  soup,  and  other  things  for  the  pre- 
vention of  scurvy.  The  ships  sailed  on  August  22nd, 
1766  ;  they  entered  the  Straits  on  December  17th,  1766, 
and  did  not  get  out  of  it  until  April  11th,  1767.  They 
actually  spent  four  months  trying  to  work  through  this 
abominable  passage,  which  is,  if  one  understands  Wallis 
aright,  about  eight  hundred  and  eighty  miles  in  length. 
Wallis  made,  however,  a  careful  chart  of  the  whole  Straits, 
and  wrote  a  description  of  the  navigation  for  use  by 
those  who  should  come  after  him. 

On  leaving  the  Straits  the  Dolphin^  sailing  much 
faster  than  the  Swallow,  lost  sight  of  her.  "I  would 
have  shortened  sail  for  the  Swallow,"  says  Captain 
Wallis,  "but  it  was  not  in  my  power,  for  as  a  current  set 
us  strongly  down  upon  the  Isles  of  Direction,  and  the 


AJmimxi 


The  natives  board  the  Dolphin  at  Tahiti.— r.  59. 


V  CAPTAIN  WALLIS  59 

wind  came  to  the  west,  it  became  absolutely  necessary 
for  me  to  carry  sail,  so  that  I  might  clear  them.  Soon 
after  we  lost  sight  of  the  Sicallow,  and  never  saw  her 
again."  To  the  people  on  the  latter  vessel  it  looked  as 
if  Captain  Wallis  had  crowded  sail  with  the  deliberate 
intention  of  deserting  them. 

Wallis  made  no  land  for  seven  weeks,  when  they  dis- 
covered a  small  island  or  two.  About  this  time  the  diet 
of  salt  beef  and  pork  began  to  produce  their  usual  result 
in  the  appearance  of  scurvy.  The  men  began  to  fall 
down  very  fast.  Vinegar  and  mustard  were  served  out, 
as  antiscorbutics,  as  much  as  the  men  chose  to  take  ] 
wine  was  given  instead  of  spirits,  also  sweet  wort  and 
saloop  ;  portable  soup  was  also  boiled  Avith  their  peas 
and  oatmeal ,  the  berths  w^ere  kept  clean,  the  ham- 
mocks were  frequently  washed,  the  water  was  rendered 
wholesome  by  ventilation,  and  every  part  between 
decks  frequently  washed  with  vinegar.  Yet  the  scurvy 
contmued  to  spread.  Nor  was  it  until  they  reached 
a  land  where  fruit  and  green  food  could  be  procured 
that  the  men  recovered.  These  preventive  measures 
are  necessary  to  notice  m  view  of  their  helplessness 
and  the  sanitary  improvements  introduced  by  Cook  on 
his  second  voyage. 

Early  in  June  Wallis  entered  the  archipelago  of  the 
Society  Islands  on  the  south-east  side,  discovering  island 
after  island,  until  they  reached  Tahiti,  which  Wallis 
named  Kino-  Georcie  the  Third's  Island.  It  was  fortun- 
ate  for  Cook  that  his  predecessor  left  behind  him 
a  kindly  memory  among  the  natives,  though  their 
friendship  began  with  a  fight.  Wallis's  account  of  the 
place  and  the  people  occupies  a  great  part  of  his  narra- 


6o  CAPTAIN  COOK  chap. 

tive.  It  is  not  so  full  and  complete  as  the  accounts 
afterwards  given  by  Cook,  by  George  Forster,  Anderson, 
and  King,  but  it  is  highly  curious  and  interesting. 
No  island  of  the  Pacific  has  been  more  thoroughly 
described  as  it  appeared  on  its  first  discovery  than 
Tahiti.  Of  that  pristine  simplicity  of  manners  how 
much  now  remains  %  From  the  Society  Islands  Wallis 
steered  W.,  and  afterwards  N.W.,  for  Tinian  and 
the  Ladrones — another  example  of  the  way  in  which 
sailors,  one  after  the  other,  used  to  make  for  the  known 
points.  Had  he  continued  a  westerly  course,  he  would 
have  struck  the  coast  of  New  Holland ;  had  he  steered 
S.AV.,  he  would  have  anticipated  Cook  and  dis- 
covered New  Zealand.  Satisfied,  however,  with  the 
glory  of  finding  Iving  George  the  Third's  Island,  he 
made  for  the  Ladrones.  On  the  way  he  found  several 
small  islands. 

Here  follows  a  very  curious  and  tragic  little  story. 

On  arrivnig  at  Java  he  found  H.^M.S.  Falmouth  lying 
in  the  mud  in  a  rotten  condition ;  her  ports  were 
broken,  her  stern  post  decayed,  and  there  was  no  place 
in  the  ship  where  a  man  could  be  sheltered  from  the 
weather.  The  few  people  who  belonged  to  her  had 
been  left  in  charge.  It  is  not  stated  how  long,  or  in 
what  circumstances  they  had  been  left  there,  or  what 
had  become  of  the  ship's  officers.  The  story  is  an 
illustration  of  the  delights  which  awaited  a  sailor  at 
that  tmie.  These  people  were  the  petty  officers,  and, 
one  supposes,  some  of  tlie  crew.  The  decaying  ship  la}' 
rotting  in  the  stinking  tropical  mud  while  the  men  in 
charge  waited  for  orders  from  England.  None  came. 
The  Dutch  refused  to  let  them  sleep  on  shore.     "When 


V  H.M.S.  FALMOUTH  6 1 

they  were  sick  no  one  would  visit  them  on  l)oard. 
They  were  afraid  that  the  Malays  would  come  and 
murder  them,  and  set  their  ship  on  fire.  The  stores 
which  they  were  left  to  guard  had  all  been  destroyed, 
their  powder  had  been  thrown  into  the  water  by  the 
Dutch.  The  masts,  yards,  and  cables  were  all  dropping 
to  pieces,  and  even  the  ironwork  was  so  rusty  that  it 
was  no  longer  worth  anything.  Ten  years'  pay  was 
due  to  them.  They  had  actually  been  in  this  horrible 
place  for  ten  years.  They  were  growing  old  in  this 
misery.  They  expected  that  the  next  monsoon  would 
break  up  the  rotten  old  ship  and  drown  them.  Could 
there  be  a  more  miserable  condition  %  The  gunner  was 
dead,  the  boatswain  had  gone  mad,  the  carpenter  was 
dying,  and  the  cook  was  a  wounded  cripple.  Wallis 
refused  to  relieve  them.  They  were  left  in  charge,  he 
said,  and  they  must  wait  for  orders  from  home.  So 
he  sailed  away.  Nothing  more  is  recorded  of  these 
poor  fellows ;  but  the  year  after,  Carteret,  who  put  in 
at  Batavia  for  repairs,  mentions  the  Falmouth  as  a  ship 
that  had  been  condemned.  One  hopes  that  somehow 
the  survivors  had  been  taken  home,  and  were  already 
in  the  enjoyment  of  their  ten  years'  pay.  But  one 
fears  that  their  last  home  was  in  the  warm  mud  of  that 
fatal  creek. 

The  Dolphin  anchored  in  the  Downs  six  hundred  and 
thirty-seven  days  after  her  departure  from  Plymouth 
Sound.  This  was  a  very  quick  voyage,  but,  as  has  been 
evident  from  the  course  taken,  it  was  straight  across  the 
ocean.  The  voyage  of  the  little  Swallow,  under  Car- 
teret, who  had  already  sailed  round  the  world  with 
Byron,  Avas  by  far  the  most  interesting  of  any  before 


62  CAPTAIN  COOK 


those  of  Cook.  It  was  also  the  most  perilous.  The 
vessel  selected  for  this  long  and  dangerous  service  was 
a  sloop,  thirty  years  old.  She  was  thinly  sheathed,  and 
provided  with  nothing  more  than  the  barest  necessaries. 
The  captain,  in  considering  the  scanty  equipment  of  the 
vessel,  was  persuaded  that  the  Sicallow  "was  not  intended 
to  sail  farther  than  the  Falkland  Isles.  In  this  he  was 
undeceived 

The  two  ships  kept  in  company,  as  already  stated, 
through  the  Straits,  when  the  Dolphin  sailed  away, 
leaving  her  consort  alone,  and  -snthout  appointing  any 
rendezvous.  None  of  the  stores  necessary  to  obtain 
refreshments  from  the  natives  —  cloth,  linen,  beads, 
scissors,  etc. — were  on  board  the  SicaUow,  which  was 
also  unprovided  even  with  a  forge  or  any  iron.  And  at 
the  outset  the  ship  was  so  foul  that  even  with  all  sails 
set  she  could  not  keej)  up  Avith  the  Dolphin,  though  the 
latter  was  sailing  under  topsails  alone.  After  a  month 
of  storm  and  rain  with  heavy  seas  the  little  vessel 
arrived  at  ]\Iasafuera. 

And  now  began  in  earnest  a  voyage,  with  which 
none  other  can  be  compared,  for  the  resolution  of  the 
captain  and  the  perils  and  discomforts  of  the  ship's  com- 
pany. AVith  a  small  vessel,  imperfectly  found,  without 
even  the  means  of  repairing  a  broken  cable,  the  com- 
mander would  have  been  perfectly  justified  either  ni 
steering  the  shortest  course  across  the  Pacific  or  in 
returning  home  through  the  Straits.  Carteret,  with  the 
true  spirit  of  a  navigator,  did  neither.  He  cruised  about 
in  search  of  doubtful  places.  He  looked  for  certain 
islands  laid  down  in  Green's  chart  of  1753,  and  also  in 
Robertson's  Elements  of  Navigation,  and  proved  at  least 


V  CAPTAIN  CARTERET  63 

that  their  position  was  wrongly  laid  do^vn,  even  if  the 
islands  had  any  existence.  In  these  days  of  imperfect 
observation  the  true  longitudes  were  generally  arrived 
at  after  repeated  visits  and  many  observations.  He  also 
proved  that  the  so-called  Davis's  Land,  supposed  to  be  a 
part  of  the  great  southern  continent,  did  not  exist — at 
least  in  the  place  assigned  to  it.  He  discovered  Pit- 
cairn's  Island,  but  was  unable  to  effect  a  landing.  He 
then,  like  Byron  and  AVallis,  sailed  into  the  archipelago 
of  the  Society  Islands,  but  lighted  on  the  southern 
group.  The  ship  beginning  to  grow  crazy,  and  the 
crew  being  sick  with  scurvy,  Carteret  was  compelled 
to  abandon  his  wish  to  steer  S.E.  Had  he  been  able 
to  do  so,  he  might  have  anticipated  many  of  Cook's 
discoveries.  He  therefore  followed  a  oST.  W.  course.  But 
not,  as  "Wallis  and  Byron  before  him,  making  for  the 
Ladrones,  and  so  by  the  north  of  the  Philippines  to 
Batavia.  Carteret  kept  as  long  as  possible  south  of  the 
equator.  He  discovered  the  Queen  Charlotte  Islands, 
he  discovered  and  sailed  through  New  Britain  and  New 
Ireland,  he  discovered  the  Admiralty  Islands,  Joseph 
Freewill's  Island,  examined  the  coast  of  Mindanao, 
sailed  round  Celebes,  and  so  arrived  at  Batavia.  Had 
he  been  able  to  land,  procure  refreshments,  and  repair 
his  vessel,  he  would  have  steered  S.E.  after  lea\dng 
Queen  Charlotte  Islands. 

Hitherto  (he  says),  though  I  had  long  been  ill  of  an  in- 
flammatory and  bilious  disorder,  I  had  been  able  to  keep  the 
deck ;  but  this  evening  the  symptoms  became  so  much  more 
threatening  that  I  could  keep  up  no  longer,  and  I  was  for 
some  time  afterwards  confined  to  my  bed.  The  master  was 
dying  of  the  wounds  he  received   in  his   quarrel  with  the 


64  CAPTAIN  COOK 


Indians,  the  lieutenant  also  was  very  ill,  the  gunner  and 
thirty  of  my  men  incapable  of  duty,  among  whom  were  some 
of  the  most  vigorous  and  healthy,  that  had  been  wounded 
with  the  master,  and  three  of  them  mortally;  and  there  was 
no  hope  of  obtaining  such  refreshments  as  we  most  needed  in 
the  place.  These  were  discouraging  circumstances,  and  not 
only  put  an  end  to  my  hopes  of  prosecuting  the  voyage 
farther  to  southward,  but  greatly  dispirited  the  people ;  except 
myself,  the  master,  and  the  lieutenant,  there  was  nobody  on 
board  capable  of  navigating  a  ship  home.  The  master  was 
known  to  be  a  dying  man,  and  the  recovery  of  myself  and 
the  lieutenant  was  very  doubtful.  I  would,  however,  have 
made  a  further  effort  to  obtain  refreshments  here  if  I  had 
been  furnished  with  any  toys,  iron  tools,  or  cutlery  ware, 
which  might  have  enabled  me  to  recover  the  goodwill  of  the 
natives,  and  establish  a  traffic  with  them  for  such  necessaries 
as  they  would  have  furnished  us  with.  But  I  had  no  such 
articles,  and  but  very  few  others  fit  for  an  Indian  trade ;  and 
not  being  in  a  condition  to  risk  the  loss  of  any  more  of  the 
few  men  who  were  capable  of  doing  duty,  I  weighed  anchor 
at  daybreak  on  Monday  the  12th,  and  stood  along  the  shore 
for  that  part  of  the  island  to  which  I  had  sent  the  cutter. 

AVhen  the  ship  at  last  arrived  at  Macassar  every  man 
on  board  was  ill  with  scurvy,  and  the  Dutch,  in  their 
usual  spirit,  refused  any  assistance. 

On  March  20th,  1769,  nearly  a  year  after  Captain 
Wallis's  return,  the  SicaUow  anchored  at  Spithead. 
The  explanations  of  the  former  officer,  ^vhen  the  two 
gallant  captains  met,  are  not  on  record. 

I  have  thought  it  just  both  to  Cook  and  to  the 
memory  of  these  three,  his  immediate  predecessors,  to 
give  a  somewhat  more  detailed  account  of  their  voyages. 
It  wnll  be  observed  that  the  zeal  wdth  which  Carteret 
carried  out  his  instructions  differed  essentially  from  that 
which  the  other  tw^o  brought  to  their  enterprise.    Byron 


V  CAPTAIN  CARTERET  65 

and  Wallis  had  large  and  well-found  ships.  Yet  they 
hastened  to  get  out  of  the  Pacific  as  quickly  as  possible, 
and  by  that  part  of  it  already  known.  Carteret  had  a 
small  and  ill-found  old  and  crazy  craft.  De  Bougain- 
ville, who  passed  the  Swallow  homeward  bound,  reports 
that  "  Carteret's  ship  was  very  small,  went  very  ill,  and 
when  we  took  leave  of  him,  remained  as  it  were  at 
anchor.  How  much  he  must  have  suffered  in  so  bad  a 
vessel  may  well  be  conceived."  He  had  a  sick  crew  and 
could  get  no  refreshments.  Yet  he  lingered  as  long  as 
he  could  in  the  ocean,  and  but  for  impossibility  would 
have  explored  the  south-east  Pacific,  then  wholly  un- 
kno^^^l.  Perhaps  the  known  zeal  of  the  younger  man 
caused  Wallis  to  sail  out  of  sight  as  quickly  as  possible 
after  passing  through  the  Straits. 

The  chart  of  the  Pacific,  therefore,  had  been  enriched, 
as  the  result  of  these  three  voyages,  first  by  the  group 
of  the  Society  Islands,  of  which  Byron  discovered  the 
northern  isles,  Wallis  Tahiti,  and  Carteret  those  to  the 
south.  Byron  and  Wallis  did  little  more.  Carteret 
discovered  the  Queen  Charlotte  Islands,  Pitcairn's 
Island,  separated  New  Britain  from  New  Ireland,  and 
found  other  small  islands. 


CHAPTER  VI 

cook's  first  voyage 

We  have  now  cleared  the  way  for  a  right  understand- 
ing of  Cook's  voyages  and  their  results.  We  have  seen 
the  Pacific  Ocean  at  first  a  great  black  sheet,  streaked 
with  thin  belts  of  light  as  one  voyager  after  the 
other  ventured  across.  On  the  north  of  the  equator, 
along  the  parallel  of  13°  N.,  there  is  a  broad  belt — 
this  is  the  highway  between  Panama  and  Manila.  In 
spite  of  many  voyages  there  is  still  little  light  upon 
the  central  and  south  Pacific.  By  far  the  greater  part 
of  the  ocean  is  covered  with  thick  darkness. 

In  considering  these  expeditions  one  is  faced  by 
certain  difficulties  which  do  not  apply  to  the  earlier 
voyages.  It  is  that  they  belong  almost  to  our  own 
time,  that  their  history  has  been  narrated  over  and  over 
again.  Every  boy  has  read  Cook's  Voyages ;  not  only 
every  library,  but  almost  every  house  with  a  row  of 
bookshelves  contains  some  account  of  them ;  there 
are  cheap  and  popular  editions,  there  are  illustrated 
editions ;  they  have  been  abridged,  condensed,  and 
castigated  for  the  use  of  the  young ;  they  have  served 
for  lectures,  illustrated  by  the  magic  lantern ;  they  are 
known,  in  scraps,  by  everybody.  That  is  to  say,  though 
few  of  us  would  sit  down  to  pass  an  examination  on 


CHAP.  VI  THE  FIRST  VOYAGE  67 

the  subject,  we  all  know  in  general  terms  that  Cook 
surveyed  the  coasts  of  New  Zealand  and  New  Holland, 
penetrated  the  southern  ocean,  traversed  the  Pacific  in 
every  direction,  and  was  finally  murdered  at  the  island 
which  some  of  us  still,  faithful  to  tradition,  call  Owhyhee. 
Again,  all  the  anecdotes,  the  interesting  facts,  the 
dramatic  bits,  have  long  since  been  picked  out,  over 
and  over  again,  so  that  they  cannot  be  reproduced  with 
the  slightest  show  of  freshness.  Cook  is  not  yet  so  old 
that,  like  Dampier  and  Shelvocke,  only  historical  geo- 
graphers and  the  people  who  read  everything  know 
him  ;  nor  is  he  still  so  3'oung  that  his  achievements  may 
bear  another  description  by  a  new  hand. 

He  is,  again,  not  yet  so  old  but  that  men  are  still 
living  who  have  conversed  with  survivors  of  the  crews 
of  AVallis,  Carteret,  and  Cook.  A  man  of  five -and - 
twenty  on  board  the  Endeavour  in  1768  would  be  no  more 
than  seventy -seven  in  1820;  a  man  of  five-and-twenty 
on  board  the  Besolution  in  1779  might  live  to  reach  eighty- 
six  in  1840.  There  are  among  us  some  who  can  still 
remember  the  year  1820,  and  many  who  can  remember 
the  year  1840.  It  is,  indeed,  wonderful  how  far  back 
one  can  reach  in  this  way.  It  is  not  very  long  since 
some  of  Nelson's  old  tars  still  lingered,  and  lightened 
the  tedium  of  time  spent  in  sitting  on  a  bench  in  the 
Common  Hard  above  the  Logs,  by  telling  over  again  the 
story  of  the  battles  they  had  fought  and  the  victories 
they  had  won.  Nay,  there  might  have  been  among 
them,  perchance,  as  late  as  1850,  some  more  aged  man, 
one  who  had  witnessed  from  the  boats  of  the  Resolution 
the  murder  on  the  beach  of  Owhyhee  ;  there  may  have 
been  a  solitary  survivor  or  two  of  that  tragedy  lingering 


6S  CAPTAIN  COOK  chap. 

on  in  their  nineties.  And  as  to  grandsons  of  those 
hardy  mariners,  there  are  many  still  living,  though, 
unfortunately,  none  of  the  great  captain  himself. 

Considering  this  difficulty,  therefore,  it  will  be  prudent 
not  to  follow  each  of  these  voyages  in  detail,  seeing  that 
to  do  so  would  be  to  present  a  tale  ten  times  told  already, 
but  to  draw  up  a  skeleton  route  or  course  of  each  in 
turn,  with  such  illustrations  as  may  be  gathered,  not  so 
much  from  the  official  journals  and  descriptions  which 
have  been  used  over  and  over  again,  but  from  such  other 
contemporary  documents  as  are  not  generally  known  or 
are  not  easily  accessible,  and  especially  such  illustrations 
as  serve  to  show  the  personal  character  of  the  com- 
mander himself  and  the  kind  of  company  which  manned 
his  ships.  As  for  the  places  which  he  visited,  and  the 
people  whom  he  brought  to  light,  are  they  not  described 
already  in  the  books  ?  We  are  not  here  considering  the 
manners  and  customs  of  the  Polynesians ;  their  origin, 
language,  religion,  folk-lore,  and  relationships  do  not 
concern  us. 

The  Eoyal  Society,  discovering  that  there  would 
happen  a  transit  of  Venus  in  the  year  1769,  and  that 
this  interesting  astronomical  event  would  be  best  observed 
from  some  place  in  the  Pacific  Ocean,  drew  up  a  memorial 
to  the  king,  praying  that  an  expedition  might  be  sent 
out  with  that  object.  They  proposed,  as  the  most  con- 
venient station  of  any  then  known,  the  islands  of  Rotter- 
dam, Amsterdam,  or  the  Marquesas.  The  memorial  was 
favoiu-ably  received,  and  the  king  consented  to  grant  a 
ship  properly  provisioned  and  equipped  to  carry  out  any 
scientific  observer  who  should  be  appointed  by  the  Society. 
Mr.  Alexander  Dalrymjile,  a  well-known  student  and 


vr  MR.  ALEXANDER  DALRYMPLE  69 

writer  on  geography  and  Fellow  of  the  Society,  was 
at  first  proposed  as  the  commander  of  the  scientific 
expedition.  He  consented  to  go,  thinking  that  he 
should  not  only  lead  the  scientific  party  but  would  also 
command  the  ship,  as  had  been  done  on  a  previous 
occasion,  when  Dr.  Halley,  for  scientific  purposes,  was 
put  in  command  of  a  ship,  with  brevet  rank  as  captain. 
But  the  Admiralty,  also  bearing  in  mind  the  example  of 
Dr.  Halley,  and  its  results  in  mutiny  and  disorders, 
refused  absolutely  to  put  another  landsman,  with  no 
knowledge  whatever  of  discipline,  in  command  of  a  ship. 
On  so  long  a  voyage  the  results  would  certainly  be  far 
worse  than  on  that  occasion.  Sir  Edward  Hawke,  then 
at  the  head  of  the  Admiralty,  plainly  declared  that  he 
would  cut  off  his  right  hand  rather  than  sign  a  com- 
mission for  a  person  who  was  not  a  sailor.  Then  Mr. 
Dalrymple  first  refused  to  go  at  all,  and  then  wanted 
to  go ;  and  finally,  when  it  was  too  late,  seems  to  have 
sulked,  and  ever  afterwards  complained  that  he  had 
been  badly  treated  by  the  Admiralty.  They  then  cast 
about  for  an  officer  who  could  not  only  command  the  ship 
but  also  conduct  the  scientific  purpose  of  the  expedition. 
No  other  man  could  be  found  than  James  Cook,  master 
in  the  Eoyal  Navy.  Everything  happened  fortunately 
and  opportunely  for  him;  he  had  just  returned  from 
the  important  post  of  surveyor  of  Newfoundland  and 
Labrador ;  he  was  therefore  available,  and  on  the  spot. 
He  had  brought  himself  into  great  notice  by  his  admir- 
able charts,  and  he  was  well  recommended  by  every  ofiicer 
under  whom  he  had  served.  It  is  indeed  most  probable 
that  no  other  officer  in  the  navy  possessed  so  much 
scientific  knowledge  as  Cook.     To  have  mastered  the 


70  CAPTAIN  COOK  chap. 

whole  art  of  navigation,  with  the  methods  and  tactics  of 
naval  warfare  in  all  its  branches,  was  then  considered 
an  education  sufficient  for  the  best  and  most  ambitious 
officer.  Yet  one  doubts  whether  Cook  would  have 
received  the  appointment  had  either  Wallis  or  Carteret 
returned  in  time.  Their  experience  of  the  Pacific  would 
have  outweighed  Cook's  proved  zeal,  intelligence,  and 
scientific  attainments.  However,  Cook  was  recom- 
mended by  Mr.  Stephens,  Secretary  to  the  Admiralty, 
and  no  other  officer  seems  to  have  been  considered  at  all. 
Certainly  the  command  of  an  expedition,  not  warlike, 
from  which  no  glory  of  the  usual  kind  could  be  obtained, 
certain  to  be  long  and  tedious,  and  equally  certain  to  be 
full  of  dangers  and  discomforts,  was  not  a  post  for  which 
backstairs  influence  would  be  employed,  or  favouritism 
brought  into  request. 

Cook  accepted  the  offer  eagerly  and  instantly.  It 
was  indeed  an  enormous  step  upwards;  he  was  taken 
out  of  the  master's  line,  from  which  there  was  seldom 
any  promotion  possible,  and  placed  into  the  higher 
branch  ;  he  received  the  rank  of  lieutenant. 

In  his  introduction  to  the  narrative  of  the  second 
voyage.  Cook  explains  what  kind  of  ship  is  best  for  the 
successful  conduct  of  such  enterprises.     He  says  : 

The  success  .  .  .  will  more  chiefly  depend  on  the  kind, 
the  size,  and  the  properties  of  the  ships  chosen  for  the  service 
...  as  the  greatest  danger  to  be  apprehended  and  pro- 
\nded  against  on  a  voyage  of  discovery,  especially  to  the  most 
distant  parts  of  the  glohe,  is  that  of  the  ship's  being  liable  to 
be  run  aground  on  an  unknown  desert,  or  perhaps  savage 
coast.  So  no  consideration  should  be  set  in  competition 
with  that  of  her  being  of  a  construction  of  the  safest  kind,  in 
which  the  officers  may,  with  the  least  hazard,  venture  upon 


VI  THE  SHIP  CHOSEN  71 

a  strange  coast.  A  ship  of  this  kind  must  not  be  of  a  great 
draught  of  water,  yet  of  a  sufficient  burden  and  capacity  to 
carry  a  proper  quantity  of  provisions  and  necessaries  for  her 
complement  of  men,  and  for  the  term  requisite  to  perform  the 
voyage. 

She  must  also  be  of  a  construction  that  will  bear  to 
take  the  ground,  and  of  a  size  which,  in  case  of  necessity, 
may  be  safely  and  conveniently  laid  on  shore  to  repair  any 
accidental  damage  or  defect.  These  properties  are  not  to  be 
found  in  ships  of  war  of  forty  guns,  nor  in  frigates,  nor  in 
East  India  Company's  ships,  nor  in  large  three-decked  West 
India  ships,  nor  indeed  in  any  other  but  North-country-built 
ships,  as  such  as  are  built  for  the  coal  trade,  which  are 
peculiarly  adapted  for  this  purpose. 

After  this  expression  of  opinion,  written,  it  is  true, 
after  his  experience  on  the  first  voyage,  it  is  not  sur- 
prising to  learn  that  his  first  ship,  the  Endeavour^  was  in 
fact  a  collier,  built  by  his  old  friends  of  Whitby — a 
stout,  strong  ship,  designed  for  safety  in  all  weathers 
rather  than  for  speed.  Her  like  still  sails  between  the 
northern  ports  and  London.  She  herself,  until  a  few 
years  ago,  carried  on  at  a  very  advanced  age  the  trade 
for  which  she  was  originally  constructed.  She  was  of 
three  hundred  and  seventy  tons. 

The  scientific  party  consisted  of  Mr.  Charles  Green, 
one  of  the  assistants  to  the  Astronomer-Royal ;  Joseph 
Banks  (afterwards  Sir  Joseph),  a  man  of  large  private 
means,  and  already  of  considerable  scientific  reputation ; 
Dr.  Solander,  one  of  the  assistants  of  the  British  Museum. 
Banks  brought  with  him  a  naturalist,  Mr.  Sydney 
Parkinson  a  draughtsman,  and  others  as  assistants. 
The  Endeavour^s  complement  consisted  of  eighty-five  men 
in  all,  including  the  captain,  two  lieutenants,  three  mid- 
shipmen, a  master,  surgeon,  boatswain,  carpenter,  and 


72  CAPTAIN  COOK  CHAr. 

the  other  petty  officers,  with  forty -one  able  seamen, 
twelve  marines,  and  nine  servants.  She  took  on  board 
ten  carriage  and  twelve  s^Wvel  guns,  and  was  provisioned 
for  eighteen  months. 

Before  the  Endeavour  was  fitted  out  Captain  Wallis 
returned,  bringing  the  news  of  the  discovery  of  Otaheite 
(George  Forster,  of  the  second  voyage,  spells  it  0-Taheiti, 
which  is  nearer  to  its  new  name  of  Tahiti).  And  as  the 
place  seemed  more  convenient  than  the  Marquesas  for 
astronomical  observation,  it  was  determined  that  the 
transit  should  be  observed  from  Otaheite. 

The  Endeavour  was  fitted  in  the  basin  of  Deptford 
dockyard  July  30th,  1768.  She  sailed  from  Deptford, 
and  on  August  26th,  the  wind  being  fair,  she  put  to  sea 
from  Plymouth.  The  superstitious  may  remark  that 
this  most  successful  voyage  of  discovery  was  commenced 
on  a  Friday. 

The  only  account  of  the  voyage  is  that  published 
officially.  Most  unfortunately  it  is  not  the  work  of 
Cook  himself,  or  of  Banks,  whose  journals  were  extremely 
voluminous ;  it  is  a  clumsy  compilation  by  Dr.  Hawkes- 
worth,  into  whose  hands  were  placed  all  the  journals, 
logs,  and  other  papers  connected  with  the  voj-ages  of 
Byron,  Wallis,  Carteret,  and  Cook — the  first  voyage  only 
of  the  last  named.  It  was  fondly  thought  that  this  writer, 
then  a  well-kno\^Ti  litterateur,  would  be  able  to  present 
the  separate  journals  in  a  narrative  possessing  the  graces 
of  literary  style.  This  the  doctor  undertook  to  do,  with 
the  understanding  that  he  was  at  liberty  to  decorate  the 
naked  narrative  with  remarks  or  sentiments  of  his  own 
proper  to  the  occasion.  As  the  narrative  is  written  in 
the  first  person,  as  if  by  the  respective  officers  whose 


VI  HAWKESIVORTH  73 

names  stand  at  the  head  of  each  history,  the  result  is  truly 
wonderful.  It  must  be  o\vned  that  the  author  of  this 
literary  job  was  careful  to  preserve  every  incident  re- 
corded in  the  journals,  yet  their  mode  of  presentment 
robbed  the  journals  entirely  of  the  personal  element 
which  is  the  chief  charm  in  all  books  of  travel.  Wallis 
and  Carteret  have  disappeared  altogether.  Cook  himself 
is  invisible  under  the  classic  garments  with  which  he  is 
arrayed.  The  sentiments,  it  is  true,  are  beautiful ;  there 
is  a  display  of  learning  which  makes  the  memory  of  the 
Free,  Love  of  Whitby  seem  like  a  bad  dream.  Cook  must 
surely  have  been  wandering  all  these  years  on  the  banks 
of  Granta.  For  instance,  how  judicious  is  the  rendering 
of  such  a  simple  incident  as  that  described  in  the  follow- 
ing passage :  "  The  scene  might  possibly  have  become 
more  curious  and  interesting  if  it  had  not  suddenly  been 
interrupted  by  an  interlude  of  a  more  serious  kind. 
Just  at  this  time  Dr.  Solander  complained  that  his 
pockets  had  been  picked."  Of  course  Captain  Cook,  in 
his  culpable  carelessness  of  style,  had  made  the  simple 
entry,  "  Solander  had  his  pocket  picked."  When  we 
read  of  the  "poetical  fables  of  Arcadia,"  of  the  "famous 
Purpura  of  the  Ancients,"  we  feel  the  felicity  of  passing 
Cook  through  a  classical  mill.  And  what  polite  ear  can 
endure  to  be  told  that  the  captain  "  went  about  with  the 
king  "  when  it  is  possible  to  say  that  "  the  commander  pur- 
sued his  journey  under  the  auspices  of  that  potentate  "  % 
The  ship's  log,  again,  should  be  kept  in  balanced  sentences 
— witness  the  following,  which  forms  part  of  a  classical 
account  of  a  boxing  match  between  two  savages  :  "  We 
observed  with  pleasure  that  the  conqueror  never  exulted 
over  the  vanquished,   and   that  the  vanquished  never 


74  CAPTAIN  COOK 


repined  at  the  success  of  the  conqueror."  And  the 
follo"\ving  is  a  charming  illustration  of  the  lofty  and 
refined  level  on  which  a  sailor's  log  ought  to  be  main- 
tained :  "  It  is  scarcely  possible  for  those  who  are  ac- 
quainted with  the  athletic  sports  of  remote  antiquity  not 
to  remark  a  rude  resemblance  of  them  in  this  wrestling 
match  among  the  natives  of  a  little  island  in  the  midst 
of  the  Pacific  Ocean.  And  our  female  readers  may 
recollect  the  account  given  of  them  by  Fenelon  in  his 
Telemachus,  where,  though  the  events  are  fictitious,  the 
manners  of  the  age  are  faithfully  transcribed  from  authors 
by  whom  they  are  supposed  to  have  been  truly  related." 
All  this  written  by  Captain  Cook  in  Matavai  Bay  !  After 
this  it  no  longer  surprises  us  to  hear  him  reminding  us 
how  "  ^lian  and  Apollonius  Khodius  impute  a  certain 
practice  to  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  Colchis,  a  country 
near  Pontus  in  Asia,  now  called  Mingrelia." 

In  spite  of  all,  the  story  of  Cook's  first  voyage  proved 
the  most  interesting  account  of  adventure  and  discovery 
ever  yet  presented  to  English  readers.  For  the  reason 
already  given  I  do  not  propose  to  make  long  extracts  from 
it.     The  following  is  the  skeleton  course  of  the  ship. 

August  2&hj  1768.  The  Endeavour  set  sail  from  Ply- 
mouth Sound. 

September  I3th.  Madeira.  The  narrative  speaks  of 
kindness  and  hospitality  received  here.  Mr.  George 
Forster  darkly  hints  at  a  discreet  silence  being  thrown 
over  a  certain  bombardment  of  Fort  Loo  at  Madeira 
by  an  Enghsh  man-of-war,  assisted  by  Captain  Cook,  in 
revenge  for  an  insult  oftered  to  the  British  flag.  Perhaps. 
Who  knows  ? 

November  \^th.  Rio  de  Janeiro. 


Captain  Cook  lands  at  Botany  Bay. — r.  75. 


VI  SKELETON  ROUTE  75 

January  \Uh,  1769.  Entered  the  Strait  of  Le  Maire. 
The  ship  doubled  Cape  Horn  and  arrived  off  the  western 
end  of  the  Magellan  Strait  in  thirty-three  days,  the  ship 
having  sustained  no  damage. 

Ajpril  10th.  Sighted  Otaheite,  having  on  the  run  from 
Cape  Horn  discovered  several  small  islands,  namely, 
Lagoon  Island,  Thurnel  Cape,  Bow  Island,  The  Groups, 
Bird  Island,  and  Chain  Island. 

Apil  13th.  Anchored  in  Matavai  Bay. 

June  1st.  Transit  of  Venus  successfully  observed. 

July  Idth.  Left  Otaheite  and  cruised  among  the 
islands  of  the  group,  landing  on  those  called  by  Cook 
Huaheine,  Bolabola,  Ulietea,  Otaha,  Tubai,  and  Maurua. 

October  7th.  New  Zealand  sighted.  The  whole  of  the 
coast  of  New  Zealand  was  examined,  the  country  being 
proved  to  consist  of  two  islands,  and  to  form  no  part  of 
the  great  southern  continent.  Six  months  were  given 
to  this  work. 

March  31sf,  1770.  Sailed  from  New  Zealand. 

A^pril  28th.  Anchored  in  Botany  Bay.  Cook  then 
followed  up  the  coast  of  Australia  northward  for  two 
thousand  miles. 

August  25th.  Left  the  coast  of  New  South  Wales  and 
steered  for  the  coast  of  New  Guinea.  Passed  through 
Torres  Strait  and  established  the  fact  that  New  Guinea 
and  New  Holland  are  separate  islands.  Touched  at 
Timor,  Savu,  and  Batavia. 

June  12th,  1771.  Anchored  in  the  Downs. 

The  results  of  this  voyage  have  been  summed  up  as 
follows  by  Cook  himself  in  the  introduction  to  his 
account  of  the  second  voyage. 

I  was  ordered  to  proceed  directly  to  Otaheite,  and  after 


76  CAPTAIN  COOK  chap. 

astronomical  observations  should  be  completed,  to  prosecute 
the  design  of  making  discoveries  in  the  South  Pacific  Ocean 
by  proceeding  to  the  south  as  far  as  lat.  40°;  then  if  I 
found  no  land  to  proceed  to  the  west  between  40°  and  35° 
till  I  fell  in  with  New  Zealand,  which  I  was  to  explore  ; 
and  thence  to  return  to  England  by  such  route  as  I  should 
think  proper. 

In  the  prosecution  of  these  instructions  I  sailed  from 
Deptford  the  30th  July  1768;  from  Plymouth  the  26th 
of  August ;  touched  at  Madeira,  Rio  de  Janeiro,  and  Strait 
Le  Maire,  and  entered  the  South  Pacific  Ocean  by  Cape 
Horn  in  January  the  following  year. 

I  endeavoured  to  make  a  direct  course  to  Otaheite,  and 
in  part  succeeded  ;  but  I  made  no  discovery  till  I  got  within 
the  tropic,  where  I  fell  in  with  Lagoon  Island,  The  Groups, 
Bird  Island,  Chain  Island,  and  on  the  13th  of  April  arrived 
at  Otaheite,  where  I  remained  three  months,  during  which 
time  the  observations  on  the  transit  were  taken. 

I  then  left  it  ;  discovered  and  visited  the  Society  Isles 
and  Ohetoroa  ;  thence  proceeded  to  the  south  till  I  arrived 
in  lat.  40°  22'  S.,  long.  147°  29'  W.,  and  on  the  6th  of 
October  fell  in  with  the  east  side  of  New  Zealand. 

I  continued  exploring  the  coast  of  this  country  till  the 
31st  of  March  1770,  when  I  quitted  it  and  proceeded  to 
New  Holland ;  and  having  surveyed  the  eastern  coast  of  that 
vast  country,  which  part  had  not  before  been  AT.sited,  I  passed 
between  its  northern  extremity  and  New  Guinea,  landed  on 
the  latter,  touched  at  the  island  of  Savu,  Batavia,  Cape  of 
Good  Hope,  and  St.  Helena,  and  arrived  in  England  on  the 
2nd  of  July  1771. 

The  publication  of  tlie  journals  of  this  voyage  was 
looked  for  with  the  greatest  eagerness.  As  might  be 
expected,  the  ofi&cial  narrative  was  anticipated  by  produc- 
tions written  hastily  and  without  the  maps  and  charts. 
One  of  them  was  anonymous,  the  work  of  some  one 
who  had  been  on  board  and  concealed  his  name,  the 
other   was   the   journal  of    Banks's  draughtsman,    Mr. 


VI  THE  JOURNAL  OF  THE   VOYAGE  77 

Sydney  Parkinson,  a  copy  of  which  was  obtained 
surreptitiously.  This,  which  was  enriched  by  Parkin- 
son's drawings,  was  suppressed  by  an  injunction. 
Hawkesworth's  narrative  was  not  published  until  after 
Cook's  departure  for  the  second  voyage.  He  asserts,  no 
doubt  with  perfect  truth,  that  he  submitted  it  to  Cook 
for  perusal  before  he  went  away,  and  to  Banks  before 
publication.  Everything,  it  is  certain,  was  there;  he 
had  omitted  no  incident  either  from  Cook's  or  Banks's 
journals,  but  the  work,  as  it  appeared,  belonged  neither 
to  Cook  nor  to  Banks. 

Apart  from  the  immense  body  of  new  geographical 
work  accomplished  in  the  voyage,  it  is  remarkable  for 
having  led  to  a  more  successful  method  of  treating  that 
terrible  scourge  of  every  voyage  —  scurvy.  We  have 
seen  how  Wallis  treated  it;  in  the  account  of  the 
second  voyage  we  shall  see  how  Cook  treated  it.  But 
on  this,  his  first  voyage,  and  perhaps  his  first  long 
voyage,  unless  we  count  the  passage  of  the  Atlantic  a 
long  voyage,  he  seems  to  have  had  no  experience  of 
scurvy,  and  to  have  taken  no  special  precautions.  The 
experience  of  Byron,  whose  company  suffered  horribly 
from  this  scourge,  could  not  have  been  unknown  to 
him.  Byron  returned  in  1766,  two  years  before  the 
Endeavour  sailed,  and  although  his  journals  had  not 
yet  been  published,  the  Admiralty  had  all  the  informa- 
tion, and  could  hardly  withhold  a  fact  so  important  as 
the  prostration  of  half  the  crew.  iS"othing,  however,  is 
said  of  special  precautions.  Moreover,  very  little  is 
said  about  scu.rvy  during  the  first  part  of  the  voyage,  when 
they  were  seldom,  after  the  six  weeks'  run  from  Cape 
Horn  to  Tahiti,  many  days  from  land.     On  their  return 


78  CAPTAIN  COOK 


voyage,  however,  after  leaving  Batavia,  where  the  whole 
company  seemed  to  have  been  poisoned  hy  the  heat  and  the 
stinks  of  the  place,  scurvy  and  fever  together  fell  upon 
the  crew,  so  that  forty  w^ere  on  the  sick  list.  Out  of 
the  forty  twenty-three  died.  This  dreadful  calamity — 
the  sight  of  all  the  suffering — impressed  Cook  so  much 
that  in  future  we  shall  find  him  taking^  as  much  thou2;ht 
for  the  prevention  of  scurvy  as  for  the  prosecution  of 
the  enterprise  in  hand  ;  and  after  the  second  voyage  he 
was  as  much  congratulated  on  his  success  in  this  respect 
as  on  his  achievements  as  an  explorer  of  unknown  seas. 
The  death  list,  indeed,  was  frightful.  The  astron- 
omer, Charles  Green,  died ;  the  surgeon,  Monkhouse, 
died  ;  the  first  lieutenant.  Hicks,  died ;  among  others 
who  died  were  Sporing  and  Parkinson,  both  of  Banks's 
party  ;  two  midshipmen ;  the  master — "  a  young  man 
of  good  parts,  but  unhappily  given  up  to  intemperance, 
which  brought  on  disorders  that  put  an  end  to  his  life  " ; 
the  boatswain ;  the  carpenter,  his  mate,  and  two  of  his 
crew  ;  the  sailmaker — a  good  old  man  of  seventy,  who 
had  kept  himself  from  fever  in  Batavia  by  getting 
drunk  every  day — and  his  mate  ;  the  corporal  of  marines, 
the  cook,  and  in  all  about  a  dozen  seamen.  This  was  a 
goodly  roll  out  of  a  company  of  eighty.  But  this  was 
the  last  voyage  in  which  scurvy  was  to  demand  such  an 
enormous  proportion  of  \'ictims.  Cook  was  going  to 
prove  the  best  physician  ever  known  in  the  prevention 
of  scurvy.  The  only  tnie  method  of  prevention,  how- 
ever, the  mode  of  preserving  every  variety  of  fresh 
food,  was  not  discovered  for  a  long  time  afterwards. 
Mr.  Clark  Paissell  has  remarked  in  his  Life  of  Dampier 
that  in  those  days  they  over-salted  the  beef  and  pork. 


VI  SCURVY  AND  DEATH  79 

The  remark  is  equally  true  of  the  provisions  served  out 
in  Cook's  time.  They  were  over-salted.  George  Forster, 
of  the  second  voyage,  complains  bitterly  of  the  time 
when  the  private  stores  of  the  officers  and  passengers 
were  exhausted,  and  they  had  to  live  on  the  ship's  pro- 
visions just  like  the  crew.  He  tells  us  how,  every  day, 
the  sight  and  smell  of  the  salt  junk  that  was  served  to 
them  made  them  loathe  their  food,  which,  besides,  was 
so  hard  that  there  w^as  neither  nourishment  nor  flavour 
left  in  it.  Imagine  the  misery,  the  solid  misery,  of 
having  to  live  upon  nothing  but  a  fibrous  mass  of 
highly-salted  animal  matter,  accompanied  by  rotten  and 
weevily  biscuit !  Think  of  this  going  on  day  after  day 
for  a  hundred  days,  and  sometimes  more,  at  a  stretch — 
three  long  months — with  no  bread,  vegetables,  butter, 
or  fruit ;  even  the  water  gone  bad,  and  no  tea,  coffee, 
or  cocoa. 

It  seems  a  slight  to  the  memory  of  Captain  Cook  to 
dismiss  his  first  voyage  with  so  scant  a  notice ;  but, 
indeed.  Dr.  Hawkesworth  has  taken  the  commander  out 
of  the  narrative  so  completely  that  nothing  remains  of 
him  but  a  shadow  who  moves  and  acts ;  we  never  catch 
his  eye,  we  never  hear  him  speak.  As  the  captain, 
so  the  company.  The  followers  of  Captain  Jason  himself, 
or  the  crew  who  threw  Jonah  into  the  waves,  are  hardly 
more  shadowy  than  the  crew  of  the  Endeavour. 

We  may  dismiss  this  first  voyage  with  one  more 
remark.  AVhen  a  voyage  of  discovery  is  sent  out  in 
these  days,  most  places  are  supposed  to  be  so  well 
known  as  to  require  no  detailed  description,  though 
observations  may  be  made  on  points  of  new  or  special 
interest.      This   was  not  so  with  Cook.      He — or  Dr. 


8o  CAPTAIN  COOK  chap. 

Banks,  or  Dr.  Hawkesworth — thinks  it  necessary  to  give 
descriptions  of  every  place  the  ship  visited.  Madeira, 
the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  and  Batavia  require  a  descrip- 
tion almost  as  full  and  complete  as  Otaheite,  New 
Zealand,  and  the  coast  of  New  Holland. 

This  is  fortunate  for  us.  iVIany  things  have  been 
changed  since  then,  especially  in  Batavia,  where,  it  is 
hoped,  they  no  longer  punish  their  malefactors  by  im- 
palement, nor  do  their  ladies  flog  and  torture  their 
female  slaves  out  of  jealousy.  The  colonial  govern- 
ment has  also,  perhaps,  learned  a  little  civility  and 
hospitality ;  and  one  would  like  to  learn  that  they 
have  cleaned  up  the  place  a  little.  But  the  account  of 
that  Dutch  colony  and  that  of  Cape  Town  are  most 
valuable  as  contemporary  pictures  of  a  kind  of  life  now 
passed  away.  Every  one  who  has  endeavoured  to  recon- 
struct life  as  it  was  a  hundred  or  two  hundred  years 
ago  must  know  how  extraordinarily  difficult  it  is  to 
find  records  exact  and  minute.  Cook's,  or  Banks's,  or 
Hawkesworth's  notes  on  Batavia  will  always  be  as  use- 
ful to  one  considering  colonial  ways  in  the  last  century 
as  to  those  who  study  Polynesian  manners,  customs, 
language,  and  tradition  at  the  moment  of  their  discovery. 

Many  stories  told  of  this  voyage  greatly  affected  the 
popular  imagination.  I  have  not  quoted  any  of  them 
for  reasons  already  stated.  The  night  of  terror  and 
freezing  cold  spent  by  Banks  and  his  companions  on  a 
hillside  of  Tierra  del  Fuego  in  the  height  of  the  Ant- 
arctic summer;  the  soft  and  gentle  manners  of  the 
Otaheitans,  whose  ladies,  though  not  so  beautifully 
dressed,  reminded  the  tender-hearted  mariners,  in  many 
particulars,    of    Poll   and   Doll    and    Moll,    those    fair 


VI  THE  POPULAR  IMAGINATION  8i 

maids  of  Point  and  St.  Mary  Street;  the  fierce  New 
Zealanders  ;  the  vast  island  of  New  Holland,  so  thinly 
populated,  bigger,  they  said,  than  the  whole  of  Europe 
(heavens  !  what  treasures  must  be  waiting  in  that  vast 
unexplored  country) ;  the  perils  of  the  Endeavour  among 
the  coral  reefs ;  the  lovely  island  of  Savu  ;  the  luxury, 
the  drunkenness,  the  cruelty,  the  vice,  the  heat,  the 
stinks,  the  fever  of  Batavia — all  these  things  enlarged 
the  narrow  world  and  filled  men  with  wonder  and  de- 
light, so  that  they  held  out  their  hands,  and  with  one 
common  consent  they  called  for  more. 


CHAPTER    YII 

A   BREATHING  SPACE 

Cook  returned  home  on  June  12th,  1771.  In  his 
absence — a  day  or  two  before  he  sailed  out  of  Plymouth 
— a  child  had  been  born  to  him,  but  it  died  in  infancy. 
He  also  learned  that  his  second  child,  Elizabeth,  born 
in  1766,  was  dead.^  E^s  wife  was  li\'ing  at  Mile  End 
Old  Town,  a  name  given  both  to  the  few  scattered 
houses  along  that  part  of  the  Mile  End  Road  where  is 
now  the  People's  Palace,  and  to  the  houses  on  the  east 
side — the  old  side — of  Stepney  Green.  The  house  now 
pointed  out  as  Cook's  is  Xo.  88  Mile  End  Pioad,  a  small 
and  rather  mean  house  at  present,  one  of  a  row  of  shops. 
The  more  respectable  residents  of  the  Mile  End  Road 
were  retired  masters  of  merchant  vessels  or  the  grass 
widows  of  skippers  still  in  active  work. 

It  would  seem,  however,  as  if  there  was  little  leisure 
for  anything  but  business.  He  had  first  to  put  in  order, 
and  to  deliver  to  the  Admiralty,  all  his  notes,  journals,  log- 
books, and  observations,  with  the  drawangs  and  charts. 

^  No  one  who  gets  acquainted  with  the  family  life  of  the  last  cen- 
tiiry  can  avoid  remarking  the  great  number  of  children  who  died.  Thus 
Cook  lost  four  at  least  of  his  brothers  and  sisters  in  childhood.  He 
also  lost  three  out  of  six  of  his  own  children.  Yet  his  brothers  lived 
in  the  healthiest  part  of  England,  and  his  children  in  the  open  country 
a  mile  from  Aldgate.  His  own  constitution  was  of  iron,  and  his  wife 
lived  to  be  more  than  ninety,  so  that  there  was  no  hereditary  weakness. 


CHAP.  VII  PROMOTION  83 

This  done,  he  might  have  sat  down  to  rest  a  while. 
Perhaps  he  did,  but  his  power  of  taking  rest  was  less 
than  that  usually  granted  to  man.  At  all  events,  he 
found  time  to  write  a  paper  for  the  Eoyal  Society,  called 
"An  Account  of  the  Flowing  of  the  Tides  in  the  South  Sea, 
as  observed  on  board  His  Majesty's  Bark,  the  Endeavour." 
This  paper,  as  well  as  one  on  the  Scientific  Eesults  of 
the  Voyage,  was  published  by  the  Society  in  their 
Philosophical  Transaclioris. 

Cook  was  promoted  to  the  rank  of  commander.  He 
hoped,  it  is  said,  to  have  been  made  a  post-captain,  but 
this  was  not  allowed.  To  us  it  seems  a  very  small  thing 
whether  Cook  should  rank  as  a  commander  or  as  a  post- 
captain  ;  the  greatness  of  a  man's  achievement  is  not  to 
be  measured  by  his  promotion,  or  even  by  the  recognition 
of  his  ovm  contemporaries,  though,  in  general,  a  man's  o\^ti 
contemporaries  generally  overestimate  the  achievements 
of  their  leaders — as  boys  at  school  think  the  greatest 
man  m  the  world  is  the  captain  of  their  eleven.  Be- 
sides, there  is  in  every  age  a  fashion  in  the  conferring 
of  rank  and  promotion ;  in  these  days  we  have  seen  the 
greatest  traveller  of  the  age  rewarded  after  he  had 
reached  the  age  of  sixty  with  a  simple  knighthood ;  we 
have  also  seen,  and  it  greatly  increases  our  admiration  for 
the  national  honours,  the  OAvners  of  great  incomes  created 
peers ;  in  those  days  they  reserved  their  peerages  first 
for  the  men  who  defeated  the  French  by  sea  or  land, 
next  for  the  younger  sons  of  noblemen  who  distinguished 
themselves  as  statesmen,  and,  lastly,  for  lawyers.  The 
immeasurable  importance  of  the  gifts  which  Cook  had 
bestowed  upon  his  country  was  such  as  to  require  the 
prophetic  gift — the  supreme  wisdom — to  recognise  it; 


84  CAPTAIN  COOK  chap. 

and  surely  there  was  little  of  that  wisdom  in  the  states- 
men of  1770.  He  had  given  to  his  country  Australia 
and  New  Zealand — nothing  less ;  he  had  given  to  Great 
Britain  Greater  Britain.  If  people  had  only  suspected 
or  guessed  a  thousandth  part  of  what  was  to  come  out 
of  this  voyage,  what  reward  would  have  been  thought 
too  great  % 

Cook  got  no  title,  and,  I  am  quite  certain,  expected  none. 
He  humbly  hoped  to  be  made  a  post-captain,  and  he  had 
to  be  contented  with  a  single  step.  Let  us  hope  that  he 
was  satisfied.  The  man  is  silent ;  we  cannot  tqll  what 
he  hoped,  or  whether  he  was  satisfied  with  what  he  got ; 
there  is  only  one  document  of  his  extant  in  which  he  is 
allowed  to  say  the  word  he  intended,  and  in  that  docu- 
ment he  says  nothing  about  his  hopes  or  his  ambitions. 

He  was  at  home  this  time  for  exactly  a  year.  But  if 
the  beginning  of  his  leave  was  spent  in  preparing  papers 
for  the  Admiralty,  the  end  of  it  was  fully  occupied  in 
preparing  for  another  voyage  to  the  same  regions. 
It  was  a  great  thing  in  those  days  to  have  put  a 
girdle  round  the  earth ;  and  it  was  such  a  painful  and 
laborious  thing,  so  full  of  discomforts  and  anxieties,  that 
there  were  few  who  cared  to  attempt  the  feat  a  second 
time. 

Meantime  the  smouldering  controversy  about  the 
great  southern  continent  began  again  to  rage  vehemently. 
In  1770  appeared  the  first  volume  of  Dalrym pie's  Col- 
lection of  Voyages,  which  started  the  dispute  afresh. 

The  recent  voyage  of  Captain  Cook  had  not,  it  was 
true,  succeeded  in  finding  that  continent ;  on  the  other 
hand,  he  had  not  looked  for  it.  His  discoveries  in  re- 
spect to  New  Holland  and  New  Zealand  did  not  in  the 


VII  THE  SOUTHERN  CONTINENT  85 

least  disprove  its  existence  :  they  only  shifted  the  ground 
where  it  might  lie.  The  believers  in  the  continent 
were  not  in  the  least  degree  disposed  to  surrender  their 
Terra  Australis  Incognita  because  Cook  had  not  found  it. 
Such  a  beautiful  land,  round  which  had  been  woven  so 
many  pleasing  speculations,  was  not  lightly  to  be  aban- 
doned. For  two  hundred  years  the  southern  continent 
had  been  believed  in ;  it  Avill  be  found  laid  down  with 
much  precision  on  many  of  the  old  maps;  wherever 
bits  of  land,  capes,  corners,  and  angles — nay,  even 
islands — were  discovered,  they  were  set  down  on  the 
map  as  part  of  the  great  southern  continent.  Tasman, 
for  instance,  thought  that  the  corner  of  New  Zealand 
discovered  by  himself  belonged  to  it.  Lozier  Bouvet, 
sent  out  by  the  French  East  India  Company  in  1738, 
reported  land  in  lat.  54°  S.  and  long.  11°  E.  This 
land — it  has  never  been  found  by  any  subsequent 
traveller — was  also  concluded  to  be  part  of  the  continent : 
and  early  in  1675  an  English  merchant,  Anthony  La 
Roche,  being  carried  out  of  his  course  by  winds  and 
currents,  fell  in  with  a  coast  now  supposed  to  have  been 
the  island  of  Georgia,  which  was  also  concluded  to  be 
the  southern  continent.  The  discoveries  of  Quiros 
again  pointed  the  same  way.  Given  the  existence  of 
such  a  continent,  and  all  these  discoveries  could  be 
easily  connected  w^ith  it.  In  fact,  they  were,  and  every 
additional  spot  of  land  observed  from  a  ship  driven 
southwards  by  bad  weather  became  an  addition  to  the 
coast  of  the  continent. 

Dr.  Kippis,  Cook's  biographer,  writing  in  the  year 
1788,  thus  speaks  of  this  belief:  "The  writer  of  this 
narrative  fully  remembers  how  much   his  imagination 


86  CAPTAIN  COOK 


was  captivated  in  the  more  early  part  of  his  life  "vvith 
the  hypothesis  of  a  southern  continent.  He  has  often 
dwelt  upon  it  with  rapture,  and  been  highly  delighted 
with  the  authors  who  contended  for  its  existence,  and 
displayed  the  mighty  consequences  which  would  result 
from  its  being  discovered.  Though  his  knowledge  was 
infinitely  exceeded  by  that  of  some  able  men  who  had 
paid  a  particular  attention  to  the  subject,  he  did  not 
come  behind  them  in  the  sanguineness  of  his  hopes  and 
expectations."  In  short,  the  southern  continent  was  a 
thing  which  had  grown  up  in  men's  minds  until,  to 
many  who  thought  and  wrote  about  it,  the  great  un- 
known land  stretched  round  the  whole  of  the  Antarctic 
Pole ;  it  contained  treasures  greater  than  any  which  had 
been  found  in  the  Americas ;  it  was  populated  by  a  race 
highly  civilised,  who  had  acquired  a  knowledge  of  the 
arts ;  it  would  be  a  possession  for  that  European  nation 
which  should  find  and  claim  it  greater  and  richer  than 
were  ever  the  Spanish  dominions  in  the  west.  "Its 
longitude" — see  Dalrymple's  Collection — "is  as  much 
as  that  of  all  Europe,  Asia  Minor,  and  to  the  Caspian 
Sea  and  Persia,  with  all  the  islands  of  the  Mediterranean 
and  Ocean  which  are  in  its  limits  embraced,  including 
England  and  Ireland.  That  unknown  part  is  a  quarter 
of  the  whole  globe,  and  so  capacious  that  it  may  contain 
in  it  double  the  kingdoms  and  provinces  of  all  those  your 
Majesty  is  at  present  lord  of,  and  that  -without  adjoin- 
ing to  Tiu-ks  or  Moors  or  others  of  the  nations  which  are 
accustomed  to  disquiet  and  disturb  their  neighbours." 

Dalrymple,  himself  an  ardent  advocate  of  the  southern 
continent,  thus  dedicates  his  Historical  Collection  of 
Voyages :  "  To  the  man  who,  emulous  of  Magellan  and 


VII  THE  EARL  OF  SANDWICH  87 

the  heroes  of  former  times,  undeterred  by  difficulties, 
and  unseduced  by  pleasure,  shall  persist  through  every 
obstacle,  and  not  by  chance  but  by  virtue  and  good  con- 
duct succeed  in  establishing  an  intercourse  with  a 
Southern  Continent ! " 

The  Earl  of  Sandwich,  at  that  time  the  First  Lord  of 
the  Admiralty,  took  a  great  interest  in  these  questions.  It 
seems  to  have  been  chiefly  due  to  him  that  an  expedition 
was  resolved  upon  which  should  endeavour  to  clear  up 
and  finally  settle  the  controversy  concerning  the  con- 
tinent. How  far  Cook  himself  was  consulted  does  not 
appear.  In  Cook's  own  words  :  "  Soon  after  my  return 
in  the  Endeavour  it  was  resolved  to  equip  two  ships  to 
complete  the  discovery  of  the  Southern  Hemisphere." 
That  he  was  consulted  as  to  the  conduct  and  equipment 
of  the  expedition  is  evident  from  his  introduction  to  the 
second  voyage,  in  which  he  discusses — the  passage  has 
already  been  quoted — the  kind  of  vessel  most  useful  for 
such  a  voyage,  and  shows  that  his  advice  was  acted 
upon. 

It  does  not  appear  that  there  was  ever  any  hesitation 
on  the  part  of  Lord  Sandwich  as  to  the  proper  person 
to  command  the  new  expedition.  I  know  not  where 
Captain  Wallis  was  at  this  time,  or  Captain  Carteret,  but 
both  were  passed  over  and  the  command  was  offered  to 
Cook.     He  accepted  it  without  hesitation. 

The  date  of  his  commission  was  November  28th,  1771. 
The  interval  of  five  months  was  therefore  all  the  time 
he  had  to  bestow  upon  his  family;  and  this  interval, 
as  we  have  seen,  must  have  been  pretty  well  occupied 
with  business  relating  to  the  last  voyage.  From  the  time 
of  his  appointment  he  must  have  been  fully  occupied  -wdth 


CAPTAIN  COOK  chap,  vii 


the  preparations  and  the  equipment  of  his  ships,  so  that 
the  family  at  Mile  End  Old  Town  saw  but  little  of  their 
father.  As  in  the  case  of  the  former  voyage,  a  child  was 
born  a  few  days  after  the  departure  of  the  ships  ;  and, 
as  before,  the  child  died  in  infancy. 

The  disasters  of  the  previous  voyage  caused  Cook  to 
take  many  new  precautions  against  scurvy.  He  put  on 
board  wheat  instead  of  oatmeal,  sugar  instead  of  so  much 
oil,  and  a  quantity  of  malt,  sour-krout,  salted  cabbage, 
portable  broth,  saloop,  rob  of  lemons,  mustard,  marma- 
lade of  carrots,  and  inspissated  juice  of  wort  and  beer. 
Some  of  these  things  were  experimental,  and  failed  to 
produce  any  good  effect.  Others  were  w^ell  known  for 
their  antiscorbutic  properties.  In  fact,  for  the  first  time 
in  the  history  of  navigation  a  carefully  prepared  attempt 
was  to  be  made  in  the  prevention  of  this  disease. 

When  all  was  read}^,  the  ship  sailed  from  Deptford 
on  April  9th,  1772,  but  being  detained  by  east  winds 
got  no  farther  than  "Woolwich,  where  she  lay  for  a  fort- 
night. She  then  dropped  down  to  Longreach,  but  had 
to  put  in  for  repairs  at  Sheerness.  On  June  22nd  she 
sailed  for  Plymouth,  and  finally  quitted  Plymouth  Sound 
on  July  13th. 


CHAPTER   VIII 

THE   SECOND   VOYAGE 

One  opens  the  account  of  the  second  voyage  with  relief 
and  hope.  We  have  done  with  Dr.  Hawkesworth ;  it  is 
true  that  we  have  Dr.  Douglas  in  his  place,  but  the 
second  editor  declares  solemnly  that  he  has  given  the 
very  words  of  the  writer  without  alteration.  This  is 
substantially  true ;  there  may  be  omissions,  but  the 
language  is  never  altered,  nor  shall  we  find  inserted  any 
of  the  "judicious"  observations.  If  anywhere  we  shall 
find  the  man  himself  in  this  journal,  we  shall  hear  his 
voice  and  look  into  his  face  and  read  his  mind.  Cer- 
tainly Cook  was  not  brought  up  in  a  school  which 
encourages  personal  confidences  and  bits  of  autobio- 
graphy ;  we  must  not  expect  too  much ;  but  we  are  all 
human,  and  except  in  a  Royal  Engineer's  report,  which 
is  written  in  the  third  person,  a  man  may  discover  him- 
self even  in  a  ship's  journal  or  a  log-book.  One  may 
even  discern  the  character  of  a  clergyman  from  his 
manner  of  keeping  a  parish  register. 

When  one  reads  this  narrative,  it  is  truly  wonderful 
to  understand  how  any  one  would  have  thought  of  im- 
proving Cook's  style  by  subjecting  it  to  the  handling  of 
Dr.  Hawkesworth.  Whsit  have  balanced  j^eriods,  turgid 
ornaments,  and  becoming  sentiments  to  do  with  Cook's 


90  CAPTAIN  COOK 


plain  unvarnished  narrative  %  Simplicity  and  directness 
never  go  out  of  fashion.  We  read  a  book  of  travels  to 
learn  what  was  observed  and  discovered,  not  to  linger 
over  the  sentences,  caught  by  the  charm  of  the  words 
and  dwelling  on  the  music  of  a  phrase.  Nay,  to  the 
charm  of  literary  style  the  greater  part  of  the  world 
will  always  remain  blind  and  deaf ;  they  read  for  what 
is  told,  not  for  the  way  in  which  it  is  told ;  they  want 
the  story.  The  skilful  artist  may  so  employ  his  charm 
of  language  as  to  make  the  manner  seem  part  and  parcel 
of  the  matter,  but  the  story — the  story  is  everything. 
In  such  a  story  as  Cook  had  to  tell,  the  greatest  sim- 
plicity and  the  most  perfect  directness  are  the  most 
effective  and  the  most  desirable  qualities.  The  reader 
should  have  no  other  thought  than  to  learn  what  he  saw 
and  whither  he  sailed. 

Cook's  own  journal,  then,  is  here  presented  in  his 
own  words.     lie  says  simply  in  his  introduction  : 

And  now  it  may  be  necessary  to  say  that,  as  I  am  on  the 
point  of  sailing  on  a  third  expedition,  I  leave  this  account  of 
my  last  voyage  in  the  hands  of  some  friends,  who,  in  my 
absence,  have  kindly  accepted  the  office  of  correcting  the 
press  for  me  ;  who  are  pleased  to  think  that  what  I  have 
here  to  relate  is  better  to  be  given  in  my  own  words  than  in 
the  words  of  another  person  ;  especially  as  it  is  a  work 
designed  for  information  and  not  merely  for  amusement,  in 
which  it  is  their  opinion  that  candour  and  fidelity  will 
counterbalance  the  want  of  ornament.  I  shall  therefore 
conclude  this,  introductory  discourse  with  desiring  the  reader 
to  excuse  the  inaccuracies  of  style  which  doubtless  he  will 
frequently  meet  with  in  the  following  narrative,  and  that, 
when  such  occur,  he  will  recollect  that  it  is  the  production 
of  a  man  who  has  not  had  the  advantage  of  much  school 
education,  but  who  has  been  constantly  at  sea  from  his 
youth  ;    and   though,    with    the    assistance   of   a    few  good 


VIII  COOK'S  INTRODUCTION  91 


friends,  he  has  passed  through  all  the  stations  belonging  to 
a  seaman,  from  an  apprentice  in  the  coal  trade  to  a  post- 
captain  in  the  Royal  Navy,  he  has  had  no  opportunity  of 
cultivating  letters.  After  this  account  of  myself  the  public 
must  not  expect  from  me  the  elegance  of  a  fine  writer  or  the 
plausibility  of  a  professed  bookmaker,  but  will,  I  hope,  con- 
sider me  as  a  plain  man,  zealously  exerting  himself  in  the 
service  of  his  country,  and  determined  to  give  the  best 
account  he  is  able  of  his  proceedings. 

These  words  are  straightforward,  modest,  and  manly. 
The  writer  is  not  ashamed  of  having  risen  from  the 
lowest  position  possible  on  a  ship ;  on  the  other  hand,  he 
is  prepared  to  maintain  his  o^^ti  ability  to  set  down 
what  he  has  seen  as  plainly  as  if  he  had  had  as  many 
opportunities  of  cultivating  letters  as  the  great  man  who 
was  appointed  to  revise  his  simple  and  direct  account. 

Besides  Cook's  own  account,  we  have  to  illustrate  this 
voyage  a  description  written  by  George  Forster,  younger 
of  the  two  German  naturalists  who  accompanied  the 
expedition,  certain  "  observations  "  by  the  elder  Forster, 
and  the  scientific  results  detailed  by  Wallis  and  Bayley, 
the  two  astronomers. 

Forster's  book,  which  appeared  in  1777,  was  regarded 
as  a  breach  of  confidence.  His  father,  to  whom  he  was 
assistant,  was  sent  out  as  naturalist,  with  general  in- 
structions to  make  observations  of  every  kind.  He  also 
seems  to  have  thought  that  he  would  be  called  upon  to 
write  the  history  of  the  voyage,  to  succeed  the  great 
Hawkesworth.  On  his  return  he  still  imagined  that  he 
would  be  expected  to  do  this,  and  actually  began  it,  but 
found  that  the  captain's  journal  was  to  be  kept  separate 
from  his  own.  Lord  Sandwich,  however,  undertook  to 
present  Cook  and  Forster  -srith  the  plates,  engra\'ed  at 


92  CAPTAIN  COOK  chap. 

the  expense  of  the  Admiralty,  of  all  the  drawings  and 
maps  made  during  the  voyage  to  accompany  the  jour- 
nals ;  and  Forster  was  informed  that  he  would  not  be 
called  upon  to  ^vTite  the  history  of  the  voyage  at  all,  but 
to  send  in  his  observations  as  they  were.  Unless  he 
agreed  to  this,  he  Avould  forfeit  any  share  in  the  profits 
of  the  work.  Here  the  son  saw  his  chance.  He  was 
not  bound,  he  said,  by  any  agreement  which  his  father 
had  made.  He  therefore  wrote  his  own  account  of  the 
voyage,  and,  on  the  whole,  though  somewhat  flowery 
and  exaggerated,  it  is  a  very  good  book  indeed.  The 
Government  and  Capt-ain  Cook,  unfortunately,  took  a 
different  view  of  his  obligations,  and,  it  is  said,  expressed 
these  ^iews  so  strongly  that  the  two  Forsters  found 
that  no  further  appointments  would  be  offered  them,  and 
retired  to  their  native  country,  where  I  know  not  what 
became  of  them.  The  father  is  said  to  have  been  of  a 
turbulent  temper :  the  son  grumbled  throughout  the 
voyage  at  the  loss  of  his  little  comforts  ;  but  Cook  has 
no  word  of  complaint  against  either  of  them,  nor  have 
they  any  other  charge  against  the  captain  than  that  he 
would  persevere  with  the  work  before  him,  though  it 
made  his  people  more  uncomfortable  every  day. 

Two  ships  were  chosen  and  fitted  out  for  this  expedi- 
tion. Both  of  them  were  built  at  Whitby,  on  much  the 
same  lines  as  the  Endearuur.  They  were  at  the  time 
about  fourteen  or  sixteen  months  old.  One  of  them,  the 
Resolution,  was  of  four  hundred  and  sixty -two  tons 
burden ;  the  other,  the  Adventure^  of  three  hundred  and 
thirty -six  tons.  The  former  was  fitted  out  at  Dept- 
ford,  the  latter  at  AVoolwich.  The  Resolution  carried  a 
company  of  one  hundred  and  twelve  men,  the  Adventure 


THE  OUTFIT  93 


eighty-one.  Each  ship  was  provisioned  for  two  years 
and  a  half.  We  have  seen  how,  mindful  of  his  late 
disasters,  Cook  carried  with  him  a  great  quantity  of 
antiscorbutics. 

The  frame  of  a  small  vessel  of  twenty  tons  was  put  on 
board  each  ship,  to  be  put  together  and  to  serve  as 
tenders  on  any  emergency,  such  as  shipwreck.  Both 
ships  were  provided  with  a  quantity  of  things,  such  as 
the  natives  would  like,  for  presents  or  trade.  A  number 
of  medals  were  struck,  on  one  side  the  king's  head,  and 
on  the  other  the  two  ships.     AVarm  clothing  was  laid  in. 

The  scientific  branch  of  the  expedition  was  provided 
for  first,  by  placing  an  astronomer,  provided  by  the 
Board  of  Longitude,  with  proper  instruments  in  each 
ship.  Mr.  Wallis  was  on  the  Resolution^  and  Mr.  Bayley 
on  the  Adventure}  Mr.  AVilliam  Hodges,  a  landscape 
painter,  was  engaged  to  make  draw*ings  and  paintings  of 
places  and  people ;  and  the  two  C4ermans,  John  Reinhold 
Forster  and  his  son  George  Forster,  already  spoken  of, 
were  engaged  as  skilful  in  natural  history. 

As  regards  the  ship's  company,  the  second  and  third 
lieutenants,  the  lieutenant  of  marines,  two  of  the 
warrant  officers,  and  several  of  the  petty  officers  on  the 

^  The  following  is  a  list  of  the  intruments  supplied.     It  may  be 
curious  to  compare  it  with  such  as  would  now  be  supplied. 

A  portable  observatory.  A  dipping  needle. 

Two  astronomical  clocks.  A  marine  barometer. 

A  transit  instrument.  A  wind  gauge. 

An  astronomical  quadrant.  Two  portable  barometers. 

A  reflecting  telescope  of  two  feet  Six  thermometers. 

focal  length.  A  theodolite  with    a    level   and  a 
An   achromatic   refracting    tele-         chain. 

scope  of  three  and  a  half  feet.  An  apparatus  for  testing  the  heat 
Two  Hadley's  sextants.  of    the    sea   water   at    different 

An  azimuth  compass.  depths. 

A  pair  of  globes.  Four  timekeepers. 


94 


CAPTAIN  COOK 


Besolution  had  sailed  \vith  Cook  on  the  Endeavour.  That 
so  many  were  ready  to  go  with  him  again  shews  the 
confidence  they  placed  in  him,  as  -well  as  his  power  of 
attracting  the  affection  of  his  subordinates.  The  captain 
of  the  Adventure,  Tobias  Furneaux,  had  been  Wallis's 
first  lieutenant. 

On  July  13th  the  ships  sailed  from  Plymouth  Sound. 

My  instructions  were  to  make  the  best  of  my  way  to 
the  island  of  Madeira,  there  to  take  in  a  supply  of  wine,  and 
then  proceed  to  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  where  I  was  to 
refresh  the  ships'  companies  and  to  take  on  board  such  pro- 
visions and  necessaries  as  I  might  stand  in  need  of.  After 
lea\ung  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  I  was  to  proceed  to  the 
southward  and  endeavour  to  fall  in  with  Cape  Circumcision, 
which  was  said  by  Monsieur  Bouvet  to  lie  in  lat.  54°  S., 
and  in  about  11°  20'  E.  long,  from  Greenwich.  If  I  dis- 
covered this  cape,  I  was  to  satisfy  myself  whether  it  was  a 
part  of  the  continent  which  had  so  much  engaged  the  atten- 
tion of  geographers  and  former  navigators,  or  a  part  of  an 
island.  If  it  proved  to  be  the  former,  I  was  to  employ  my- 
self diligently  in  exploring  as  great  an  extent  of  it  as  I  could, 
and  to  make  such  notations  thereon,  and  observations  of 
every  kind,  as  might  be  useful  either  to  na^ugation  or  com- 
merce, or  tend  to  the  promotion  of  natural  knowledge.  I 
was  also  directed  to  observe  the  genius,  temper,  disposition, 
and  number  of  the  inhabitants,  if  there  were  any,  and  en- 
deavour by  all  possible  means  to  cultivate  a  friendship  and 
alliance  with  them  ;  making  them  presents  of  such  things  as 
they  might  value,  im-iting  them  to  traffic,  and  sho^\ung  them 
every  kind  of  civiUty  and  regard.  I  was  to  continue  to  employ 
myself  on  this  service,  and  making  discoveries  either  eastward 
or  westward,  as  my  situation  might  render  most  eligible,  keep- 
ing in  as  high  a  latitude  as  I  could,  and  prosecuting  my 
discoveries  as  near  to  the  South  Pole  as  possible,  so  long  as 
the  condition  of  the  ships,  the  health  of  their  crews,  and  the 
state  of  their  provisions  would  admit  of,  taking  care  to  reserve 
as  much  of  the  latter  as  would   enable  me  to  reach  some 


VIII  GENERAL  INSTRUCTIONS  95 

known  port,  where  I  could  procure  a  sufficiency  to  bring  me 
home  to  England.  But  if  Cape  Circumcision  should  proye 
to  be  part  of  an  island  only,  or  if  I  should  not  be  able  to 
find  the  said  cape,  I  was  in  the  first  case  to  make  the 
necessary  survey  of  the  island,  and  then  to  stand  on  to  the 
southward  so  long  as  I  judged  there  was  a  likelihood  of 
falling  in  with  the  continent,  which  I  was  also  to  do  in  the 
latter  case,  and  then  to  proceed  to  the  eastward  in  further 
search  of  the  said  continent,  as  well  as  to  make  discoveries  of 
such  islands  as  might  be  situated  in  that  unexplored  part  of 
the  southern  hemisphere,  keeping  in  high  latitudes,  and  pro- 
secuting my  discoveries  as  above  mentioned  as  near  the  pole 
as  possible,  until  I  had  circumna\dgated  the  globe,  after 
which  I  M'as  to  proceed  to  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  and  from 
thence  to  Spithead. 

In  the  prosecution  of  these  discoveries,  wherever  the 
season  of  the  year  rendered  it  unsafe  for  me  to  continue  in 
high  latitudes,  I  was  to  retire  to  some  known  place  to  the 
northward  to  refresh  my  people  and  refit  the  ships,  and  to 
return  again  to  the  southward  as  soon  as  the  season  of  the 
year  would  admit  of  it.  In  all  unforeseen  cases  I  was 
authorised  to  proceed  according  to  my  own  discretion  ;  and 
in  case  the  Resolution  should  be  lost  or  disabled  I  was  to 
prosecute  the  voyage  on  board  the  Adventure. 

There  is  shown  at  the  Museum  of  Whitby,  besides 
a  boat -yoke  used  by  Cook,  a  so-called  model  of  the 
Resolution.  She  is  a  stout  vessel,  three-masted,  broad  in 
the  beam,  and  built  for  strength  before  speed — one 
understands  only  by  looking  at  her  how  the  ship  took  one 
hundred  and  nine  days  to  get  from  Plymouth  to  Table 
Bay  on  this  voyage,  and  ninety-nine  days  on  the  next. 
Her  figurehead  is  a  black  savage  with  a  spear  and  shield ; 
she  has  no  bulwarks,  but — this  detail  is  clearly  wrong 
— a  strong  timber  railing  runs  round  her,  leaving  her 
totally  unprotected  from  the  breaking  of  seas  over  her, 
which,  therefore,  would  sweep  her  clean  as  they  now  do 


96  CAPTAIN  COOK  chap. 

on  the  Atlantic  steamers ;  there  is  no  waist  and  no  high 
stern;  her  upper  deck  is  nearly  flush,  the  quarter-deck 
being  raised  about  a  foot ;  there  are  no  cabins  or  rooms 
on  the  upper  deck ;  and  there  is  no  kind  of  protection  for 
the  sailors,  so  that  in  rough  weather  no  one  except  the 
watch  would  be  able  to  go  on  deck  at  all.  A  hatchway- 
forward  and  another  aft  lead  down  to  the  main  deck,  on 
which  were  placed  and  worked  the  twenty-six  guns  for 
which  she  was  pierced.  It  appears,  however,  that  the 
model  is  inaccurate,  because  the  Resolution  carried  no 
more  than  twelve,  and  was  only  pierced  for  sixteen.  On 
the  main  deck  also  must  have  been  the  workshops,  as  well 
as  the  mess  tables,  the  officers'  cabins,  and  the  captain's 
room.  Perhaps  the  men  slung  their  hammocks  here  as 
well.  The  masts,  if  the  model  is  faithful,  Avere  thick  and 
stout,  and  so  were  the  yards.  One  thinks  of  the  company 
on  board  this  little  vessel, — one  hundred  and  twelve  men 
all  cooped  up  in  this  narrow  space  for  a  three  years* 
voyage;  there  were,  besides,  live  stock  on  board  in 
great  numbers  to  be  landed  on  the  islands — bulls,  cows, 
rams,  ewes,  goats,  fowls.  Great  indeed  was  the  courage 
of  our  grandfathers.  Smollett  has  shown  us  how  they 
lived  down  below  in  the  darkness  and  the  stench  without 
too  much  grumbling ;  but  Roderick  Random's  ship  was 
not  provisioned  for  two  years,  nor  did  it  carry  bulls  and 
cows  and  sheep  and  goats.  Any  one  who  has  ever  seen 
a  cattle-boat  will  appreciate  the  power  of  these  innocent 
creatures  to  create  for  the  sailors  a  special  kind  of 
misery.  Perhaps  in  warm  soft  climates,  when  the  ports 
were  open  and  the  trade  breeze  blew  gratefully  through 
and  through  the  ship,  the  men's  quarters  were  fresh 
and  sweet ;  but  when  she  was  plying  painfully  among 


VIII  FORSTER'S  ACCOUNT  97 

the  ice-fields  of  the  southern  sea ;  when  the  ports  were 
closed  and  the  icy  breath  of  the  south  drove  the  men 
below ;  when  the  sails  were  sheets  of  frozen  canvas,  and 
every  rope  was  covered  with  a  thin  sheathing  of  ice; 
then  .  .  .  but  the  crews  were  accustomed  to  discomfort ; 
it  was  only  the  landsmen  on  board  who  made  complaint. 

We  will  follow  this  voyage  with  the  help  of  Mr. 
George  Forster's  book  rather  than  that  of  the  captain's 
journal,  which  everybody  has  read.  It  is  a  book  in 
which  we  hear  something  of  the  daily  talk  among  the 
passengers,  if  not  among  the  crew ;  there  are  details  in  it 
which  were  below  the  dignity  of  the  captain's  journals ; 
we  see  how  those  on  board  liked  it  who  had  no  en- 
thusiasm for  the  great  southern  continent. 

Julxj  13ih,  1772.  Sailed  from  Plymouth  Sound. 
Touched  at  Port  Praya  in  the  island  of  St.  Jago. 

October  dOth—JVovember  22nd.  Table  Bay.  Here  Herr 
Sparrman,  botanist,  and  pupil  of  the  great  Linne,  joined 
the  expedition. 

On  leaving  the  Cape  the  men  were  served  out  jackets 
and  trousers  of  stout  flannel  called  fearnought.  Orders 
were  given  not  to  waste  the  water,  and  everybody  had 
to  Avash  in  salt  water.  Forster  also  mentions  the  dis- 
comfort caused  by  the  rough  weather,  which  they  got 
here  for  the  first  time.  On  December  10th  they  sighted 
the  ice.  They  were  now  in  the  longitude  assigned  by 
Bouvet  to  the  headland  which  he  claimed  to  have  seen 
and  named  Cape  Circumcision,  but  their  latitude  was 
ninety-five  miles  south  of  his.  So  that  if  they  sailed 
over  the  land  south  of  that  cape,  it  could  not  very  well 
belong  to  a  continent.    This,  in  fact,  they  afterwards  did. 

For  six  weeks  the  ships  sailed  among  icebergs,  getting 

H 


CAPTAIN  COOK  chap. 


south  whenever  an  opening  appeared.  Two  or  three 
cases  of  scurvy  were  declared  and  cured  by  copious 
doses  of  fresh  wort.  The  crews  also  took  sour-krout 
every  day  and  had  portable  broth.  Christmas  Day  was 
spent,  Forster  tells  us,  with  the  usual  cheerfulness  by 
the  officers  and  passengers,  and  by  the  sailors  "with 
savage  noise  and  drunkenness,  to  which  they  seem  to 
have  particularly  devoted  the  day."  The  naturalist  was 
greatly  affected  by  the  situation  in  which  he  found  him- 
self. He  speaks  of  "  the  gloomy  uniformity  with  which 
we  slowly  passed  dull  hours,  days,  and  months,  in  this 
desolate  part  of  the  world.  We  were  almost  perpetually 
wrapped  in  thick  fogs,  beaten  with  showers  of  rain,  sleet, 
hail,  and  snow,  surrounded  by  innumerable  islands  of 
ice,  against  which  we  daily  ran  the  risk  of  being  ship- 
wrecked, and  forced  to  live  upon  salt  provisions,  which 
concurred  with  the  cold  and  wet  to  infect  the  mass  of 
our  blood." 

The  captain  mentions  the  fog  and  sleet,  and  notes 
that  the  rigging  was  ornamented  with  icicles,  but  he 
says  nothing  about  the  dull  hours  ;  and  what  with  M'atch- 
ing  the  ice,  sending  out  boats  to  look  for  openings, 
making  experiments  with  his  antiscorbutics,  and  calcu- 
lating longitudes,  he  seems  to  have  found  the  time  any- 
thing but  dull. 

At  last,  however,  being  in  lat.  67°  15'  S.,  to  Forster's 
great  joy  they  came  upon  such  an  immense  field  of  ice 
that  the  captain  concluded  to  try  no  more  that  season 
and  steered  north.  "  Very  natural,"  says  Forster, 
"  that  our  people,  exhausted  by  fatigues  and  the  want 
of  wholesome  food,  should  wish  for  a  place  of  refresh- 
ment, and  rejoice  to  leave  a  part  of  the  world  where 


The  Resolution  in  the  Antarctic  Ocean. — r.  98. 


VIII  FORSTER'S  SUFFERINGS  99 

they  could  not  expect  to  meet  with  it."  He  says  that 
there  were  now  a  good  many  cases  of  scurvy  on  board. 
The  captain,  on  the  contrary,  says  that  there  was  but 
one — he  means,  of  course,  one  case  of  importance. 

"Thus  ended,"  says  Forster,  when  the  ship  arrived  at 
New  Zealand,  "  our  first  cruise  in  the  high  southern 
latitudes.  .  .  .  Our  whole  course  from  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope  to  New  Zealand  was  a  series  of  hardships  which 
had  never  been  experienced  before.  All  the  disagree- 
able circumstances  of  the  sails  and  rigging  shattered  to 
pieces,  the  vessel  rolling  gunwale  to,  and  her  upper 
works  torn  by  the  violence  of  the  strain.  .  .  .  We  had 
the  perpetual  severities  of  a  rigorous  climate  to  cope 
with.  Our  seamen  and  officers  were  exposed  to  rain, 
sleet,  hail,  and  snow;  our  rigging  was  constantly  en- 
crusted with  ice,  which  cut  the  hands  of  those  who  were 
obliged  to  touch  it ;  our  provision  of  fresh  water  was  to 
be  collected  in  lumps  of  ice  floating  on  the  sea,  when  the 
cold  and  the  saline  element  alternately  numbed  and 
scarified  our  sailors'  hands ; "  and  so  on.  In  fact,  the 
ship  had  sailed  into  the  Antarctic  Ocean.  The  discom- 
forts which  the  landsman  exaggerates  into  miseries  were 
hardly  noticed  by  the  sailors.  The  voyage  was  danger- 
ous, but  not  more  disagreeable  than  Cook  had  so  often 
experienced,  for  fog,  sleet,  and  snow  off  the  coast  of 
Labrador.  And  as  for  the  cold  of  w^hich  Forster  com- 
plains so  much,  the  thermometer  hardly  ever  sank  below 
freezing  point.  But  this  author's  main  object  was  to 
write  up  the  dangers  and  the  miseries  he  had  experi- 
enced. Everything  was  exaggerated  with  the  view  of 
effect. 

March  26th,  1773.  After   a    run  of  three  thousand 


lOO  CAPTAIN  COOK  chap. 

five  hundred  leagues  and  a  hundred  and  twenty-two 
days  the  sliip  put  in  at  Dusky  Bay,  New  Zealand. 
Here  they  made  tea — and  a  kind  of  beer — from  the 
leaves  of  a  shrub  of  the  myrtle  kind.  Cook  surveyed 
the  coasts  of  New  Zealand  till  June  7th,  meeting  his 
consort  the  Adventure^  from  which  they  had  been  parted 
after  leaving  the  Cape  in  Queen  Charlotte  Sound. 
Forster's  account  of  New  Zealand  and  the  people  is 
highly  picturesque  and  pleasing. 

Jiiae  Itli.  Sailed  for  Otaheite.  On  the  way  scurvy 
broke  out  on  board  the  Adventure.  Sighted  several  small 
islands.  Arrived  at  Otaheite  on  August  16th.  Forster 
gives  his  pen  a  fuller  freedom  over  this  delightful  island. 
At  their  approach  "faint  breezes  wafted  delicious  per- 
fumes from  the  land  and  curled  the  surface  of  the  sea. 
The  mountains  rose  majestic  in  various  spiry  forms. 
Everything  seemed  as  yet  asleep,  the  morning  scarce 
dawned,  and  a  peaceful  shade  still  rested  in  the  land- 
scape." Never,  surely,  has  any  island  been  more 
described  than  Otaheite.  The  most  important  part  of 
Wallis's  narrative  is  that  given  to  Otaheite.  There  are 
at  least  four  long  sections  in  Cook's  three  voyages  de- 
voted to  this  island.  Forster  exhausts  himself  over  it. 
Gilbert,  to  whom  we  shall  presently  come,  can  find  no 
words  to  express  his  admiration  of  the  place  and  the 
people.  What  is  more  remarkable  is  the  fact  that  every 
one  of  these  accounts  is  sej^arately  and  individually 
interesting.  They  supplement  each  other.  The  follow- 
ing general  account  of  the  people  by  Forster  seems  to 
represent  the  emotion  of  the  writer  in  recalling  a  fond 
memory  of  the  dehghtful  place  he  would  never  be  privi- 
leged to  visit  again.     Scientifically,  it  is  vague. 


THE  OTAHEITANS 


The  men  are  all  well  proportioned,  and  some  wonld  have 
been  selected  by  Phidias  or  Praxiteles  as  models  of  masculine 
beauty.  Their  features  are  sweet  and  unruffled  by  violent 
passions.  Their  large  eyes,  their  arched  eyebrows,  and  high 
forehead  give  a  noble  air  to  their  heads,  which  are  adorned 
by  strong  beards  and  a  comely  growth  of  hair.  The  Sex,  the 
partners  of  their  felicity,  are  likewise  well  formed  ;  their 
irregular  charms  win  the  heart  of  their  countrymen,  and 
their  unaffected  smiles,  and  a  wish  to  please,  ensure  them 
mutual  esteem  and  love.  A  kind  of  happy  uniformity  runs 
through  the  whole  life  of  the  Taheitians.  They  rise  with 
the  sun,  and  hasten  to  rivers  and  fountains  to  perform  an 
ablution  equally  reviving  and  cleanly.  They  pass  the  morn- 
ing at  work,  or  walk  about  till  the  heat  of  the  day  increases, 
when  they  retreat  to  their  dwellings  or  repose  under  some 
tufted  tree.  There  they  amuse  themselves  with  smoothing 
their  hair  and  anoint  it  with  fragrant  oils ;  or  they  blow  the 
flute  and  sing  to  it,  or  listen  to  the  song  of  the  birds.  At  the 
hour  of  noon,  or  a  little  later,  they  go  to  dinner.  After 
their  meals  they  resume  their  domestic  amusements,  during 
which  the  flame  of  mutual  afi"ection  spreads  in  every  heart, 
and  unites  the  rising  generation  with  new  and  tender  ties. 
The  lively  jest  without  any  ill-nature,  the  artless  tale,  the 
jocund  dance,  and  frugal  supper  bring  in  the  evening,  and 
another  visit  to  the  river  concludes  the  actions  of  the  day. 
Thus  contented  with  their  simple  way  of  life,  and  jDlaced  in 
a  delightful  country,  they  are  free  from  cares  and  happy  in 
their  ignorance, 

'  •  Ihr  Leben  fliesset  verborgen 
"Wie  klare  Bache  durch  Blumen  dahin." 

^ej)t.  \si.  Left  Otaheitc.  Cruised  among  the  other 
islands  of  the  group.  Discovered  Hervey's  Islands. 
Visited  Middleburg  and  Amsterdam. 

Nov.  3rd.  Arrived  again  at  Queen  Charlotte  Sound. 

Nov.  26th.  Sailed  from  New  Zealand  on  the  second 
voyage  into  the  Antarctic  Ocean.  The  captain's  account 
of  this  voyage  reads  as  if  everything  w^as  as  comfortable 


102  CAPTAIN  COOK  chap. 


and  everybody  as  cheerful  as  could  be  desired.  Alas  ! 
to  Forster  and  his  father,  and  perhaps  the  learned  Dr. 
Sparrman,  things  looked  very  different.  There  was  on 
board,  he  admits,  little  scurvy,  and  everybody  drank 
quantities  of  the  fresh  wort.  On  the  other  hand,  there 
was  a  general  languor  and  a  sickly  look  on  every 
person's  countenance,  "  which  threatened  us  with  more 
dangerous  consequences "  —  evidently  he  was  one  of 
those  who  are  always  thinking  of  the  more  dangerous 
consequences.  "  Captain  Cook  himself  was  likewise 
pale  and  lean  and  entirely  lost  his  appetite."  His 
father,  with  twelve  others  on  board,  was  afflicted  with 
rheumatic  pains.  "Our  situation  at  present" — see  how 
a  sailor  will  hide  the  truth — the  captain  says  nothing  of 
these  dreadful  things — "was  indeed  very  dismal  even  to 
those  who  preserved  the  blessing  of  health  ;  to  the  sick, 
whose  crippled  limbs  were  tortured  with  excessive 
pain,  it  was  insupportable.  The  ocean  about  us  had  a 
furious  aspect,  and  seemed  incensed  at  the  presumption 
of  a  few  intruding  mortals.  A  gloomy  melancholy  air 
loured  on  the  brows  of  our  shipmates,  and  a  dreadful 
silence  reigned  amongst  us.  Salt  meat,  our  constant 
diet,  was  become  loathsome  to  all,  even  to  those  who 
had  been  bred  to  a  nautical  life  from  their  tenderest 
years.  The  hour  of  dinner  was  hateful  to  us.  .  .  .  The 
captain  seemed  to  recover  as  we  advanced  to  the  southioardy 
The  italics  are  mine. 

On  January  30th,  1774,  they  reached  in  lat.  71°  10'  S., 
long.  10G°  54'  W.,  for  the  second  time,  the  great 
southern  wall  of  ice.  I  do  not  know  whether  any 
better  description  exists  of  this  barrier  than  the  fol- 
lowing, written  by  the  captain  himself. 


VIII  THE  SOUTHERN  ICE  103 

On  the  30th,  at  four  o'clock  in  the  morning,  we  per- 
ceived the  clouds,  over  the  horizon  to  the  south,  to  be  of  an 
unusual  snow-white  brightness,  which  we  knew  announced 
our  approach  to  field  ice.  Soon  after  it  was  seen  from  the 
topmasthead,  and  at  eight  o'clock  we  were  close  to  its  edge. 
It  extended  east  and  west  far  beyond  the  reach  of  our  sight. 
In  the  situation  we  were  in,  just  the  southern  half  of  our 
horizon  was  illuminated  by  the  rays  of  light  reflected  from 
the  ice  to  a  considerable  height.  Ninety-seven  ice  hills  were 
distinctly  seen  within  the  field,  besides  those  on  the  outside 
— many  of  them  very  large,  and  looking  like  a  ridge  of  moun- 
tains rising  one  above  another  till  they  were  lost  in  the 
clouds.  The  outer  or  northern  edge  of  this  immense  field 
was  composed  of  loose  or  broken  ice  close  packed  together, 
so  that  it  was  not  possible  for  anything  to  enter  it.  This 
was  about  a  mile  broad,  within  which  was  solid  ice  in  one 
continued  compact  body.  It  was  rather  low  and  flat  (except 
the  hills),  but  seemed  to  increase  in  height  as  you  traced  it 
to  the  south,  in  which  direction  it  extended  beyond  our 
sight.  Such  mountains  of  ice  as  these,  I  think,  were  never 
seen  in  the  Greenland  seas,  at  least  not  that  I  ever  heard  or 
read  of,  so  that  we  cannot  draw  a  comparison  between  the 
ice  here  and  there.  It  must  be  allowed  that  these  prodigious 
ice  mountains  must  add  such  additional  weight  to  the  ice 
fields  which  enclose  them  as  cannot  but  make  a  great  differ- 
ence between  the  navigating  this  icy  sea  and  that  of  Green- 
land. 

I  will  not  say  that  it  was  impossible  anpvhere  to  get 
farther  to  the  south  ;  but  attempting  it  would  have  been 
a  dangerous  and  rash  enterprise,  and  which,  I  believe,  no 
man  in  my  situation  would  have  thought  of.  It  was,  indeed, 
my  opinion,  as  well  as  the  opinion  of  most  on  board,  that  this 
ice  extended  quite  to  the  pole,  or  perhaps  joined  on  some  land 
to  which  it  had  been  fixed  from  the  earliest  time,  and  that 
it  is  here,  that  is,  to  the  south  of  this  parallel,  where  all  the 
ice  we  find  scattered  up  and  down  to  tjie  north  is  first 
formed,  and  afterwards  broken  off  by  gales  of  wind  or 
other  causes  and  brought  to  the  north  by  the  currents,  which 
are  always  found  to  set  in  that  direction  in  high  latitudes. 
As   we   drew  near  this  ice  some  penguins  were  heard  but 


I04  CAPTAIN  COOK  chap. 

none  seen  ;  and  but  few  other  birds,  or  anything  that  could 
induce  us  to  think  any  land  was  near.  And  yet  I  think 
that  there  must  be  some  to  the  south  behind  this  ice  ;  but  if 
there  is,  it  can  afford  no  better  retreat  for  birds  or  any  other 
animals  than  the  ice  itself,  with  which  it  must  be  wholly 
covered.  I,  who  had  ambition  not  only  to  go  farther  than 
any  one  had  been  before,  but  as  far  as  it  was  possible  for 
man  to  go,  was  not  sorry  at  meeting  with  this  interruption, 
as  it  in  some  measure  relieved  us,  at  least  shortened  the 
dangers  and  hardships  inseparable  from  the  navigation  of  the 
southern  polar  regions.  Since,  therefore,  we  could  not 
proceed  one  inch  farther  to  the  south,  no  other  reason 
need  be  assigned  for  my  tacking  and  standing  back  to  the 
north. 

They  therefore  steered  north,  the  captain's  inten- 
tion being  to  fix  the  longitude  of  Juan  Fernandez,  and 
to  visit  Davis  Land  or  Easter  Island.  On  the  way 
he  fell  ill  of  what  he  calls  a  bilious  colic.  After  his 
fashion  he  disposes  of  this  little  event  in  a  dozen  lines. 
Forster,  however,  makes  a  great  deal  more  of  it,  and 
despite  his  tendency  to  "write  up"  everything,  shows  very 
clearly  that  the  captain,  tough  as  he  w^as,  was  sick  nigh 
unto  death.  In  order  to  give  him  what  was  most  neces- 
sary for  his  recovery  a  dog  was  killed,  and  a  broth  of 
the  fresh  meat  made  for  him.  The  illness  of  the  cap- 
tain was  followed  by  that  of  the  doctor,  but  fortunately 
Easter  Island  was  reached,  and  fresh  food  was  procured 
again.  This  interesting  place,  with  its  curious  sculp- 
tures, some  of  which  are  now  in  the  British  Museum, 
is  described  very  well  both  by  Cook  himself  and  by 
Forster. 

Leaving  Easter  Island  the  ships  visited  the  Mar- 
quesas, whose  position  Cook  desired  to  fix ;  discovered 
Hood's    Island   and   Palliser's   Island,  and  once    more 


NEW  ISLANDS  105 


arrived  at  Otaheite,  to  the  renewed  joy  of  all  on  board. 
Forster,  who  was  classical,  exclaimed — 

"  Ille  terrarnm  mihi  prseter  omnes 
Angiilus  ridet." 

And  the  old  free  and  easy  life  which  the  captain  made 
no  attempt  to  restrain  began  again,  insomuch  that,  as 
Forster  says,  '  they  resembled  the  happy  indolent  people 
whom  Ulysses  found  in  Phseacia,  and  could  apply  the 
poet's  lines  to  themselves  with  peculiar  propriety — 

*  To  dress,  to  dance,  to  sing,  our  sole  delight, 
The  feast  or  bath  by  day,  and  love  by  night.' " 

On  May  1 5th,  1774,  they  left  this  earthly  Paradise.  In 
the  course  of  this  voyage  they  visited  Huaheine,  Howe 
Island,  Rotterdam  or  Annamooka,  discovered  by  Tasman, 
and  discovered  Palmerston  Island,  Savage  Island,  Malli- 
collo,  Shepherd's  Islands,  the  Sandwich  Islands,  Erro- 
mango,  Tanna  Island,  New  Caledonia,  of  which  they 
explored  the  south-west  coast,  and  Norfolk  Island — a 
very  considerable  and  memorable  voyage  by  itself,  the 
particulars  of  which  will  be  found  in  the  narrative. 

On  October  17th  they  sighted  New  Zealand.  On 
November  10th  they  sailed  from  New  Zealand,  and 
continued  without  seeing  any  land  till  December  17th. 

After  giving  three  weeks  to  the  examination  of 
Staten  Land  and  the  islands  around  it  Cook  sailed  on 
his  third  and  last  attempt  to  find  the  southern  conti- 
nent, though  with  no  thought  of  finding  it.  He  did  not 
find  it ;  he  discovered  the  island  of  Georgia  covered 
over,  in  the  middle  of  the  Antarctic  summer,  with  ice 
and  snow ;  he  also  observed  certain  headlands,  and 
found  an  islet  or  two.     Then,   as  on  the  two  previous 


io6  CAPTAIN  COOK 


occasions,  Cook  consented  to  return  northwards  when 
he  could  get  no  farther  south. 

He  had  now  completely  circumnavigated  the  globe 
in  or  near  the  Antarctic  circle.  He  had  traversed  the 
southern  ocean  in  all  directions  and  had  found  no 
southern  continent  anywhere.  He  now  returned  to 
the  Cape,  and  so  home,  well  satisfied,  we  may  suppose, 
Avith  his  success. 

Looking  into  Forster  for  the  humbler  details,  we  find 
that  during  the  whole  of  the  last  run  the  crew  lived  chiefly 
on  the  fish  which  they  had  salted  at  New  Zealand.  The 
salt  beef  and  pork  were  so  universally  loathed,  that 
even  the  captain  himself  declared  he  should  never 
again  eat  it  "vvith  any  degree  of  satisfaction.  The 
sour-krout  continued  to  be  used,  and  the  wort  was  still 
taken  as  a  preventive.  But  early  in  February  1775 
the  sour-krout  was  finished,  fortunately  not  long  before 
the  end  of  the  southern  exploration.  On  the  morning 
of  Sunday,  July  30th,  1775,  the  ships  dropped  anchor  at 
Spithead. 

It  doth  not  become  me  (Cook  sums  up)  to  say  how 
far  the  principal  objects  of  our  voyage  have  been  obtained. 
Though  it  hath  not  abounded  with  remarkable  events,  nor 
been  diversified  by  sudden  transitions  of  fortune,  though  my 
relation  of  it  has  been  more  employed  in  tracing  our  course 
by  sea  than  in  recording  our  observations  ou  shore,  this, 
perhaps,  is  a  circumstance  from  which  the  curious  reader 
may  infer  that  the  purposes  for  which  we  were  sent  into  the 
Southern  Hemisphere  were  diligently  and  effectually  pur- 
sued. Had  Ave  found  out  a  continent  there  we  might  have 
been  better  enabled  to  gratify  curiosity  ;  but  we  hope  our 
not  having  found  it,  after  all  our  persevering  researches,  will 
leave  less  room  for  future  specidations  about  unknown  worlds 
remaining  to  be  explored. 


CONCLUSION  107 


These  are  modest  words.  Let  us  see  what  Forster 
says  in  conclusion. 

Thus,  after  escaping  innumerable  dangers  and  suffering 
a  long  series  of  hardships,  we  happily  completed  a  voyage 
that  lasted  three  years  and  sixteen  days,  in  the  course  of 
which,  it  is  computed,  we  ran  over  a  greater  space  of  sea 
than  any  ship  ever  did  before  us  ;  since,  taking  all  our 
tracks  together,  they  form  more  than  thrice  the  circumfer- 
ence of  the  globe.  We  were  likewise  fortunate  enough  to 
lose  only  four  men — three  of  whom  died  by  accident,  and 
one  by  a  disease  which  would  perhaps  have  brought  him 
to  the  grave  much  sooner  had  he  continued  in  England. 
The  principal  view  of  our  expedition,  the  travel  after  a 
Southern  Continent  within  the  bounds  of  the  temperate  zone, 
was  fulfilled.  AVe  had  even  searched  the  frozen  seas  of  the 
opposite  hemisphere,  within  the  Antarctic  circle,  without 
meeting  with  the  vast  tract  of  land  which  had  formerly  been 
supposed  to  exist.  At  the  same  time  we  made  another  dis- 
covery important  to  science,  that  nature  forms  great  masses  of 
ice  in  the  midst  of  the  wide  ocean,  which  are  destitute  of  any 
saline  particles,  but  have  all  the  useful  and  salubrious  proper- 
ties of  the  pure  element.  At  other  seasons  we  explored  the 
Pacific  Ocean  between  the  tropics  and  in  the  temperate  zone, 
and  then  furnished  geographers  with  new  islands,  naturalists 
with  plants  and  birds,  and,  above  all,  the  friends  of  mankind 
with  various  modifications  of  human  nature. 


CHAPTER  IX 

LAST   STAY   AT   HOME 

Cook  was  now  at  home  again  for  the  last  time.  A 
simple  sum  in  addition  shows  that  though  he  was 
married  for  nearly  seventeen  years,  his  whole  resi- 
dence at  home  amounted  to  no  more  than  four  years 
and  four  months,  out  of  which  must  be  deducted  the 
time  necessary  for  the  outfit  of  his  vessel  and  all  the 
business  of  preparing  his  expeditions. 

In  his  public  capacity,  however,  on  his  return  from 
the  second  voyage  he  received  all  the  honours  which 
it  was  the  fashion  of  the  time  to  bestow.  In  these 
days  he  v/ould  have  been  made  rear  -  admiral  and 
K.C.B, — perhaps  G.C.B.  He  would  have  been  presented 
to  the  Queen,  he  would  have  read  a  paper  at  the  Royal 
Geograjihical  Society,  he  would  have  been  the  lion  of 
the  season,  he  would  have  been  invited  to  take  the  chair 
at  a  hundred  meetings,  he  would  also  have  been  implored 
by  the  editors  of  all  the  magazines  to  contribute  an 
article,  and  after  sending  in  his  official  report  to  Govern- 
ment, he  would  have  dra-\\Ti  up  a  narrative  of  his  voyage 
to  be  published  on  his  own  account,  out  of  which  he 
would  have  made  a  considerable  sum  of  money.  A 
hundred  years  ago  simpler  methods  obtained.  This 
man,  who  had  done  for  geography  and  seamanship  more 


CHAP.  IX  F.R.S.  109 

in  his  voj'ages  than  any  other  man  who  ever  lived  since 
Cokimbus,  was  promoted  to  the  rank  of  post-captain  ; 
he  was  also  appointed  a  captain  in  Greenwich  Hospital, 
a  post  w^hich  provided  for  him  a  retreat  for  life  if  he 
pleased  to  remain  there. 

He  was  also  elected  Fellow  of  the  Royal  Society  in 
February  1776.  On  the  day  of  his  election  two  papers 
of  his,  communicated  to  the  president,  Sir  John  Pringle, 
were  read  to  the  Society.  One  of  these  was  on  the 
action  of  the  tides  along  the  east  coast  of  New  Holland, 
the  other  on  the  preservation  of  the  health  of  the  crew 
on  long  voyages.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the 
successful  prosecution  of  this  voyage  raised  Cook  to  a 
position  of  the  highest  respect  in  his  own  country, 
where  a  man  so  seldom  becomes  a  prophet.  In  other 
countries,  at  least  in  France,  Holland,  Spain,  and  Russia, 
he  was  regarded  as  the  greatest  navigator  of  all  time. 
It  is  significant  of  the  general  feeling  that  the  gold 
medal  of  the  Royal  Society,  which  is  annually  awarded 
to  the  best  experimental  research  of  the  year,  w^as  in  1776 
bestowed  upon  Captain  Cook  for  his  paper  on  the  pre- 
servation of  the  sailors  from  scurvy.  On  the  day  of  pre- 
sentation he  had  already  sailed.  He  doubtless  knew  that 
the  honour  was  intended  for  him  ;  he  could  not  hear  the 
oration  which  the  president  pronounced  upon  the  occasion. 

Cook  was  now  in  the  forty-eighth  year  of  his  age ; 
he  had  been  2^  sea  for  thirty-four  years.  This  is  a  long 
time  of  service.  No  man  under  fifty  had  worked 
harder ;  no  living  man  had  achieved  so  much  ;  other 
men  had  been  shipwrecked  and  cast  away ;  plenty  of 
men  had  encountered  perils  of  every  kind ;  none  so 
many  perils  or  so  various  as  Captain  Cook.     He  might 


no  CAPTAIN  COOK  chap. 

have  hung  up  his  oar ;  there  was  a  safe  haven  in  which 
he  might  rest  without  loss  of  honour,  or  without  incur- 
ring the  slightest  blame  or  the  least  imputation  upon 
his  courage.  He  had  done  enough.  As  for  what  might 
remain  of  life,  he  could  have  spent  it  blamelessly  in  the 
snug  retreat  of  Greenwich  Hospital  with  his  wife  and 
children ;  he  would  have  awaited  the  approach  of  age 
with  a  serene  conscience,  as  one  who  had  run  a  good 
race  and  fought  a  good  fight.  He  could  have  walked 
upon  the  terrace  and  seen  the  ships  go  up  and  do^vn — 
the  king's  ships  sailing  out  on  a  new  voyage  of  discovery 
to  encounter  the  coral  reefs  of  New  Holland  and  the 
hurricane  of  the  tropics  and  the  ice-fields  of  the  Arctic 
or  Antarctic  circles.  It  would  have  reminded  him  of 
his  own  two  voyages.  Then  he  would  have  told  the 
old  tales  agjain,  and  recalled  the  soft  airs  and  srentle  folk 
of  far-away  Tahiti.  Why  could  he  not  sit  down  and 
rest  %  Besides,  he  was  now  a  great  gentleman,  a  post- 
captain  in  the  Royal  i^avy, — he  who  had  once  been  the 
collier's  ship-boy,  everybody's  servant,  cuffed  and  kicked 
and  ordered  about  by  every  common  sailor  in  the  vessel, 
— he  who  had  been  born  in  the  farm  labourer's  cottage, 
and  been  taught  the  criss-cross  row  by  a  kind  lady  out 
of  charity.  He  now  enjoyed  the  society  of  the  greatest 
scholars  and  philosophers  of  his  time,  he  sat  at  great 
men's  tables,  he  was  called  friend  by  those — his  patrons 
— to  whom  under  less  favourable  conditions  he  would 
have  been  a  servant.  He  had  conquered  fortune  ;  he 
possessed  all  that  life  can  give  a  man.  Why  not  sit 
down  and  rest  and  enjoy  these  things'?  Fame,  suffici- 
ency, rank  in  his  profession,  and  friendship  of  the  best 
— what  more  can  mortal  man  desire  % 


RESTLESSNESS  iii 


But  he  could  not  rest.  That  habit  of  incessant 
work  was  too  deep-seated  to  be  thrown  off.  Besides, 
Cook  at  forty -eight  was  as  young  as  many  men  at 
thirty.  He  had  lived  a  life  so  hard  and  simple  ;  it 
had  been  so  free  from  vice  or  excess  of  any  kind ;  he 
was  born  with  a  constitution  so  magnificent,  that  as  yet 
he  felt  no  touch  of  age.  Besides,  he  who  roves  must 
still  be  roving ;  the  nomad  is  easily  awakened ;  he  who 
begins  to  travel  can  never  afterwards  sit  still.  In  this 
age  the  man  who  undertakes  one  journey  to  Africa  is 
wedded  to  that  continent  for  life  ;  in  that  age  he  who 
had  once  breathed  the  soft  airs  of  the  Pacific  must  needs 
go  back  again.  Thus  Cook  took  with  him  on  his  second 
voyage  not  only  men  who  had  been  with  him  on  the 
first,  but  also  men  who  had  been  with  Wallis.  As  for 
himself,  he  eagerly  embraced  the  chance  of  making  the 
second  voyage,  and  when  he  was  consulted  about  find- 
ing an  officer  to  command  the  third  his  pulse  quickened, 
his  blood  warmed,  and  he  offered  to  go  yet  a  third  time. 
The  Pacific  had  been  kinder  to  him  than  to  any  previous 
navigators ;  she  suffered  him  to  go  back  in  safety,  once, 
twice, — not  a  third  time.  Yet  if  a  vision  had  been 
granted  to  Cook  before  he  volunteered,  showing  him 
the  fatal  and  ignoble  quarrel  in  which  he  was  to  fall, 
he  would  still  have  persevered,  seeing  how  great  would 
be  his  name  and  fame. 

The  question  of  the  southern  continent  was  finally 
settled.  There  would  be  no  more  wrangling  over  that ; 
there  was  no  southern  continent,  or  if  there  should 
prove  to  be  one  it  was  more  inaccessible  than  Greenland, 
more  inhospitable  than  the  northern  coasts  of  Labrador. 
It  lay  behind  vast  walls  and  hills  of  ice,  unmelted  and 


CAPTAIN  COOK  c  hap. 


unbroken  in  the  height  of  summer.  If  any  human 
beings  lived  there  they  must  be  lower  than  the 
Eskimo,  more  wretched  than  the  Fuegian. 

But  there  was  another  question — open  and  disputed. 
It  had  been  under  dispute  for  two  hundred  years ;  only 
in  our  own  days  has  it  been  finally  settled,  and  even 
now  it  can  hardly  be  considered  wholly  cleared  up  while 
there  remain  so  many  islands  whose  coasts  are  as  yet 
unexamined.  It  was  the  question  of  the  North- Western 
passage. 

This  question  belongs  as  much  to  this  century  as  to 
the  last  or  the  two  preceding.  It  need  not  be  con- 
sidered with  the  detail  which  the  history  of  discovery  in 
the  Pacific  Ocean  seemed  to  demand.  The  search  for  the 
Xorth- Western  passage  is,  like  many  scientific  searches, 
one  after  a  thing  either  impossible  to  find  or  useless 
when  found,  the  pursuit  of  which  yielded  results  of  quite 
unexpected  and  of  incalculable  value.  It  was  hoped  to 
find  a  short  and  easy  way  of  sailing  to  China  and  the 
Far  East  on  the  north  of  the  American  Continent,  and 
so  to  avoid  the  long  passage  by  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope. 
How  long  and  tedious  the  passage  was  is  proved  by  the 
fact  that,  on  the  second  voyage.  Cook  was  a  hundred 
and  twenty  days  sailing  from  Madeira  to  the  Cape. 
The  expeditions  sent  out  in  the  sixteenth  and  seven- 
teenth centuries  failed,  it  is  true,  to  find  the  passage  ; 
but  they  succeeded  in  revealing  an  immense  amount  of 
territory  in  America  and  a  great  portion  of  her  northern 
shores. 

In  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  subject 
was  revived,  especially  by  one  Dobbs.  In  the  year  1741 
Captain  Middletou  was  sent  out,  and  in  1746  Captains 


IX  THE  NOR  TH-  WES T  PA SSA  CE  113 

Smith  and  Moore.  An  Act  of  Parliament  was  passed 
offering  a  reward  of  £20,000  to  the  owners  of  a  ship 
which  should  discover  the  passage,  or  to  the  captain, 
officers,  and  company  of  the  fortunate  ship  if  it  should 
belong  to  the  Royal  Xavy.  Lord  Mulgrave  also  at- 
tempted in  the  year  1773  to  reach  the  North  Pole. 

The  continual  failure  of  every  expedition  caused  a 
change  of  plans.  It  was  then  argued  that  where  ships 
had  failed  to  get  through  from  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Pacific  they  might  succeed  from  the  Pacific  to  the 
Atlantic ;  and  Lord  Sandwich  was  so  far  persuaded  that 
an  attempt  in  this  direction  might  prove  successful 
that  he  consented  to  send  out  an  expedition  with  this 
object.  Captain  Cook  would  have  been  appointed  to 
the  command  without  the  least  hesitation,  but  for  a 
natural  feeling  that  he  had  done  enough  and  should  now 
be  left  to  repose.  However,  whether  with  the  view  of 
sounding  him  or  whether  only  to  consult  him,  he  was 
invited  to  dine  with  Lord  Sandwich,  and  with  him  were 
invited  his  old  friends  and  patrons,  Sir  Hugh  Palliser 
and  Mr.  Stephens,  Secretary  of  the  Admiralty.  During 
dinner  the  conversation  turned  upon  the  projected  ex- 
pedition, its  importance,  its  dangers,  and  the  benefits 
which  might  follow  upon  its  success.  Fired  once  more 
by  the  enthusiasm  of  the  navigator,  Cook  sprang  to  his 
feet  and  offered  to  take  the  command.  His  offer  was 
accepted,  ^s\\h  the  promise  that  on  his  return  he  should 
be  reappointed  to  his  place  at  Greenwich  Hospital. 

One  domestic  detail  of  this  time  survives.  Cook 
concealed  from  his  wife  so  long  as  he  could  the  fact  that 
he  had  promised  to  try  fortune  yet  once  more  on  the 
Pacific  Main.     How  long   he   conld  keep  the   thing  a 

I 


114  CAPTAIN  COOK 


secret  one  cannot  learn ;  as  he  received  his  commission 
in  February  and  began  at  once  to  enter  men,  it  could 
not  have  been  long.  Yet  to  the  end  his  widow  lamented 
that  his  acceptance  of  the  command  had  been  kept  from 
her.  Considering  that  his  youngest  child,  Hugh,  was 
born  just  after  the  ship  sailed  he  may  have  thought 
there  was  good  reason  not  to  agitate  his  wife  with  any 
anxieties,  but  to  break  the  news  to  her  when  the  whole 
business  was  settled. 

It  is  not  certain  whether  he  had  by  this  time  taken 
up  his  official  residence  in  Greenwich  Hospital,  or 
whether  his  wafe  and  family  continued  to  live  there 
until  the  fatal  news  arrived.  Perhaps  they  went  on 
living  in  Mile  End  Old  To^vn.  From  recollections  pre- 
served by  his  widow  of  dinners  at  great  houses  during 
this  last  stay  at  home,  it  would  seem  as  if  they  had 
now  left  that  modest  suburb. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE   THIRD   VOYAGE 

The  Resolution  was  again  chosen  for  the  voyage,  and 
with  her  the  Discovery  of  three  hundred  tons.  Gierke, 
second  lieutenant  in  the  former  voyage,  was  put  in  com- 
mand of  the  smaller  vessel.  Others  who  had  already 
sailed  with  Cook  joined  this  expedition,  among  them 
Anderson,  surgeon  and  naturalist,  who  proved  to  be 
the  most  minute  observer  and  the  best  linguist  of  the 
company ;  Lieutenant  King,  who  afterwards  succeeded 
to  the  command  of  the  Discovery,  and  had  charge  of  the 
astronomical  and  nautical  instruments  on  board  the  Re- 
solution ;  while  ]\Ir.  Bayley,  who  had  been  on  the  second 
voyage,  again  went  out  on  board  the  Discovery  as  astron- 
omer. Several  of  the  petty  officers  had  also  sailed  on 
the  second  voyage.  There  were  more  officers  in  pro- 
portion than  was  usual  in  a  ship  of  the  Royal  Navy — 
the  Resolution  had  three  lieutenants,  the  Discovery  two, 
and  other  officers  in  proportion.  This  was  a  practice 
commonly  observed  in  long  and  dangerous  voyages, 
partly  with  the  view  of  easily  putting  do^\Tl  any  attempt 
at  mutiny.  Cook,  however,  states  that  he  brought  with 
him  officers  for  the  special  service  of  constructing 
charts,  taking  views  of  coasts  and  headlands,  and  draw- 
ing surveys  of  bays  and  harbours.     An  artist — Webber 


ii6  CAPTAIN  COOK  chap. 

— went  with  them  to  make  drawings  of  the  places  where 
they  should  touch.  The  best  known  portrait  of  Cook 
is  by  Webber.  Omai,  the  Tahitian,  who  had  been 
brought  to  England  in  the  last  voyage,  also  went  with 
Cook,  to  be  landed  on  his  native  shore ;  he  was  laden 
with  presents  of  all  kinds.  In  respect  of  Avages  the 
ships  were  put  upon  the  establishments  of  sloops  of  war. 

As  for  the  sailing  instructions  they  may  be  summed 
up  in  general  terms.  The  commander  was  to  find  a  north- 
east passage  from  the  Pacific  to  the  Atlantic  if  possible. 
He  was  also  to  get  together  every  kind  of  information 
in  geography  in  tides,  currents,  shoals,  rocks,  harbours, 
depths,  and  soundings ;  natural  productions,  fruits, 
grains,  minerals,  metals,  and  people.  He  was  also  to 
take  possession,  "  with  the  consent  of  the  natives  " — a 
charming  touch  of  oflficial  hypocrisy — in  the  name  of  the 
King  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  of  convenient  situa- 
tions in  such  countries  as  may  be  discovered,  and  so  on. 

AYith  these  instructions  and  fully  equipped  the  ex- 
pedition set  sail  from  Plymouth  Sound  on  July  11th. 
The  following  is  the  skeleton  route  of  this  voyage. 

Feb.  6th,  1776.  Commission  to  command  the  Fesolution 
received  by  Captain  Cook.  He  went  on  board  and  began 
to  enter  men.  The  Discovery,  three  hundred  tons,  also  pur- 
chased, and  command  given  to  Captain  Gierke. 

May  29th.   Sailed  to  Long  Reach. 

June  25th.  Weighed  anchor,  and  made  sail  for  the  Downs. 

JiUy  nth.  Sailed  from  Plymouth. 

Aug.  lst-4th.   Teneriffe. 

Oct.  l8th-Nov.  30th.  Table  Bay. 

Dec.  I2th.  Islands  discovered  by  Marion  and  Crozet  named 
by  Cook  Prince  Edward  Island,  Marion's  and  Crozet's  Islands. 

Dec.  24ih-30th.  Kerguelen  Island,  Cliristmas  Harbour, 
examined  and  explored. 


SUMMARY  117 


Jan.  24:th,  1777.  Van  Diemen's  Land  (Adventure  Bay). 
Feb.  10th.  New  Zealand. 
Feb.  llth-25th.   Queen  Charlotte  Sound. 
Feb.  29t]i.  Mangeea  Island  discovered  and  visited. 
April  1st.  Wateea  discovered  and  visited, 
April  'ith.  Wenoo  Ette  discovered  and  visited. 
A2ml  6th.   Hervey's  Island  visited. 

Ap)ril  12th.   Palmerston  Island   found  to   be  a  group  of 
small  islets. 

April  24:th.   Passed  Savage  Island. 

AiJril  28th.  Annamango,  Komango,  and  Fallafajuca. 

Ap)ril  29th.  Annamooka  (Friendly  Islands). 

May  11th.   Hepaee. 

May  21st.  Lefooga  (Friendly  Islands  to  nearly  due  south). 

May  22nd.   Tongataboo. 


Aug.  12th.   Tahiti       ^ 


Sept.  30th.    Eimeo        [  ^     .  ^     ^  1     j 
Oct.  12th.    Huaheine    /-Society  Islands. 


Dec.  8th.   Bolabola 

Jan.  20th,  1778.  Atooi  and  Oneeheow  (Sandwich  Islands). 

March  1th.   Coast  of  America. 

April  24:th.    Xootka  Soimd. 

May  11th.   Kaye's  Island. 

June  19th.   Selinmagin's  Islands. 

June  21th.   Oonalashka. 

Aug.  2rd.   Death  of  Anderson,  surgeon  and  naturalist. 

July  9th.  Cape  Prince  of  Wales  most  westerly  point  of 
North  America.  Spent  July  chiefly  in  sailing  about  open 
sea  beyond  Behring  Straits.  Corporal  Lidiard,  see  note,  p. 
440  in  Kippis. 

Oct.  26th.   Sailed  for  Sandwich  Islands. 

Nov.  26th.   Discovered  Maui, 

Nov.  30th.   Discovered  Hawai. 

Feb.  14:th,  1779.    Cook  killed. 

Aug.  2nd.   Clerke  died  of  consumption. 

Gore  took  command  of  the  Resolution. 
King  of  the  Discovery. 

Oct.  ■ith,  1780.   Arrived  at  the  Nore. 

During  the  voyage  the  Resolution  lost  five  men  by  sick- 
ness, three  of  whom  were  ill  at  start.     The  Discovery  lost  none. 


1 8  CAPTAIN  COOK 


The  account  of  this  voyage,  from  which  the  two 
captains  never  returned,  was  pubHshed  in  three  volumes 
quarto,  the  first  and  second  from  the  log-books  and 
journals  of  Captain  Cook,  and  the  third  by  Captain  King, 
who  succeeded  Captain  Clerke  in  command  of  the  Dis- 
cover]). Dr.  Douglas,  Bishop  of  Salisbury,  edited  the 
work.  Unfortunately  he  also  doctored  it,  and  though 
he  says  in  his  introduction  that  Cook's  journal  was 
faithfully  adhered  to,  he  also  owns  to  incorporating 
a  quantity  of  matter  from  Anderson's  journal.  To 
prevent  the  possibility  of  mistake  the  editor  submitted 
the  first  two  volumes  to  King,  who  was  entirely  re- 
sponsible for  the  third.  "  All  that  the  editor  has  to 
answer  for  are  the  notes  occasionally  introduced  in  the 
course  of  the  two  volumes  contributed  by  Captain 
Cook,  and  the  introduction."  It  is,  hovrever,  quite 
clear  that  many  portions  of  the  work  have  been  re- 
written or  touched — not,  it  is  true,  in  the  lumbering 
stjde  of  Dr.  Hawkesworth,  but  still  touched.  The 
straightforward  directness  and  simplicity  of  Cook's  own 
narrative  of  the  second  voyage  are  gone.  The  venerable 
and  learned  bishop  could  not  understand  that  it  was  his 
religious  duty  to  present  the  very  words  of  the  dead 
navigator.  These  given  without  alteration,  he  was  at 
liberty  to  add  what  notes  he  pleased,  and  to  enrich  the 
work  with  Anderson's  observations,  which  are  certainly 
admirable,  but  not  to  incorporate  them  ^vith  the  body 
of  the  work,  so  that  the  reader  is  dragged  from  Cook  to 
Anderson  and  from  Anderson  to  Cook.  The  editor 
afterwards  acknowledges  also  that  Captain  King  gave 
advice  and  directions  in  a  variety  of  instances  when 
the  joiu-nal  required  explanations.     Lieutenant  Koberts 


X  THE  OFFICIAL  NARRATIVE  119 

was  also  "  frequently  consulted,"  and  particular  obliga- 
tions are  due  to  Mr.  Wallis,  who  "  cheerfully  took  upon 
himself  the  trouble  of  digesting  from  the  log-books  the 
tables  of  the  route  of  the  ships."  One  Mr.  Wegg  also 
assisted,  and  the  Honourable  Mr.  Davies  Barrington  and 
Mr.  Tennant  and  Mr.  Bryant,  who  "  followed  Captain 
Cook  in  his  study,"  In  fact,  a  large  number  of  eminent 
hands  assisted  in  the  production  of  the  work,  and  if,  after 
so  much  assistance,  there  is  still  much  of  the  original 
journal  left,  we  ought  to  be  thankful  to  the  editor.  I 
have  before  me,  however,  a  journal  of  the  voyage,  which 
has  never  before  been  published,  kept  by  George  Gilbert 
of  the  Resolution.  He  appears  to  have  gone  out  as 
master's  mate  or  midshijjman  on  board  the  Discovery. 
By  the  successive  deaths  of  Captain  Cook  and  Captain 
Gierke  he  was  promoted  to  be  lieutenant.  George 
Gilbert's  father  had  been  master  on  the  Endeavmir  during 
the  first  voyage,  and  on  the  JResoIution  during  the  second. 
He  retired  from  active  service,  and  lived  at  Fareham  in 
Hampsliire  to  the  age  of  ninety-one.  His  son,  who  on 
the  return  of  the  expedition  received  promotion,  died 
of  smallpox  immediately  afterwards.  The  journal  fell 
into  the  possession  of  the  late  Dr.  Doran,  whose  wife 
belonged  to  the  Gilbert  family.  It  has  been  most 
kindly  lent  to  me,  with  permission  to  use  it  for  this 
volume,  by  Mr.  Alban  Doran.  Many  details  of  interest 
which  are  omitted  in  the  official  journals  have  been  pre- 
served in  this  log.  I  propose  to  follow  the  voyage,  the 
route  of  which  has  been  given  above,  with  the  assistance 
of  Mr.  Gilbert  of  the  Resolution,  partly  because  Cook's 
own  account,  as  we  have  seen,  has  been  so  much 
edited,  and    partly  because    this   narrative   is    at   least 


CAPTAIN  COOK 


new,  while  Cook's,  doctored  by  the  bishop  and  his 
friends,  has  been  in  the  hands  of  the  world  for  a 
hundred  years. 

All  the  voyages  of  the  latter  half  of  the  last  century, 
as  I  have  already  said,  lie  on  the  borderland  between 
the  ancient  and  the  modern.  We  are  as  yet  too  near 
the  navigators  of  the  time  to  feel  the  charm  of  adventure 
as  we  feel  it  in  the  voyages  of  Drake  and  Raleigh,  or 
later  in  those  of  Dampier.  They  belong  to  a  trying 
period  in  the  history  of  a  book  of  travel;  a  hundred 
years  more  and  Cook  wall  have  become,  as  he  really  was, 
the  last  of  the  old  navigators,  the  successor,  the  last,  in 
the  long  list  of  Magellan,  Tasman,  Quiros,  Drake,  and 
the  rest.  A  hundred  years  more  and  Cook's  descrip- 
tions of  the  Polynesians  and  Australians  will  be  invalu- 
able as  a  record  of  things  long  since  passed  away ;  even 
the  people  of  the  islands  will  have  disappeared ;  there 
•will  not  be  a  single  survivor  of  the  Friendly  Islanders, 
or  of  the  gentle  natives  of  Tahiti,  or  of  the  fierce 
w^arriors  of  New  Zealand. 

As  for  information  or  observation  on  the  manners 
and  customs  of  the  natives,  Gilbert's  journal  affords 
little  or  none  that  is  new.  On  the  contrary,  his  remarks 
concerning  them  are  of  the  briefest ;  evidently  he,  and 
with  him  the  great  body  of  the  officers,  had  no  training 
as  to  the  value  of  such  observations  or  the  method  of 
making  them.  Anderson,  for  instance,  furnishes  many 
pages  on  the  Tasmanians  and  has  put  together  a  short 
vocabulary  of  their  language.  Gilbert  sums  them  up 
quite  in  the  proverbial  style  :  they  wear  no  clothes  and 
are  not  ashamed,  they  know  no  arts  — "  except  the 
natives  of  Terra  del  Fuego,  they  are-  supposed  to  be  the 


X  GILBERT'S  JOURNAL  121 

most  ignorant  race  of  people  existing" — which  is  quite 
enough  attention  for  a  British  officer  to  bestow  upon 
these  people. 

Let  us  run  through  the  journal  and  select  those 
passages  which  supplement  and  illustrate  Cook  and 
King,  and  throw  light  on  the  daily  life  and  conversation 
of  the  officers  and  men. 

At  Queen  Charlotte  Sound  the  New  Zealanders 
could  hardly  be  persuaded  to  come  on  board,  probably 
in  fear  of  retaliation  for  the  murder  of  the  Adventures 
men  three  years  before.  "  I  think,"  says  Gilbert,  "  that 
nothing  can  be  a  greater  proof  of  their  treachery  than 
their  suspecting  it  in  us."  In  Cook's  account  we  pre- 
sently read  that  he  went  ashore  with  a  party  of  men  in 
five  boats  to  collect  food  for  the  cattle.  The  reason  for 
this  exhibition  of  strength  is  thus  given  in  Gilbert's  log. 
The  spelling  of  the  gallant  officer  is  preserved  in  this 
extract,  but  modernised  in  those  that  follow. 

A  boat  was  sent  every  day  to  different  parts  of  the 
Sound  with  8  or  10  people  to  cut  grass  for  the  cattle;  I 
was  in.  that  party  and  it  was  luckey  for  us  that  we  never  met 
with  any  of  the  Natives  for  tho'  we  had  arms  with  us  yet 
they  might  have  rusli'd  from  the  woods  and  cut  us  off  the 
ship  not  being  able  to  give  us  any  assistance.  One  day 
when  we  were  at  Long  Island  a  quarrel  happen'd  at  the 
ship  with  the  Natives  when  an  old  man  came  on  board  and 
told  Capt.  Cook  that  some  of  his  countrymen  had  a  design 
upon  our  boat  ;  at  the  same  time  they  saw  3  or  4  learge 
Canoes  full  of  men  going  over  to  where  the  boat  was  ;  sent 
from  the  ship  man'd  and  arm'd  to  bring  us  inteligence 
and  see  whether  any  thing  had  happen'd  ;  She  arrived  in 
time  for  we  had  seen  nothing  of  the  Natives  but  however 
we  were  order'd  to  come  on  board.  The  next  day  Capt. 
Cook  made  an  excursion  up  the  sound  with  5  boats  and 
50   or    60    men  well    arm'd   to    cut    grass     we    went    up 


CAPTAIN  COOK 


about  12  miles  and  cut  two  boat  loads  on  our  return 
we  put  into  Grass  Cove  the  place  where  the  adventures 
boats  crew  (consisting  of  a  mate  a  midshipman  and  8 
men)  were  cut  off  and  eat  upon  the  spot  by  the  Natives. 
No  place  could  be  more  favourable  for  such  intentions  ; 
as  the  wood  was  so  thick  that  the  Natives  could  approch 
close  to  them  before  they  were  discover'd.  We  saw  4  or 
5  of  them,  who  seeing  our  numbers  were  afraid  to  come 
near  us  till  we  made  them  to  understand  we  had  no  inten- 
tions to  hurt  them.  We  had  reasons  to  believe  there  were 
a  great  number  of  them  in  the  woods  as  those  with  us  fre- 
quently call'd  to  them  ;  we  return'd  to  the  ship  that  night. 

A  long  and  pleasing  account  of  Annamooka  or  Rotter- 
dam Island  is  found  in  Cook's  journal.  The  following 
sketch  of  the  same  place  from  Gilbert's  log  is  equally 
pleasing,  and  more  enthusiastic.  It  also  gives  us  import- 
ant facts  as  to  the  provisioning  of  the  crews. 

On  the  1st  of  May  came  to  an  anchor  at  Annamooka,  so 
called  by  the  natives,  but  by  Tasman  Rotterdam.  This 
island  is  low  and  about  six  miles  in  extent,  with  a  lagoon  of 
salt  water  in  the  middle  of  it ;  and  is  in  my  opinion  the 
most  delightful  spot  in  the  world ;  being  covered  with  a 
variety  of  trees  and  bushes,  forming  the  most  shady  and 
agreeable  walks  I  ever  met  with.  We  moored  here  in  twelve 
fathom  water,  the  bottom  rather  rocky  about  half  a  mile  from 
a  sandy  beach.  The  natives  came  on  board  in  great  numbers 
and  behaved  in  the  most  friendly  manner,  being  very  much 
rejoiced  at  seeing  the  ships  again  ;  they  brought  on  board 
hogs,  fowls,  and  fruit  in  great  plenty;  which  we  purchased 
of  them  for  hatchets,  nails,  and  beads  ;  every  species  of  the 
ship's  provisions  was  from  this  time  stoi)ped,  and  we  lived 
entirely  upon  the  productions  of  the  islands,  which  was  very 
agreeable  to  us  ;  sent  our  tents  on  shore  and  the  observa- 
tories with  the  astronomers'  instruments,  for  making  observa- 
tions, to  regulate  our  time  keeper :  had  a  guard  of  marines 
on  shore  for  their  protection ;  sent  the  cattle  on  shore  for 
some  refreshments,  which  they  were  much  in  want  of,  being 


Captain  Cook  makes  overtures  to  the  Maoris.— P.  122. 


ANNAMOOKA  123 


reduced  very  low.  The  Discovery  had  both  her  cables  cut 
through  by  the  coral  rocks  :  she  was  lucky  enough  to  get 
both  her  anchors  again,  after  great  trouble.  Hove  our  cables 
in  to  examine  them,  but  found  them  not  in  the  least 
damaged  :  had  parties  on  shore  cutting  wood  and  watering 
from  a  small  pond  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  above  the 
beach,  which  was  muddy  and  brackish,  and  the  only  w^ater 
we  could  get;  but  the  milk  of  the  cocoa-nuts  in  a  great 
measure  made  up  for  the  badness  of  it :  as  they  were  so 
plentiful  we  seldom  drank  anything  else  ;  as  we  secured 
more  hogs  here  than  were  sufficient  for  present  use,  we 
began  to  salt  pork  for  to  carry  to  sea. 

At  the  Friendly  Islands  Gilbert  gives  us  a  little 
illustration  of  that  hastiness  of  temper  which  is  men- 
tioned by  all  those  who  speak  of  Cook's  personal 
character.  The  incident  is  not  found  in  the  journal. 

This  isle,  which  is  by  far  the  largest  in  the  cluster,  is 
about  seven  leagues  in  length  and  five  in  breadth  :  it  is 
throughout  low  and  level,  with  the  same  appearance  as  the 
others  ;  we  observed  part  of  an  eclipse  of  the  sun  here.  The 
two  chiefs  mentioned  liefore  came  with  us  and  behaved  in 
the  most  friendly  manner  imaginable ;  and  supplied  the  two 
ships  with  pro\T[sions  in  great  plenty  ;  in  all  their  proceed- 
ing they  showed  a  noble,  generous,  and  disinterested  spirit  ; 
and  though  their  manners  were  rude  and  unpolished,  yet  in 
every  action  they  displayed  an  elevation  of  the  mind  that 
would  do  honour  to  an  European  in  the  most  distinguished 
sphere  in  life.  Played  off  some  fireworks  here,  which  were 
viewed  by  a  numerous  assembly,  with  acclamations  of  ad- 
miration and  surprise.  These  Indians  are  very  dexterous  at 
thieving,  and  as  they  were  permitted  to  come  on  board  the 
ship  in  great  numbers,  they  stole  several  things  from  us. 
This  vice,  which  is  very  prevalent  here,  Captain  C(jok 
punished  in  a  manner  rather  unbecoming  of  an  European, 
viz.  by  cutting  off  their  ears,  firing  at  them  with  small  shot 
or  ball  as  they  were  swimming  or  paddling  to  the  shore, 
and  suffering  the  people  (as  he  rowed  after  them)  to   beat 


124  CAPTAIN  COOK  chap. 

them  with  the  oars  and  stick  the  boat  -  hook  into  tliem 
wherever  they  could  hit  them ;  one  in  particular  he  punislied 
by  ordering  one  of  our  people  to  make  two  cuts  upon  his 
arm  to  the  bone,  one  across  the  other  close  below  his  shoulder ; 
which  was  an  act  that  I  cannot  account  for  any  other  way 
than  to  have  proceeded  from  a  momentary  fit  of  anger,  as  it 
certainly  was  not  in  the  least  premeditated. 

And  on  another  occasion  he  relates  an  anecdote  which 
shows  the  courage  of  the  captain.  It  also  illustrates  his 
modesty,  as  ^vill  be  seen. 

This  is  what  is  recorded  in  the  journal. 

One  of  my  people,  walking  a  very  little  way,  was  sur- 
rounded by  twenty  or  thirty  of  the  natives,  who  knocked  him 
down  and  stripped  him  of  everything  he  had  upon  his  back. 
On  hearing  of  this  I  seized  two  canoes  and  a  large  hog  and 
insisted  on  Taoofa's  causing  the  clothes  to  be  restored,  and 
on  the  offenders  being  delivered  up  to  me. 

This,  however,  is  Gilbert's  account  of  the  adven- 
ture. 

One  day  when  Captain  Cook  was  on  shore  with  a  party 
trading  for  provisions,  having  nothing  with  him  but  his 
hanger  and  a  fowling-piece  that  one  of  the  officers  had 
brought  on  shore,  one  of  our  people  separated  from  the  rest, 
and  went  up  about  half  a  mile  into  the  country,  where  he 
was  met  by  the  natives,  who  roljbed  him  of  everything,  then 
ran  away  and  left  him  naked ;  they  at  the  same  time  had  a 
very  strong  inclination  to  attack  the  whole  party;  which 
Captain  Cook  perceiving,  sent  on  board  for  arms,  and  by  a 
resolute  and  undaunted  courage  prevented. 

Gilbert's  account  of  the  Friendly  Islanders,  among 
whom  the  Resolution  spent  between  two  and  three 
months,  is  interesting,  but  adds  little  to  what  we 
already  possess  in  the  captain's  journal.  Perhaps  there 
is  a  little  more  feeling  for  the  sex  discovered  in  the 
remarks  of  the  younger  man. 


X  THE  FRIENDLY  ISLANDERS  125 

Although  the  women  have  something  masculine  in  their 
appearance,  yet  their  countenances  are  pleasing,  and  their 
dispositions  very  mild  and  agreeable ;  their  dress  consists 
only  of  a  piece  of  cloth  wrapped  round  their  waist,  reaching 
to  the  knees,  in  which  they  are  exceeding  neat  and  clean,  as 
well  as  in  their  persons  :  they  are  always  full  of  mirth  and 
vivacity,  and  very  fond  of  singing  and  dancing.  .  .  .  The 
women  here,  though  not  so  fair  as  in  general  in  the  Society 
Islands,  yet  are  quite  as  agreeable,  if  not  more  so  :  their 
features  are  regular  and  beautiful,  their  mien  graceful,  both 
in  their  persons  and  dress  neat,  their  dispositions  mild 
and  cheerful,  and  their  whole  study  and  endeavour  to  render 
themselves  pleasing  to  every  one  :  they  seem  to  be  fonder  of 
singing  and  dancing  in  their  own  mode  than  any  girls  we 
have  ever  seen  :  and  not\vithstanding  there  is  a  great  degree 
of  wantonness  in  both,  yet  it  is  attended  with  a  peculiar 
kind  of  simplicity  and  innocence  which,  joined  to  the 
customs  of  the  country,  entirely  removes  every  idea  that 
can  be  turned  to  their  prejudice.  In  fact,  so  pleasing  is 
their  temper,  so  great  their  vivacity,  that  even  a  hermit 
could  not  help  being  delighted  with  them. 

The  arrival  and  stay  at  Tahiti,  which  occupy  many 
chapters  in  Cook  and  King,  are  dismissed  by  Gilbert  in 
four  or  five  pages.  He  notes  the  fact  that  the  goats  left 
on  the  former  visit  had  increased  in  number  and 
appeared  to  be  thriving.  He  mentions  the  visit  of  the 
Spanish  ship  since  their  last  stay,  on  ^vhich  Cook  has  a 
great  deal  to  say ;  he  describes  the  canoes  of  the  people, 
and  he  is  struck  with  the  barbarity  of  the  human 
sacrifice  at  which — that  is  to  say,  at  that  part  which 
came  after  the  slaughter  of  the  victim  —  Cook  was 
present. 

At  Eimeo  happened  the  incident  of  the  stolen  goat. 
And  it  really  would  seem  as  if  the  captain  on  this 
occasion,  too,  allowed  himself  to  be  carried  away  by 


126  CAPTAIN  COOK  chap. 

temper.  First,  the  chief  Mahein  begged  a  pair  of  goats, 
which  the  captain  thought  he  could  not  spare  unless  at 
the  expense  of  other  lands  where  they  might  with 
greater  advantage  be  put  ashore.  Therefore  he  refused. 
The  day  after,  a  goat  sent  on  shore  to  graze  was  stolen. 
The  goat  was  brought  back  the  next  day  ;  but  another, 
a  she -goat,  big  with  kid,  was  stolen  on  that  very 
morning.  The  captain  sent  a  boat  after  it,  but  the 
people  pretended  to  send  after  it,  and  amused  the  petty 
officers  in  charge  of  the  boat  till  the  evening. 

Next  day,  according  to  his  own  account.  Cook  led  in 
person  a  party  of  men  across  the  island,  while  Lieutenant 
Williamson  took  three  boats  round  to  the  other  side  in 
order  to  meet  him.  On  the  way  he  called  upon  all  the 
people  to  produce  the  goat,  but  they  denied  all  know- 
ledge of  the  animal.  "I  set  fire  to  six  or  eight  houses, 
which  were  presently  consumed,  with  two  or  three  war 
canoes  that  lay  contiguous  to  them.  This  done,  I 
marched  off  to  join  the  boats,  which  were  about  seven  or 
eight  miles  from  us;  and  on  our  way  we  burned  six 
more  war  canoes."  Next  day  he  broke  up,  he  says, 
more  war  canoes,  and  threatened  not  to  leave  a  single 
canoe  on  the  island  unless  the  goat  was  restored.  In 
the  evening  the  goat  was  brought  back.  "  Thus  ended 
this  troublesome  and  rather  unfortunate  business, 
which  could  not  be  more  regretted  on  the  part  of  the 
natives  than  it  was  on  mine." 

Now  hear  Gilbert's  account  of  the  same  unfortunate 
affair. 

The  natives  having  stolen  a  small  goat  from  us,  and  not 
returning  it  on  Captain  Cook's  demanding  it  back,  the  next 
morning  lie  set  out  %vith  the  marines  of  both  ships  and  some 


X  COOK  IN  A  RAGE  127 

gentlemen,  in  all  about  35  people  well  armed,  and  marched 
across  part  of  the  island  in  search  of  it ;  likewise  three  boats 
were  sent  manned  and  armed  round  to  meet  him  during 
this  excursion.  Wherever  Captain  Cook  met  with  any 
houses  or  canoes,  that  belonged  to  the  party  which  he  was 
informed  had  stolen  the  goat,  he  ordered  them  to  be  burnt, 
and  seemed  to  be  very  rigid  in  the  performance  of  his  orders, 
which  every  one  executed  with  the  greatest  reluctance  except 
Omai,  who  was  very  officious  in  this  business,  and  wanted 
to  fire  upon  the  natives;  but  as  they  every  way  fled  and  left 
their  all  to  the  mercy  of  the  destroyers,  none  of  them  were 
killed  or  hurt;  which  in  all  probability  they  would  have 
been,  had  they  made  the  least  resistance ;  several  women 
and  old  men  still  remained  by  the  houses,  whose  lamenta- 
tions were  very  great,  but  all  their  tears  and  entreaties 
could  not  move  Captain  Cook  to  desist  in  the  smallest  degree 
from  those  cruel  ravages ;  which  he  continued  till  the  evening, 
when  he  joined  the  boats  and  returned  on  board,  having 
burnt  and  destroyed  about  twelve  houses  and  as  many  canoes 
— part  of  the  planks  he  brought  away  with  him.  The  next 
morning  he  went  round  again  with  three  boats,  where  he 
completed  the  devastation  he  had  left  undone  the  day  before ; 
and  all  about  such  a  trifle  as  a  small  goat,  which  was  that 
evening  brought  on  board  by  the  natives.  I  can't  well 
account  for  Captain  Cook's  proceedings  on  this  occasion,  as 
they  were  so  very  difterent  from  his  conduct  in  like  cases  in 
his  former  voyages  ;  if  anything  may  be  off"ered  in  favour  of 
them,  it  was  his  great  friendship  for  Otoo  (King  of  Otaheite), 
to  whom  these  people  were  professed  enemies. 

At  the  island  of  Huaheine,  also  one  of  the  Friendly 
group,  Omai  was  left  ashore.  Gilbert's  narrative  of  this 
business,  the  landing  of  the  tw^o  New  Zealanders  and 
the  affair  of  the  two  deserters,  shows  the  feeling  in  the 
ward-room  on  these  events.  It  was  not  always,  as  has 
already  been  seen,  that  of  unmixed  admiration  of  the 
captain's  conduct. 

Omai,  though  generally  understood  to  have  been  brought 


128  CAPTAIN-  COOK  chap. 

from  Otaheite,  was  in  reality  a  native  of  this  island  ;  and 
now  chose  to  make  it  the  place  of  his  residence  in  preference 
to  any  other  island  in  tlie  cluster ;  accordingly  all  our  car- 
penters were  set  to  work  to  build  him  a  house  of  the  i)lanks 
of  the  canoes  destroyed  at  Eimeo  ;  which  in  about  a  fort- 
night they  completed.  His  principal  furniture  was  a  bed 
in  the  English  fashion,  several  tin  pots  and  kettles,  and  a 
hand  organ,  on  which  he  used  to  play  and  divert  the  natives  ; 
he  had  likewise  a  brace  of  pistols  and  a  musket,  for  which 
we  left  him  a  small  keg  of  gunpowder  ;  we  also  left  him  a 
horse  and  a  mare,  for  which  he  had  a  saddle  and  bridle, 
and  understood  the  management  of  them  very  well.  Captain 
Cook  purchased  a  small  space  of  land  round  his  house  for 
him  from  the  chief,  and  planned  out  a  garden,  in  which  w*e 
sowed  several  kinds  of  seeds  that  we  brought  out  with  us,  and 
planted  some  vines  brought  from  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope, 
which  seemed  to  prosper  very  well  till  they  were  plucked  up  in 
the  night  by  some  of  the  natives,  for  which  one  of  them  was 
the  next  day  brought  on  board,  had  his  ears  cut  off,  and  was  kept 
in  irons  on  the  quarter-deck.  After  he  had  been  in  confine- 
ment about  a  week,  some  of  our  people  took  pity  on  him  and 
released  him  in  the  night,  so  that  he  made  his  escape;  Captain 
Cook  was  exceedingly  angry  on  this  occasion,  but  could  by 
no  means  find  out  the  person  that  did  it.  The  two  boys 
that  we  brought  with  us  from  New  Zealand  were  left  here 
as  servants  to  Omai  ;  it  is  almost  impossible  to  conceive  their 
distress  at  being  forced  to  part  from  us,  it  being  entirely 
against  their  inclinations  to  stay  here,  as  it  was  their  earnest 
desirc  to  go  with  us  to  England,  lait  that  Captain  Cook  would 
not  permit  ;  they  had  now  become  so  well  reconciled  to  us, 
as  not  to  have  the  least  desire  to  return  to  their  own 
country.  The  oldest,  whom  I  mentioned  before  to  be  the  son 
of  a  chief,  behaved  in  a  manner  that  gained  him  the  love  and 
esteem  of  every  one ;  in  all  his  actions  he  displayed  a  noble- 
ness of  spirit  above  the  common  rank  of  people,  and  never 
associated  ^\^th  the  sailors,  but  always  kept  with  the  gentle- 
men. He  was  very  sensible  and  of  a  mild  humane  disposition, 
and  had  acquired  a  just  abhorrence  of  the  barbarous  practices 
of  his  countrymen.  The  youngest  was  always  full  of  mirth 
and    good    humour,  and,  for    his   mimicry  and  other  little 


X  PASSENGERS  129 

sportive  tricks,  was  the  delight  of  the  whole  ship's  compaDV. 
So  great  was  his  desire  to  remain  with  us  that  he  was 
obliged  to  be  tied  down  in  the  canoe  that  carried  hini  on 
shore,  having  leaped  out  of  it  once  and  attempted  to  swim 
back  to  the  ship  ;  the  other  bore  it  with  a  becoming  forti- 
tude, disdaining  to  ask  Captain  Cook  for  what  he  knew  he 
would  not  grant.  They  were  exceedingly  fond  of  each  other, 
and  everybody  was  sorry  to  part  with  them.  Omai  took  his 
leave  of  us  in  a  very  affectionate  manner,  and  I  believe 
woidd  have  been  very  glad  to  come  back  to  England  ;  but 
he  knew  Captain  Cook  would  not  permit  him ;  for  the 
curiosity  of  the  people  of  England  having  quite  subsided, 
they  began  to  think  him  rather  a  burden  on  the  public, 
and  were  glad  thus  to  get  clear  of  him.  He  was  certainly 
as  stupid  a  fellow  as  any  on  the  island,  and  originally  of  the 
very  lowest  degree.  Therefore  I  make  no  doubt  but  that  he 
will  in  a  short  time  be  plundered  of  everything  he  has,  and 
be  forced  to  return  to  his  former  state  ;  but  I  have  not  the 
least  idea  of  their  oflfering  him  any  kind  of  violence.  It  may 
be  wondered  why  the  cattle  left  with  the  King  of  Otaheite 
were  not  in  preference  given  to  Omai;  but  the  reason  is  very 
obvious ;  for  as  we  expect  everything  to  be  taken  from  him, 
the  cattle  would  but  induce  the  natives  to  do  it  sooner,  and 
most  probably  would  be  the  cause  of  great  contentions  among 
the  chiefs  before  they  could  agree  who  were  to  have  them, 
and  perhaps  they  would  be  destroyed  to  put  an  end  to  the 
disputes,  as  was  done  in  a  similar  case  that  we  met  Axdth 
afterwards.  But  should  they  not  be  hurt,  yet  it  is  most 
likely  that  they  would  be  divided  among  the  chiefs,  and  ever 
afterward  kept  separated,  which  would  equally  destroy  the 
grand  object  of  forming  a  breed  at  these  islands  :  but  now 
they  are  perfectly  free  from  those  dangers  as  being  in  posses- 
sion of  the  principal  person  of  this  country.  As  for  the  horse 
and  mare  left  with  Omai,  they  are  not  of  that  consequence 
as  the  cattle,  therefore  it  is  no  great  matter  what  becomes 
of  them.  Just  before  we  sailed  Captain  Cook  particularly 
desired  Omai,  after  we  had  been  gone  about  three  weeks,  to 
send  a  canoe  to  us,  to  the  island  we  were  going  to ;  and 
if  the  natives  treated  him  ill,  to  send  a  black  bead,  if 
moderate    a   blue    one,  and    if  well    a   white    one  :    which 

K 


I30  CAPTAIN  COOK 


advice  he  carefully  observed.  After  about  a  niontli's  stay 
here  we  sailed  for  Ulietea,  which  lies  eight  or  nine  leagues  to 
the  westward  ;  and  the  next  morning  came  to  an  anchor  in 
Ohamaneno  Harbour,  on  the  lee -side  of  the  island.  The 
entrance  is  between  two  reefs,  and  very  narrow.  Warped 
up  about  two  miles  into  a  cove  at  the  head  of  the  harbour, 
hauled  the  sliip  close  to  the  shore,  and  secured  her  with 
hawsers  to  the  trees,  not  being  above  ten  or  twelve  fathoms 
from  the  beach.  This  island  is  of  a  moderate  height,  and  very 
fertile ;  it  is  larger  than  Huaheine,  though  small  in  comparison 
with  Otaheite,  and  is  partly  joined  by  a  reef  of  shoal  water 
upon  it  to  an  island  about  four  miles  distance  called  Otahare. 
The  natives  here  are  numerous,  and  supplied  us  with  provisions 
in  a  very  plentiful  and  friendly  manner.  Sent  our  observa- 
tories on  shore  as  usual ;  a  few  days  after  we  had  been  in, 
one  of  our  marines,  who  was  placed  as  a  sentinel  over  the 
observatories,  was  found  in  the  night  to  have  quitted  his 
post  and  gone  ^^ith  his  musket  into  the  country.  In  the 
morning  the  sergeant  and  four  marines  were  sent  in  search 
of  him,  but  returned  in  the  evening  without  getting  any 
intelligence  of  him.  The  next  morning  Cajjtain  Cook  went 
in  quest  of  him  with  two  boats  armed,  and  in  the  afternoon 
found  him  amongst  a  great  number  of  the  natives,  a  few 
miles  from  the  harbour.  He  was  brought  on  board  and 
punished  with  two  dozen  lashes.  A  little  time  after  this  a 
midshipman  and  a  common .  sailor  ran  away  from  the  Dis- 
covery in  the  night ;  in  the  morning,  when  Captain  Cook  was 
informed  of  it,  he  went  with  some  boats  armed  in  search  of 
them,  and  had  .recourse  to  his  usual  practice  on  these 
occasions,  viz.  of  inviting  some  of  the  chiefs  on  board,  and 
then  confining  them  till  the  natives  had  made  full  restitu- 
tion for  whatever  they  had  been  guilty  of ;  which  was  always 
found  to  have  the  desired  effect,  and  was  certainly  the  best 
method  that  could  possibly  be  taken  in  these  cases  to  avoid 
bloodshed  ;  being  in  general  very  easily  accomplished,  as  the 
chiefs  usually  came  on  board  of  their  o'^ii  accord  two  or 
three  times  a  day  for  their  amusement.  In  the  present  case 
Captain  Clerke  was  ordered  to  get  the  son  of  Chan,  the  king 
of  the  island,  like^vise  his  daughter  and  her  husband,  on  board 
the  Discovery,  and  confine  them  there,  which  was  accordingly 


X  THE  CAPTAIN'S  DISCIPLINE  131 

done,  and  the  king  was  told  that  they  should  ne%^er  be 
leleased  till  our  two  deserters  were  brought  back.  He 
seemed  to  be  greatly  distressed  on  the  occasion,  and  im- 
mediately set  about  making  inquiries  after  them.  Captain 
Cook  returned  in  the  evening  Avdthout  getting  any  intelli- 
gence of  them  ;  the  next  morning  he  set  out  again,  but 
likewise  returned  without  success  ;  therefore  he  went  no  more 
in  quest  of  them,  but  depended  upon  the  king's  bringing 
them  back.  During  the  confinement  of  the  princes  a  great 
number  of  women  came  round  the  ship,  and  presented  a  very 
affecting  scene  of  lamentation  by  tearing  their  hair  and 
striking  their  heads  with  a  shark's  tooth  that  they  had  in  each 
hand  for  that  purpose,  till  tha  blood  ran  in  a  continual 
stream  from  every  part  of  it.  In  this  manner  those  Indians 
express  their  grief  when  any  great  misfortunes  befall  them  ; 
and  in  the  present  case  there  appeared  to  be  an  emulation 
amongst  them  who  should  carry  it  on  to  the  greatest  height, 
till  the  scene  became  too  moving  to  be  beheld.  One  after- 
noon a  girl  that  had  followed  us  from  Eimeo  informed  us 
that  the  natives  were  then  going  to  seize  Captain  Gierke  and 
Lieutenant  Gore,  who  were  on  shore  together,  by  way  of 
retaliation  for  the  confinement  of  their  chiefs.  Immediately 
the  alarm  was  given  ;  we  were  all  under  arms  in  an 
instant  ;  some  were  sent  on  shore  in  quest  of  Captain  Gierke, 
while  others  went  in  the  boats  along  shore  to  seize  all  canoes, 
and  to  fire  upon  the  natives  wherever  they  saw  any,  to 
prevent  them  assembling  together.  The  people  that  went  in 
search  of  Captain  Gierke  and  Mr.  Gore  found  them  together 
before  the  natives  had  time  to  form  an  attempt ;  which 
they  certainly  intended  ;  for  three  or  four  of  them,  that  were 
with  Ga2:)tain  Gierke  all  the  time  he  was  on  shore,  strove  very 
much  to  persuade  him  and  Mr.  Gore  to  go  into  a  pool  of 
water  they  were  standing  by  to  bathe  (where  all  of  us  fre- 
quently went  for  that  purpose),  which  they  intended  to  do ; 
but  seeing  the  natives  so  very  anxious  about  it,  they  began 
to  have  some  suspicion  and  declined  it.  Upon  this  they 
began  to  be  rather  troublesome ;  till  Captain  Gierke  presented 
a  pistol  at  them,  that  he  luckily  chanced  to  have  with  him, 
which  kept  them  quiet.  Our  people  coming  up  armed  a  little 
afterwards   prevented   any   mischief,  and   they  returned   on 


132  CAPTA/xV  COOK  chap. 

board  safe  just  before  the  alarm.  Captain  Cook,  who  was  on 
shore  close  to  the  ship,  was  likewise  persuaded  to  go  and 
bathe  at  the  same  place,  which  is  nearly  a  mile  distance, 
but  fortunately  chanced  to  refuse  ;  which  I  think  plainly 
proves  that  the  natives  intended  to  assemble  there  and  to 
seize  them  as  they  were  bathing,  and  carry  them  off,  wliich 
by  the  timely  intelligence  we  received  was  prevented  without 
any  bloodshed. 

Our  two  deserters  were  brought  back  after  they  had  been 
away  about  a  week :  they  had  gone  over  in  a  canoe  to  Bola- 
bola,  and  from  thence  to  a  small  island  called  Tabia,  twelve 
leagues  distance  from  hence,  where  the  natives  surprised  them 
when  they  were  asleep,  and  brought  them  on  board;  they  were 
kept  in  conlinement  during  our  stay  at  these  islands.  It 
was  well  for  the  natives  that  they  delivered  them  up  so 
soon,  for  Captain  Cook  would  very  shortly  have  proceeded  to 
the  greatest  extremities  in  his  power  to  get  them  back,  being 
fully  determined  not  to  suffer  any  person  to  remain  here. 
Indeed,  had  he  once  made  a  precedent  of  it,  so  very  flatter- 
ing was  every  hope  of  the  great  pleasure  and  happiness 
to  be  enjoyed  at  these  islands,  together  with  the  many  hard- 
ships we  had  to  encounter  after  we  left  them,  that  a  great 
part  of  our  people  would  certainh'  have  deserted  us,  which 
would  effectually  have  put  a  stop  to  our  future  proceedings. 
The  natives  have  always  been  extremely  anxious  for  some  of 
us  to  stay  with  them,  and  would  certainly  have  detained  the 
deserters  and  treated  them  with  great  friendship  and  hospi- 
tality, had  they  not  been  obliged  to  deliver  them  up  to 
release  their  own  chiefs.  They  bore  their  confinement  (which 
was  that  of  not  being  allowed  to  go  out  of  the  Captain's 
cabin)  with  great  fortitude  and  cheerfulness,  and  seemingly 
without  the  least  apprehensions  of  fear  for  their  situation, 
which  was  rendered  as  agreeable  to  them  as  circumstances 
could  possibly  admit  of.  About  three  or  four  weeks  after  we 
had  been  here,  a  canoe  arrived  from  Omai  which  brought 
a  white  bead  ;  which  shows  that  he  was  still  treated  in 
a  friendly  manner.  It  is  somewhat  surprising  that  the 
Indian  who  had  his  ears  cut  off  at  Huaheine  for  plucking 
the  vines  up  in  Omai's  garden,  and  was  kept  in  confinement 
on  board  for  some  time,  till  he  was  suffered  to  make  his 


X  FAREWELL   TO  THE  LS LANDS  133 

escape,  should  liave  the  confidence  to  appear  here  in  public 
alongside  the  ship,  and  seemingly  without  the  least  fear  of 
being  brought  on  board  to  his  former  confinement.  Captain 
Cook,  who  certainly  must  have  seen  him,  took  not  the  least 
notice  of  him. 

On  leaving  these  islands  Gilbert,  after  a  short 
account  of  the  people  and  their  customs,  which  is  of 
course  far  better  done  by  his  commander  and  by  Ander- 
son, expresses  the  grief  of  the  ship's  company  at  leaving 
them.  '*We  left  these  islands,"  he  says,  "with  the 
greatest  regret  imaginable :  as  supposing  all  the  plea- 
sures of  the  voyage  to  be  now  at  an  end :  having 
nothing  to  expect  in  future  but  excess  of  cold,  hunger, 
and  every  kind  of  hardship  and  distress  attending  a 
sea  life  in  general,  and  these  voyages  in  particular,  the 
idea  of  which  rendered  us  quite  dejected." 

There  was  yet,  however,  an  inter^'al  of  time  before 
the  excess  of  cold  should  begin.  Meantime  they  had 
enjoyed  an  eight  months'  respite  from  the  ship's 
fare,  and  so  long  as  the  plantains  held  out  and 
fish  could  be  caught  they  still  abstained  from  the 
biscuit  and  the  salt  junk.  "This  great  supply,"  says 
Gilbert,  "  not  only  refreshed  and  strengthened  us  as 
much  as  if  we  had  just  left  England,  but  enabled  us  to 
prosecute  our  discoveries  northward  a  second  season, 
and  w^as  in  a  great  measure  a  compensation  for  that  we 
lost  in  not  being  able  to  fetch  Tahiti  the  first  time." 

The  discovery  of  the  Sandwich  Islands  completed  this 
voyage  across  the  Pacific  from  south  to  north.  The 
chapter  in  the  history,  whether  by  Cook  or  by  Ander-' 
son,  on  the  islanders  of  the  archipelago  is  perhaps  the 
most  curious  part  of  the  narrative.  Gilbert  confines 
himself   to   the   immediate   usefulness    of   the   islands. 


134  CAPTAIN  COOK 


which  furnished  yams  that  lasted  for  a  fortnight  after 
their  departure. 

After  that  we  were  put  to  two-thirds  allowance  of  bread, 
and  had  the  pork  served  that  we  had  salted  at  the  Society 
Islands,  which  lasted  out  the  greatest  part  of  the  season  and 
kept  very  good  all  the  time.  We  were  allowed  a  small 
quantity  of  sour-krout,  twice  a  week,  to  eat  with,  our  salt 
provisions  ;  it  is  an  excellent  antiscorbutic,  and  kept  exceed- 
ingly well  all  the  voyage.  We  had  likewise  portable  soup, 
three  times  a  week,  boiled  with  our  peas  ;  which  were  much 
the  worst  article  of  provisions  we  had  on  board  ;  for  they 
had  been  kiln-dried  to  keep  them,  which  almost  rendered 
them  useless  :  for  after  being  in  the  copper  six  hours  they 
were  very  little  softer  than  at  first,  and  only  just  tinged  the 
water  they  were  boiled  in.  We  found  the  cold  to  increase 
very  fast  as  we  advanced  to  the  northwards  ;  and  hunger 
accompanying  it ;  for  our  allowance  of  bread  was  very  short, 
and  we  had  no  flour  served  in  lieu  of  beef,  which  was  grown 
very  bad. 

The  summer  of  this  year  was  spent  in  carrying  out 
the  main  purpose  of  the  voyage — namely,  the  search  for 
a  north-east  passage  from  the  Pacific  to  the  Atlantic. 
A  good  deal  of  time  was  necessarily  wasted  in  repairing 
the  ships,  for  which  purpose  King  George  Sound 
oflfered  an  excellent  natural  harbour.  Here  they  found 
a  large  number  of  the  natives,  who  brought  skins  in 
great  quantities  for  sale,  in  barter  taking  in  exchange 
anything  of  metal,  but  beads  and  cloth  had  no  attractions 
for  them.    Gilbert,  as  usual,  adds  his  little  homely  details. 

We  purchased  several  of  the  dried  skins  of  these 
animals  from  the  natives,  who  have  them  in  great  plenty ; 
particularly  those  of  the  land  and  sea  beavers,  but  of  the 
two  the  latter  is  the  most  plentiful,  the  fur  of  which  is 
supposed  to  be  superior  to  any  that  is  known.  The  most 
valuable  articles  that  we  used  in  this  traffic  were  hatchets, 


X  KING  GEORGE  SOUND  135 

saws,  old  swords,  large  knives,  and  blue  beads ;  but  having 
very  few  of  any  of  them  left,  we  supplied  the  want  of  these 
with  pewter  plates,  pieces  of  iron  hoops,  old  buckles,  buttons, 
etc.,  and,  in  fact,  anything  made  of  iron,  tin,  copper,  or  brass. 
The  principal  motive  of  our  procuring  those  skins  was  for 
clothing  to  secure  us  against  the  cold,  for  of  the  bearskins 
we  made  greatcoats,  and  with  the  furs  lined  our  jackets  and 
made  caps  and  gloves,  from  which  we  found  great  comfort ; 
and  indeed  we  had  need,  for  we  experienced  very  little  from 
our  provisions,  which  were  only  just  sufficient  to  keep  us 
alive. 

One  can  hear  the  talk  of  the  ward-room  when  this 
journal  is  read.  They  lament  continually  their  depart- 
ure from  fair  Tahiti.  They  have  no  word  of  praise  for 
the  people  in  these  cold  latitudes  :  "  They  are  the  most 
filthy  set  we  ever  met  with."  As  for  the  women, — "I 
don't  remember  that  more  than  two  or  three  of  them 
came  off  to  the  ships ;  they  were  dressed  nearly  in  the 
same  manner  as  the  men,  and  like  them  had  the  most 
dirty  appearance  imaginable :  being  far  unlike  the 
blooming  beauties  of  the  Tropics." 

He  says  nothing  at  all  about  a  very  curious  circumstance 
mentioned  by  Cook,  which  ^vould  have  increased  his 
disgust  had  he  observed  it — namely,  that  some  of  the 
people  brought  half-eaten  and  half-roasted  human  heads 
and  hands  and  offered  them  for  sale.  There  is  probably 
some  mistake,  as  in  no  part  of  North  America  were  the 
people  ever  cannibals.  Though  they  were  so  unattract- 
ive to  these  poor  fellows,  sick  with  longing  for  the 
delightful  fruits  and  soft  airs  and  blooming  beauties  of 
the  tropics,  they  managed  to  afford  a  certain  amount  of 
amusement. 

They    used    frequently   as   they  lay  alongside    in    their 


136  CAPTAIN  COOK  chap. 

canoes  to  entertain  us  with  their  war  songs  and  a  very 
curious  kind  of  masquerade  dance,  in  which  they  put  on 
large  wooden  masks  of  various  forms  and  colours,  and 
shifted  them  with  great  dexterity.  The  greater  part  of  them 
resembled  the  face  of  a  man  ;  the  features  were  cut  out 
larger,  but  very  expressive  and  well  executed,  and  represented 
a  number  of  droll  gestures  and  distortions  ;  they  had  hair 
eyebrows  and.  teeth  to  them,  and  were  painted  very 
curiously ;  some  of  them  were  made  to  resemble  the  heads 
of  wild  beasts  ;  and  others  that  of  a  bird  with  the  bill  to 
open  and  shut  at  pleasure.  The  two  latter  ones  they  fre- 
quently made  use  of  in  hunting,  by  way  of  deception  to 
decoy  those  animals  near  them  that  they  are  in  search  of. 

The  people  and  place  occupy  two  long  chapters  very 
carefully  put  together  in  the  history.  It  seems  certain 
that  Cook  and  Anderson,  to  both  of  whom  we  are 
indebted  for  these  chapters,  never  communicated  to  the 
other  officers  the  orderly  and  methodical  system  of 
research  into  manners  and  customs  which  they  brought 
to  their  own  work  among  the  natives.  In  many 
respects  the  metjiods  recommended  by  modern  students 
of  anthropology  might  have  been  based  upon  those 
followed  by  Cook  and  his  sagacious  assistant. 

On  leaving  the  Sound  the  ships  proceeded  northward 
along  the  shore.  Here  the  history  becomes  little  more 
than  a  log,  showing  the  course,  the  discoveries  of  islands, 
inlets,  rivers,  and  headlands.  There  is  not  a  word  in 
Cook's  journal  to  show  that  the  ship's  provisions  were 
anything  but  abundant.  It  is  from  Gilbert  that  we  hear 
of  short  commons  and  grumbling.  But  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  the  captain  fared  no  better  than  his  officers 
or  his  men.  "  Here,"  says  Gilbert,  "  a  boat  was  sent  on 
shore  with  a  few  people  to  haul  the  seine  for  fish.  AYe 
caught  several  cod  alongside  with  hook  and  line,  which 


NOkTHWARDS  137 


were  a  most  welcome  acquisition  to  us,  being  almost 
starved  Avith  hunger/'  A  few  days  later  there  is 
another  welcome  acquisition.  "  Four  or  five  small 
canoes  came  off  to  us  with  one  or  two  men  in  each,  and 
brought  with  them  a  few  fresh  salmon,  which  we  pur- 
chased, and  heartily  wished  for  more  :  these  serving 
only  to  raise  our  desires  for  what  we  could  not  jjrocure, 
as  they  did  not  come  off  to  us  again. "  Happily,  being 
becalmed  off  an  island,  they  caught  a  great  quantity  of 
halibut — "afforded  us  an  excellent  feast  for  four  or 
five  days."  In  common  gratitude  they  named  the 
island  after  the  fish,  and  for  all  I  know  the  island  still 
bears  that  name.  In  these  seas  there  was  a  great  deal 
of  fog,  and  the  shores  were  still  covered  with  snow. 
On  August  4th,  William  Anderson,  the  surgeon  and 
observer,  died  of  consumption  from  which  he  had  long 
been  declining.  Gilbert  mentions  the  circumstance 
without  any  comment.  The  captain  says  of  him :  "  He 
was  a  sensible  young  man,  an  agreeable  companion,  well 
skilled  in  his  own  profession,  and  had  acquired  con- 
siderable knowledge  in  other  branches  of  science.  The 
reader  of  this  journal  will  have  observed  how  useful  an 
assistant  I  had  found  him  in  the  course  of  the  voyage ; 
and  had  it  pleased  God  to  have  spared  his  life,  the 
public,  I  make  no  doubt,  might  have  received  from  him 
such  communications  on  various  parts  of  the  natural 
history  of  the  several  places  we  visited,  as  would  have 
abundantly  shown  that  he  was  not  unworthy  of  this 
commendation." 

It  seems  rather  cold  praise,  but  it  is  a  true  and  faith- 
ful acknowledgment  of  duty,  and  as  much  as  could  be 
expected  of  a  man  who  loved  nothing  but  work,  and  sav/ 


138  CAPTAIN  COOK  chap. 

no  special  merit  in  a  man's  working  his  best.  As  for  the 
observations  referred  to,  they  are,  as  I  have  already 
explained,  incorporated  in  the  history  by  Bishop 
Douglas.  Anderson's  papers  were  all  handed  over  to 
the  Admiralty,  but  those  which  concerned  natural 
history  were  given  to  Sir  Joseph  Banks.  Poor  Anderson 
was  fated  to  receive  scant  praise.  Banks  could  only 
say  of  him  that  had  he  lived  he  would  have  given  to  the 
world  something  that  would  have  done  him  credit. 
This  great  mass  of  observation  was  incorporated  with 
Cook's  journal — is  not  that  creditable  to  Anderson  % 
One  would  have  liked  a  little  more  about  Anderson, 
who  interests  us  above  all  the  rest  of  the  company 
which  followed  Cook.  Gilbert  might  have  told  us  that 
he  was  ill  :  he  might  at  least  have  said  a  word  as  to 
the  way  in  which  his  death  was  received ;  but  that  is 
not  a  sailor's  way.  When  a  man  dies,  the  event  is 
recorded,  and  the  body  dropped  overboard — that  is  all ; 
his  place  is  filled  up  and  nothing  more  is  said.  The 
cold  and  fogs  met  with  in  this  part  of  the  voyage  clearly 
accelerated  the  end  of  Anderson  ;  they  proved  trying  to 
the  whole  crew,  as  is  evident  from  Gilbert's  journal. 
He  gives  us  at  this  point  an  account  of  the  sea-horse, 
which  shows  considerable  powers  of  observation.  The 
details  concerning  the  preparation  of  the  carcass  for  food 
are  wanting  in  Cook's  account.     He  says  : 

By  seven  o'clock  in  the  evening  we  had  received  on 
board  the  Resolution  nine  of  these  animals,  which,  till  now, 
we  had  supposed  to  be  sea-cows,  so  that  we  were  not  a  little 
disappointed,  especially  some  of  the  seamen,  who,  for  the 
novelty  of  the  tiling,  had  been  feasting  their  eyes  for  some 
days  past.  Nor  would  they  have  been  disappointed  now,  nor 
have  known  the  difference,  if  w^e  had  not  happened  to  have 


THE  SEA-HORSE  139 


one  or  two  on  board  wlio  had  been  in  Greenland,  and  de- 
clared what  animals  these  were,  and  that  no  one  ever  ate 
of  them.  But  notwithstanding  this  we  lived  upon  them 
as  long  as  they  lasted,  and  there  were  few  on  board  who  did 
not  prefer  them  to  our  salt  meat. 

Hear  now  Gilbert's  account  of  these  animals,  and  of 
the  delectable  food  they  aftbrded. 

During  this  cold  and  disagreeable  passage  we  met  with 
great  numbers  of  sea-horses,  but  why  they  are  so  called  I 
can't  imagine,  for  they  bear  not  the  smallest  resemblance  to 
that  animal.  They  are  about  the  size  of  a  large  ox,  and  have 
a  thick  hide  thinly  covered  with  short  bristly  hair  ;  their 
heads  are  very  small,  and  is  the  only  part  about  them  that 
has  the  least  appearance  to  a  beast,  the  rest  of  the  body 
being  like  a  fish,  the  hinder  parts  tapering  and  terminating 
in  a  couple  of  fins  about  two  feet  long  instead  of  feet ;  having 
likewise  one  upon  each  .shoulder,  with  which  they  swim  faster 
than  can  be  imagined,  but  more  slowly  upon  the  ice.  They, 
have  two  large  white  ivory  teeth  like  those  of  the  elephant 
projecting  with  a  small  curve  downwards  from  their  upper 
jaw  ;  Avhich  are  from  one  and  a  haK  to  two  feet  in  length 
and  nearly  parallel  to  each  other  at  about  five  inches  distance, 
and  end  in  a  point  at  the  outer  extremities.  That  they 
are  endued  with  a  greater  share  of  sagacity  and  understand- 
ing than  the  generality  of  animals  will  appear  from  the 
following  instance :  when  they  went  to  sleep,  a  great  number 
of  them  assembled  upon  a  small  piece  of  ice  separated  from 
the  rest,  and  only  just  large  enough  for  that  purpose  ;  that 
they  may  the  more  readily  get  off  from  it  into  the  water  in 
case  of  the  approach  of  an  enemy.  I  believe  the  only  one 
they  are  apprehensive  of  is  the  white  bear,  which  is  like- 
wise amphibious  ;  and  being  much  nimbler  upon  the  ice 
then  they  are,  has  there  greatly  the  advantage  of  them  ; 
but  in  the  water  the  sea-horse  is  the  swiftest  and  most  for- 
midable on  account  of  its  teeth.  Therefore  to  prevent  being 
surprised  in  their  sleep  they  always  appoint  one  as  a  sentinel 
and  place  it  in  the  middle  to  kiep  watch  over  them  during 


I40     .  CAPTAIN  COOK 


that  time  :  which  charge  is  strictly  and  faithfully  performed, 
keeping  the  fore  parts  of  its  body  erect,  and  an  attentive  eye 
all  round ;  as  we  approached  them  witli  the  ships  they  would 
lie  very  quiet  till  we  came  within  two  cables'  length  of  them, 
when  the  one  that  had  the  watch  would  make  a  great  noise 
to  alarm  the  rest,  upon  which  they  all  began  by  degrees  to 
raise  their  heads  and  shoulders  and  look  round  them,  and  then 
crawl  to  the  edge  of  the  ice,  and  plunge  head  foremost  into 
the  water  ;  so  that  by  the  time  we  had  got  within  half  a 
cable's  length  of  them,  there  would  not  be  one  remaining. 
The  noise  they  make  is  a  mean  betwixt  the  barking  of  a  dog 
and  the  bellowing  of  an  ox.  We  hoisted  out  our  boats  to  get 
some,  and  with  great  difficulty  killed  and  brought  on  board 
eight  or  ten  of  them ;  for  although  we  rowed  ever  so  softly, 
yet  by  the  time  w^e  got  within  good  musket  shot,  it  was  a 
great  chance  if  there  were  any  left ;  and  unless  we  fired  at 
them  upon  the  ice  it  was  twenty  to  one  that  we  could  hit 
^hem  in  the  water,  as  they  dive  immediately.  They  \\ill  in 
general  bear  three  or  four  balls  in  their  bodies  before  they 
are  killed,  except  in  their  heads,  and  then  one  is  sufficient. 
Their  affection  for  their  young  and  even  for  one  another  is 
very  great  and  remarkable,  for  wherever  one  of  them  got 
wounded  in  the  water,  if  any  of  the  rest  were  near,  they 
would  come  to  its  assistance  and  carry  it  off  if  possible  at 
tlie  risk  of  their  own  lives  ;  but  if  by  chance  we  had  killed 
one  of  their  young,  the  mother  would  come  and  make  every 
attempt  to  rescue  it  from  us,  and  even  try  to  upset  the  boat 
it  was  in,  by  hooking  the  boat  side  with  her  teeth,  which 
she  would  follow  till  she  was  killed,  all  the  time  making 
a  lamentable  noise  and  showing  every  sign  of  real  parental 
distress. 

After  we  had  got  them  on  board  they  were  skinned  and 
cut  up  by  the  butcher ;  the  hides  we  preserved  for  the  rigging, 
the  blubber  or  fat  we  put  into  casks  to  melt  down  into  train 
oil  for  our  lamps  ;  and  the  flesh,  disgustful  as  it  was,  we  ate 
through  extreme  hunger,  caused  by  the  badness  of  our  pro- 
visions and  short  allowance,  which  were  but  just  enough  to 
exist  upon,  and  were  now  reduced  on  account  of  this  supply  ; 
the  quality  of  Mhich  will  be  best  described  in  the  several 
preparations  it  went  through  before  it  was  possible  to  eat  it. 


KilliniT  walrus  for  food.  — P.  140. 


X  THE   SEA-HORSE  141 

In  the  first  place,  we  let  it  hang  up  for  one  day  that  the  blood 
might  drain  from  it,  which  would  continue  to  drop  for  four 
or  five  days,  when  permitted  to  remain  so  long,  but  that  our 
hunger  would  not  allow  of  at  first  ;  after  that  we  towed  it 
overboard  for  twelve  hours,  then  boiled  it  four  hours,  and  the 
next  day  cut  it  into  steaks  and  fried  it  ;  and  even  then  it 
was  too  rank  both  in  smell  and  taste  to  make  use  of,  except 
with  plenty  of  pepper  and  salt,  and  these  two  articles  were 
very  scarce  amongst  us  ;  however,  our  hunger  got  the  better 
of  the  quality,  and  in  the  quantity  we  found  some  comfort, 
having  as  much  of  it  as  we  could  eat,  which  was  what  we 
had  been  a  long  time  unaccustomed  to  ;  we  salted  some  of 
it  by  way  of  experiment,  which,  after  lying  two  or  three 
weeks,  we  found  was  a  little  improved  ;  but  still  could  only 
be  eaten  by  such  as  were  at  the  point  of  perishing  with  hunger, 
and  where  no  other  food  was  to  be  secured. 

The  most  northerly  point  reached  was  in  lat.  69°  36'. 
They  were  then  in  the  region  of  Polar  ice.  As  there 
was  but  little  "wind  the  captain  went  out  with  the  boats 
to  examine  the  state  of  the  ice  and  the  manner  of  its 
formation.  He  arrived  at  the  conclusion,  since  fully 
confirmed,  that  it  is  vain  to  expect  that  these  seas  are 
e\'er  free  from  ice,  or  to  believe  that  the  sun  of  an 
Arctic  summer  is  ever  strong  enough  to  melt  the  ice 
formed  in  the  winter. 

I  am  of  opinion  (lie  says)  that  the  sun  contributes 
very  little  towards  reducing  these  great  masses.  For 
although  that  luminary  is  a  considerable  while  above  the 
liorizon,  it  seldom  shines  out  for  more  than  a  few  hours  at  a 
time,  and  often  is  not  seen  for  several  days  in  succession. 
It  is  the  wind,  or  rather  the  waves  raised  by  the  wind,  that 
brings  down  the  bulk  of  these  enormous  masses  by  grinding 
one  piece  against  another,  and  by  undermining  and  washing 
away  those  parts  that  lie  exposed  to  the  surge  of  the  sea. 
This  was  evident  from  our  observing  that  the  upper  surface 
of  many  pieces  had  been  partly  washed  away,  while  the  base 


142  CAPTAIN  COOK 


or  imder-part  remained  firm  for  several  fathoms  round  that 
which  appeared  above  water,  exactly  like  a  shoal  round  an 
elevated  rock.  .  .  .  Thus  it  may  happen  that  more  ice  is 
destroyed  in  one  stormy  season  than  is  formed  by  several 
winters,  and  an  endless  accumulation  is  prevented.  But 
that  there  is  always  a  remaining  store,  every  one  who 
has  been  upon  the  spot  will  conclude,  and  none  but  closet- 
studying  pliilosophers  will  dispute. 

The  journal  here  resumes  the  baldness  of  a  log;  the 
ship's  course  was  southward  again  among  the  islands  oflf 
Alaska.  On  one  of  them  Cook  remarks  :  "  We  found  a 
heath  abounding  with  a  variety  of  berries."  Gilbert  as 
usual  expresses  the  emotions  of  the  crew  at  the  discovery 
of  these  berries. 

This  part  of  the  coast,  which  is  very  mountainous  inland, 
but  toward  the  shore  is  of  a  moderate  height  and  thinly  covered 
with  small  pines  ;  this  being  the  first  wood  we  had  seen  since 
we  had  left  Cook's  River,  it  was  quite  a  new  sight  to  us  and 
appeared  very  delightful.  We  found  hurtle  and  crane  berries 
here  in  great  plenty,  which  proved  a  far  more  delicious  treat 
to  us  than  the  fruits  of  the  tropical  islands  ;  being  at  present 
in  much  greater  want  of  them  ;  yet  we  got  but  few,  as  we 
were  allowed  to  go  on  shore  only  for  a  very  short  time.  We 
took  in  some  water  here  and  a  great  quantity  of  wood,  the 
beach  being  almost  covered  with  old  trees  and  branches  that 
had  drifted  upon  it.  As  we  could  not  get  any  farther  witli 
the  ships,  two  boats  were  sent  well  armed,  under  the  command 
of  Mr.  King,  our  second  lieutenant,  to  examine  the  head  of 
the  sound  and  discover  if  the  land  on  the  south  side  joined 
to  this  on  the  north.  We  saw  about  twelve  of  the  natives, 
from  whom  we  purchased  several  salmon  trout,  which  were 
very  acceptable  to  us.  After  three  days  we  weighed  and 
stood  over  to  the  other  side  of  the  sound,  which  is  here 
about  seven  leagues  across,  and  anchored  within  a  bluff  point 
that  stretched  a  little  way  out  and  formed  a  small  bay  to  the 
westward  of  it ;  we  landed  and  found  great  plenty  of  berries 
and  a  few  currant  bushes,  but  they  had  no  fruit  left  upon 


KA  MSCHA  TKA  143 


them.  We  gathered  great  quantities  of  an  herb  that  grows 
here,  to  make  use  of  in  lieu  of  tea  ;  which  has  a  very  agree- 
able flavour,  and  is  the  same  kind  as  is  used  b}-  the  Indians 
of  Hudson's  Bay  and  Newfoundland. 

Among  these  islands  and  on  the  coast  of  Kamschatka 
they  fell  in  with  Eussians,  from  whom  they  got  such 
information  as  these  settlers  could  give  and  the  sight  of 
their  charts.  It  w^as  not  until  the  end  of  October  that 
Cook  finally  left  Oonalashka  and  steered  south,  appoint- 
ing the  Sandwich  Islands  as  the  place  of  rendezvous  for 
the  Discovery.  During  this  voyage  in  the  North  Pacific 
twelve  hundred  leagues  of  coast  were  examined,  and  the 
sea  traversed  in  many  directions.  No  other  navigator  had 
ever  before  done  so  much  for  this  part  of  the  w^orld. 
Yet  the  expedition  failed  in  its  main  object  and  found 
no  north-east  passage. 

On  December  1st  the  Resolution  reached  the  Sand- 
wich Islands  once  more,  and  discovered  the  islands 
of  Mowee  (Maui)  and  Owhyhee  (Hawaii).  Gilbert 
again  expresses  for  us  the  satisfaction  of  the  crew  upon 
arriving  at  a  place  of  rest  and  refreshment  after  this 
long  voyage. 

The  joy  that  we  experienced  on  our  arrival  here  is 
only  to  be  conceived  by  ourselves,  or  people  under  like 
circumstances ;  for  after  suffering  excess  of  hunger  and  a 
number  of  other  hardships  most  severely  felt  by  us  for  the 
space  of  near  ten  months,  we  had  now  come  into  a  delightful 
climate,  where  we  had  almost  everything  we  could  wish  for 
in  great  profusion  ;  and  this  luxury  was  still  heightened  by 
our  having  been  at  a  shorter  allowance  of  provisions  this 
last  passage  than  ever  we  were  at  before.  Having  procured  a 
suflBcient  supply  to  last  us  four  or  five  days,  we  stood  off 
and  worked  up  along  shore  to  the  S.E.,  keeping  at  the  dis- 
tance of  five  or  six  leagues  from  the  land  :  when  our  stock 


144  CAPTAIN  COOK 


on  board  began  to  grow  short,  we  went  close  in  and  traded 
for  more,  and  then  stood  off  again ;  this  we  continued  to  do 
for  ten  or  twelve  days,  till  we  weathered  the  S.E.  point  of 
the  island,  which  is  called  by  the  natives  Mow  wee. 

AVe  have  now  arrived  at  the  last  act  in  the  life  of 
Captain  Cook.  As  regards  the  people  who  were  to  be 
his  murderers,  almost  his  last  words  express  his  con- 
fidence in  the  natives  and  his  satisfaction  with  their 
conduct. 

I  had  never  met  with  a  behaviour  so  free  from  reserve 
and  suspicion,  in  my  intercourse  with  any  tribes  of  savages, 
as  we  experienced  in  the  people  of  this  island.  ...  It  is 
to  be  observed  to  their  honour  that  they  never  once 
attempted  to  cheat  us  in  exchanges,  nor  to  commit  a  theft. 
They  understand  trading  as  well  as  most  people,  and  seemed 
to  comprehend  clearly  the  reason  of  our  plying  upon  the 
coast.  .  .  .  TVe  moored  with  stream-anchor  and  cable  to  the 
northward,  unbent  the  sails,  and  struck  yards  and  topmasts. 
The  ships  continued  to  be  most  crowded  with  natives  and 
were  surrounded  by  a  multitude  of  canoes.  I  had  nowhere 
in  the  course  of  my  voyage  seen  so  numerous  a  body  of 
people  assembled  at  one  place.  For  besides  those  who  had 
come  off  to  us  in  canoes,  all  the  shore  was  covered  with 
spectators,  and  many  hundreds  were  swimming  round  the 
ship  like  shoals  of  fish.  We  could  not  but  be  struck  with 
the  singularity  of  the  scene  ;  and  perhaps  there  were  few  on 
boarel  who  ever  lamented  our  having  failed  in  our  endeavours 
to  find  a  northern  passage  homeward  last  summer.  To  this 
disappointment  we  owed  our  having  it  in  our  power  to 
revisit  the  Sandwich  Islands,  and  to  enrich  our  voyage  with 
a  discovery  which,  though  the  last,  seemed  in  many  respects 
to  be  the  most  important  that  had  hitherto  been  made  by 
Europeans  throughout  the  extent  of  the  Pacific  Ocean. 

These  are  the  last  Avritten  words  of  Captain  Cook, 
if  indeed  he  did  write  them,  which  only  Bishop  Douglas 


X  LAST  WORDS  OF  COOK  145 

can  tell  us.  It  is  singular  not  only  that  his  confidence 
should  prove  so  mistaken,  but  that  he  should  also  so 
greatly  exaggerate  the  importance  of  this  new  discovery. 
What  is  Hawaii — what  are  all  the  Sandwich  Islands 
together — compared  with  New  Zealand  and  Australia  % 


CHAPTER   XI 

HIS   DEATH 

The  Pacific,  which  loved  to  kill  those  who  wrested 
its  secrets,  was  now  to  claim  as  a  victim  the  great  sailor 
who  had  fixed  on  the  chart  all  the  floating  and  uncertain 
islands  seen  by  previous  voyagers,  and  had  found  so 
many  more  himself.  The  story  of  his  death  is  the  most 
remarkable  in  the  whole  history  of  ocean  disaster.  It 
was  imperfectly  told,  because  imperfectly  understood,  by 
King,  Samwell,  and  others  w^ho  witnessed  it.  The  real 
explanation  of  the  tragedy  has  been  obtained  from  the 
people  of  Hawaii  themselves.  It  will  be  found  in  the 
History  of  Haivaii,  by  ]\Ianley  Hopkins,  Hawaiian 
Consul-General.  Let  us  tell  the  tiTie  story,  made  pos- 
sible by  the  traditions  and  recollections  of  the  natives 
themselves.  Mr.  Hopkins  states  that  in  1823,  when  Mr. 
Ellis,  the  missionary,  visited  the  island,  he  found  many 
still  living  who  had  been  present  at  the  murder,  or  who 
remembered  its  occurrence.  I  can  corroborate  this  state- 
ment, because  I  was  myself  assured  of  the  fact  by  Mr. 
Ellis  himself  somewhere  about  the  year  1865.  He  not 
only  informed  me  that  he  had  conversed  with  men  who 
had  been  present  and  had  seen  the  thing  done,  but  he 
also  gave  me  certain  particulars  concerning  the  murder 
which  I  unfortunately  neglected  to  note.     To  the  best 


CHAP.  XI  LONO  THE  SWINE- GOD  147 

of  my  recollection,  however,  in  Hopkins's  book  these 
particulars  are  all  recorded.  The  tale  is  one  which 
the  biographer  would  leave  untold  if  possible.  But  it 
cannot  be  neglected.  Cook  was  killed,  who  had  shown 
a  power  of  conciliation  with  the  natives  granted  to  no 
other  navigator  in  these  seas — Why  % 

Those  who  first  boarded  Cook's  ships  returned  with 
astonishing  reports.  The  people  on  board  had  heads 
horned  like  the  moon;  they  carried  fires  burning  in 
their  mouths ;  they  ate  the  raw  flesh  of  men — this  was 
the  red  water-melon.  If  they  wanted  anything  they 
took  it  out  of  their  bodies ;  and  they  voyaged,  as  any- 
body could  see,  on  islands  with  high  trees.  This  was 
the  report. 

Now,  a  long  time  ago,  there  lived,  on  the  island  of 
Hawaii,  Lono  the  swine -god.  He  was  jealous  of  his 
wife  and  killed  her.  Driven  to  frenzy  by  the  act,  he 
went  about  boxing  and  wrestling  every  man  whom  he 
met,  crying,  "I  am  frantic  with  my  great  love."  He 
instituted  the  athletic  games  kno\\Ti  as  the  Mahakiki 
in  honour  of  his  wife's  memory,  and  sailed  away  from 
the  island  for  a  foreign  land.  Ere  he  departed  he 
prophesied,  "I  will  return  in  after-times  on  an  island 
bearing  cocoa-nut  trees,  smne,  and  dogs."  Who  should 
these  strangers  be  but  Lono,  the  great  god  Lono,  come 
back  again  with  his  companions — every  one  an  immortal 
of  the  lesser  kind  % 

When  Cook  returned  after  a  year's  absence  he  first 
anchored  in  the  Bay  of  Wailuhu  on  the  northern  shore 
of  Maui.  He  arrived  the  day  after  a  great  battle,  in 
which  the  King  of  Hawaii,  who  had  invaded  the  ad- 
jacent island,  was  victorious.     To  the  victors  it  seemed 


I4S  CAPTAIN  COOK 


now  absolutely  certain  that  Lono  himself,  the  god  of 
victories,  had  come  in  person  to  add  histre  to  their 
triumph.  The  news  ciuickly  spread  over  all  the  islands 
of  the  group. 

When  the  ships  anchored  in  the  Bay  of  Kealakeakua 
it  was  in  the  middle  of  a  week  of  Uihii.  No  ordinary 
avocations  were  to  be  followed,  no  canoe  must  put  out 
to  sea,  no  one  must  bathe,  no  one  must  be  seen  out  of 
doors.  There  must  be  no  light,  no  fire,  no  noise.  Only 
the  kings  and  priests,  descendants  of  the  gods,  might 
move  about  as  usual.  It  was  at  one  of  these  awful 
periods  that  Cook  arrived  for  the  second  time.  He  was 
received  in  silence  profound.  Yet  so  strong  was  the 
belief  that  he  was  none  other  than  Lono  himself  that 
the  tahxh  was  instantly  removed.  Great  numbers  of 
people  went  on  board,  among  them  a  high  chief  named 
Palu  and  an  old  priest,  who  paid  divine  honours  to  the 
captain,  throwing  a  red  cloth  over  his  shoulders  and 
pronouncing  a  long  oration.  How  far  the  English 
understood  what  was  meant  does  not  appear.  Probably 
they  took  these  ceremonies  as  simple  proofs  of  friend- 
ship. But  what  followed  could  hardly  be  interpreted 
to  mean  simple  friendliness  or  even  respect. 

The  people,  in  their  anxiety  to  see  the  great  god 
Lono,  flocked  by  tens  of  thousands.  There  were  three 
thousand  canoes  afloat  on  the  bay  at  one  time.  When 
the  captain  went  on  shore, 

heralds  announced  his  approach,  and  opened  a  way  for 
him  through  the  crowds.  As  he  moved,  the  assemblage 
covered  their  faces,  and  those  nearest  to  him  prostrated  them- 
selves on  the  earth  in  the  deepest  hmnility.  As  soon  as 
Lono  had  passed,  the  people  sprang  up  erect  and  uncovered 


XI  AN  ACT  OF  WORSHIP  149 

their  faces.  The  evolution  of  prostration  and  erection  was 
found  at  last  so  inconvenient,  and  to  require  so  unwonted 
an  agility,  that  the  practical-minded  people  found  that  they 
could  best  meet  the  case  by  going  permanently  on  their 
hands  and  feet  ;  and  so  at  last  the  procession  changed  its 
character,  and  10,000  men  and  women  were  seen  pursuing 
or  flying  from  Captain  Cook  on  all  fours.^ 

This  would  be  only  ridiculous,  l)ut  what  followed 
was  more  serious.  King,  who  tells  the  story  with  all 
the  details,  certainly  did  not  understand  the  meaning 
and  the  importance  of  the  ceremonies.  It  is  important 
also  to  note  that  neither  Sam  well  in  his  account  of  the 
murder,  nor  Gilbert,  knew  anything  about  this  wonderful 
function.  The  chief  Koah — chief  and  priest — led  Cook, 
who  was  accompanied  by  King  and  by  Bayley  the 
astronomer,  to  a  certain  mmai^  or  sacred  place,  formed 
by  a  square  solid  pile  of  stones,  forty  yards  long,  twenty 
broad,  and  fourteen  high.  The  top  was  flat  and  paved, 
surrounded  by  a  wooden  rail,  on  which  were  flxed  skulls 
of  sacrificed  captives.  In  the  centre  of  this  area  stood  a 
minor  building  of  wood ;  on  the  side  next  the  country 
were  five  poles,  upwards  of  twenty  feet  high,  supporting 
an  irregular  kind  of  scaffold  ;  at  the  entrance  were  two 
wooden  images ;  and  beside  the  poles  were  twelve  images 
ranged  in  a  semicircle.  They  invited  the  captain  to 
climb  upon  the  scaff"old,  and  there,  having  wrapped  him 
in  red  cloth,  they  proceeded  to  off'er  him  a  hog,  two 
priests  performing  a  kind  of  service  \a\h  antiphonal 
chants  in  honour  of  the  god  Lono.  When  the  captain 
came  down  he  was  invited  to  prostrate  himself  and  to 
kiss  a   certain   idol ;    this   he   apparently  did  without 

^  Hopkins's  History  of  Ho.waii,  p.  98. 


I50  CAPTAIN  COOK  chap. 

scruple.  He  was  then  placed  between  two  wooden 
images  of  other  gods ;  his  face  and  hands  were  anointed 
with  chewed  cocoa-nut;  he  drank  o.eow  prepared  by 
mastication,  and  ate  pork  also  masticated.  On  another 
occasion  he  visited  a  second  temple,  where  similar  cere- 
monies were  performed,  and  always  afterwards  whenever 
he  landed  a  priest  attended  him.  These  ceremonies, 
according  to  King,  "  so  far  as  related  to  the  person  of 
Captain  Cook,  approached  to  adoration." 

Clearly  King  understood  nothing  of  the  real  meaning 
of  these  ceremonies.  But  there  are  preserved  at  Hawaii, 
among  the  histories  and  traditions  made  in  the  early 
days  when  the  people  were  first  encouraged  to  write 
down  their  recollections  and  legends,  certain  documents 
which  state  positively,  and  leave  no  doubt,  that  the 
story  told  above  is  true ;  that  Cook  was  taken  for  the 
god  Lono,  and  that  the  priests  paid  him  divine  honours 
as  Lono,  and  caused  the  people  to  bring  him  offerings 
— the  collection  of  which  became  very  speedily  a  grievous 
tax — of  2)igs,  fruit,  and  cloth. 

When  the  king  came  back  from  Maui  he  paid  a  grand 
visit  of  ceremony  to  the  ships,  bringing  gifts.  He  threw 
over  Lono's  shoulders  his  own  cloak,  adorned  his  head 
with  his  own  helmet,  and  placed  in  his  hands  a  curious 
fan — the  insignia  of  royalty. 

What  did  Cook  mean  by  accepting  these  honours? 
The  gifts  of  the  king  might  have  been  accepted  as  a 
proof  of  friendshi}) ;  but  the  prostration,  the  litany,  the 
sacrifice,  the  kissing  of  the  idol — what  could  these  things 
mean  %  It  seems  as  if  he  must  have  known  that  worship 
was  intended — adoration — of  something  godlike,  even  if 
the  fable  of  the  god  Lono  was  unknown  to  him.     Indeed, 


XT  THE  SACRED  FENCE  15 1 

there  is  no  indication  of  his  knowing  anything  about 
Lono,  who  is  called  in  King's  journal  Orono,  and  inter- 
preted to  mean  a  title  of  high  honour.  We  must  con- 
clude that  Cook's  attitude  showed  a  readiness  to  accept 
any  honours,  provided  only  that  they  assisted  in  victual- 
ling his  ships  and  promoting  the  success  of  the  expedition. 
If  they  chose  to  worship  him,  they  might. 

The  sequel  proved  that  he  would  have  done  better 
to  repudiate  these  honours.  Two  or  three  unfortunate 
incidents  occurred.  One  of  the  seamen  died.  He  was 
an  old  man  named  William  Watman,  who  had  served  as 
a  marine  for  twenty -one  years;  after  that  he  sailed 
with  Cook  on  his  second  voyage,  and  though  by  the 
captain's  interest  he  obtained  admission  into  Greenwich 
Hospital,  he  could  not  remain  there,  but  must  needs 
follow  his  master  on  his  third  voyage.  He  w^as  buried 
on  shore,  the  captain  reading  the  service.  Perhaps  it 
would  have  been  better  to  have  buried  him  in  the  sea, 
and  thus  to  have  avoided  connecting  death  in  the  minds 
of  the  natives  with  these  strangers. 

Then  there  was  the  unfortunate  business  about  the 
fence  which  surrounded  the  sanctuary.  This  fence — 
actually  this  sacred  fence — was  demanded  for  fuel ;  it 
was  not  refused — nothing  could  be  refused  to  Lono — and 
it  was  taken  on  board  the  ship,  with  many  idols  attached 
to  it  or  leaning  against  it.  One  cannot  understand  the 
story  except  that  Cook,  in  some  blundering  way,  con- 
ceived the  idea  of  shomng  the  people  how  power- 
less were  their  idols.  What  should  we  think  if  some 
Protestant,  using  a  power  Avhich  had  fallen  to  him, 
should  demand  the  stripping  of  the  figures  and  pictures 
of  a  Roman  Catholic   cathedral?      Then   there  was  a 


152  CAPTAIN  COOK 


quarrel  about  the  carrying  of  a  iTidder  which  had  been 
taken  ashore  for  repairs.  Stones  were  thrown  about  and 
sticks  freely  used. 

Perhaps  in  consequence  of  these  things,  but  probably 
because  they  were  already  tired  of  their  enthusiasm  and 
of  the  expense  which  it  entailed,  the  people  had  begun 
to  show  signs  of  impatience. 

I  could  never  learn  (King  writes — and  this  is  verj^  use- 
ful in  showing  how  little  they  understood  of  the  popular 
superstition)  anything  further  than  that  they  imagined  we 
came  from  some  country  where  provisions  had  failed,  and  that 
our  visit  to  them  was  merely  for  the  purpose  of  filling  our 
bellies.  Indeed  the  meagre  appearance  of  some  of  our  crew, 
the  hearty  appetites  with  which  we  sat  down  to  the  fresh 
provision-*,  and  our  great  anxiety  to  purchase  and  carry  off 
as  much  as  we  were  able,  led  them  naturally  to  such  a  con- 
clusion. .  .  It  was  ridiculous  enough  to  see  them  stroking 
the  sides  and  patting  the  bellies  of  the  sailors  (who  were 
certainly  much  improved  in  the  sleekness  of  their  looks 
during  our  short  stay  in  the  island),  and  telling  them,  partly 
by  signs  and  partly  by  words,  that  it  was  time  for  them  to 
go,  but  if  they  would  come  again  the  next  bread-fruit  season 
they  should  be  better  able  to  supply  our  wants.  We  had 
now  been  sixteen  days  in  the  bay,  and  if  our  enormous  con- 
sumption of  hogs  and  vegetables  be  considered,  it  need  not 
be  wondered  that  they  should  wish  to  see  us  leave. 


They  sailed  on  February  4th,  1779,  no  doubt  to 
the  joy  and  relief  of  the  people.  The  great  god  Lono, 
gratifying  as  it  always  is  to  gaze  upon  a  god,  had  proved 
expensive.  It  was  hoped  that  a  generation  or  two  would 
pass  before  his  return.  He  took  from  them  a  great 
farewell  present  of  food  and  cloth,  and  in  return  gave 
them  an  exhibition  of  fireworks. 

A   week    afterwards    the    ships    came    back.       The 


XI  RETURN  OF  THE  SHIPS  153 

Resolution  had  sprung  her  foremast  in  a  gale.  There 
were  no  signs  of  welcome.  The  king  had  gone  away 
and  left  the  island  under  tahu.  The  priests,  however, 
consented  to  receive  the  damaged  spar  and  sails  and  to 
place  them  with  a  small  guard  of  marines  under  special 
tabu. 

But  the  old  power  was  gone ;  the  people  had  either 
ceased  to  believe  that  Cook  was  Lono,  or,  which  is  more 
probable,  were  so  familiar  with  the  appearance  of  the 
god  and  his  companions  as  to  revere  them  no  longer. 
Then  the  marines  in  guard  of  the  gear  under  repair  did 
a  very  dreadful  thing, — they  persuaded  some  of  the 
women  to  break  the  tabu  and  visit  them ;  in  their  wrath 
the  islanders  burned  down  their  house  after  they  had 
gone<  There  was  a  quarrel  again  about  getting  water. 
Finally  there  was  a  more  serious  trouble  about  one  of 
the  Discovery's  cutters,  "which  was  stolen.  No  other  than 
the  chief  Palu  himself,  who  had  been  the  first  to  welcome 
the  return  of  the  god,  stole  that  cutter.  Can  we  imagine 
that  he  or  the  other  chiefs  and  priests  believed  any 
longer  in  the  divinity  of  Cook  and  his  companions? 
Such  a  thing  as  the  loss  of  the  boat  was  an  occasion  on 
which  Cook  always  showed  great  determination.  He 
went  on  shore  himself,  resolved  to  make  an  example. 
He  would  capture  the  king  and  take  him  on  board  his 
ship,  there  to  stay  till  the  cutter  was  restored. 

This  was  on  the  morning  of  Sunday,  February  14th. 
The  native  account  of  what  followed  is  thus  given  by 
Hopkins. 

Cook  having  come  on  shore  and  had  an  interview  with 
Kalaniopuu,  the  two  walked  together  towards  the  shore, 
Cook  designing  to  take  the  king  on  board  his  ship  and  detain 


154  CAPTAIN  COOK 


him  there  till  the  iiiis.'sing  boat  should  be  restored.  The 
people  seeing  this,  and  having  their  suspicions  already  roused, 
thronged  round  and  objected  to  the  king's  going  further. 
His  wife,  too,  entreated  that  he  would  not  go  on  board  the 
ships,  Kalaniopuu  hesitated.  While  he  was  standing  in 
doubt  a  man  came  running  from  the  other  side  of  the  bay 
crying,  "  It  is  war.  The  foreigners  have  fired  at  a  canoe 
from  one  of  their  boats  and  killed  a  chief  ! "  On  hearing 
this  the  people  became  enraged  and  the  chiefs  were  alarmed, 
fearing  that  Cook  would  put  the  king  to  death.  Again  his 
wife  Kanona  used  her  entreaties  that  he  would  not  go  on 
board,  and  the  chiefs  joined  with  her,  the  people  in  the  mean- 
time arming  themselves  with  stones,  clubs,  and  spears.  The 
king  sat  down,  and  Captain  Cook,  who  seemed  agitated,  began 
walking  towards  his  boat.  Whilst  doing  so  a  native  attacked 
him  with  a  spear.  Cook  turned  and  with  his  double-barrelled 
gun  shot  the  man  who  struck  him.  Some  of  the  people 
then  threw  stones  at  the  Englishman,  which  being  seen  by 
his  men  in  the  boats,  they  fired  on  the  natives.  Cook  en- 
deavoured to  stop  the  firing,  but  on  account  of  the  noise  he 
was  unable  to  do  so.  He  then  turned  to  speak  to  the  people 
on  shore,  when  some  one  stabbed  him  in  the  back  with  a 
palloa  or  dagger,  and  at  the  same  time  a  spear  was  driven 
into  his  body.      He  fell  into  the  water  and  spoke  no  more. 

Sam  well  and  King  agree  in  the  main  \ntli  this  account. 
In  the  fight  the  Englishmen  appear  to  have  behaved  with 
great  courage,  especially  Phillips  and  Roberts.  There 
was  one  exception :  the  lieutenant  commanding  the 
launch  drew  his  boat  off  the  shore.  Had  he  joined 
Roberts,  Sam  well  thinks  that  the  catastrophe  might  have 
been  avoided.  He  said  himself,  in  defence,  that  he  mis- 
took his  orders.^  That  he  was  not  charged  with  cowardice 
is  said  to  have  been  due  to  the  weak  health  of  Gierke, 
who  shrank  from  a  measure  so  extreme,  and  was  physi- 
cally unable  to  examine  into  the  question. 

^  This  oflficer  was  afterwards  tried  for  cowardice  at  the  battle  of 
Camperdowu  and  casliiered. 


XI  GILBERTS  STORY  155 

Let  us  now  give  Gilbert's  narrative,  if  only  to  show 
how  the  tale  was  told  by  those  of  the  expedition  who 
knew  nothing  of  the  god  Lono  or  the  adoration,  and 
were  not  eye-witnesses  of  the  murder. 

From  hence  we  stood  over  to  a  large  island  called  Owy- 
hee, that  lies  in  sight  of  it  to  the  S.W.,  which  we  made 
on  the  N.E.  side  ;  it  is  very  mountainous  inland,  and  the 
shores  in  general  steep,  but  exceeding  fertile.  The  natives 
came  off  to  us  in  great  numbers  and  behaved  in  a  very 
friendly  manner ;  we  traded  with  them  as  usual  till  we 
had  purchased  provisions  enough  for  five  or  six  days  ;  which 
we  did  in  three  or  four  hours,  and  might  have  got  three 
times  as  much  if  we  had  chosen,  for  the  greatest  part  of  their 
canoes  were  obliged  to  return  to  the  shore  with  what  they 
had  brought  off  to  us.  We  then  stood  off  about  5  or  6  leagues 
from  the  land,  and  w^orked  up  along  shore  to  the  S.E.,  keep- 
ing at  that  distance  till  our  stock  was  expended  ;  and  then 
went  in  and  traded  for  more,  as  we  had  done  off  the  other 
island.  As  we  were  not  yet  in  want  of  water  Captain  Cook 
preferred  this  method  of  passing  the  time  to  going  into  a 
harbour  ;  as  it  "was  a  great  means  of  saving  trade,  of  which 
he  was  very  apprehensive  we  should  not  have  as  much  as 
we  might  have  occasion  for.  The  Discovery  having  broken 
an  arm  off  one  of  her  bower  anchors  at  the  Island  of  Deso- 
lation, the  armourers  were  employed,  while  we  lay  in  Sam- 
ganoda  harbour,  in  working  it  up  for  that  purpose,  which 
was  proportional  )ly  divided  betwixt  the  two  ships,  and  with 
several  spare  iron  stores,  principally  belonging  to  the  shallop, 
served  us  for  trade  during  our  stay  among  the  islands. 

After  standing  off  and  on  for  upwards  of  a  month,  and 
having  coasted  along  near  two-thirds  of  the  island,  we  began 
to  be  in  want  of  water ;  therefore  the  master  with  two  boats 
well  armed  was  sent  inshore  to  look  for  a  harbour,  and  very 
luckily  found  a  small  bay  opposite  to  us,  which  was  the  first 
we  had  seen  the  least  appearance  of :  but  however,  as  this 
could  not  be  perceived  till  we  came  within  two  miles  of  it, 
we  very  probably  might  have  passed  others  of  the  same  kind. 
The  next  morning  (being  about  the  10th  of  January  1779) 


156  CAPTAIN  COOK 


we  stood  in  for  it  with  a  light  breeze  ;  and  as  we  approached 
near  the  shore  we  were  surrounded  with  upwards  of  1000 
canoes  at  the  mean  rate  of  six  people  in  each  ;  and  so  very 
anxious  were  they  to  see  us,  that  those  who  had  none  swam 
off  in  great  numbers,  and  remained  alongside  in  the  water, 
both  men,  women,  and  children,  for  four  or  five  hours, 
without  seeming  tired  ;  the  decks  both  above  and  below 
were  entirely  covered  with  them ;  so  that  when  we  wanted 
to  work  the  ships  we  could  not  come  at  the  ropes  without 
first  driving  the  greatest  part  of  them  overboard  ;  which  they 
bore  with  the  utmost  cheerfulness  and  good  nature,  jumping 
from  every  part  of  her  into  the  water,  as  fast  as  they  could, 
appearing  to  be  much  diverted  at  it,  and  would  come  on 
board  again  when  the  business  was  over. 

Tliis  bay  is  situated  on  the  west  side  of  the  island,  in 
latitude  19j°  N.  and  longitude  204°  E.,  and  is  called  by  the 
natives  Carnacoah.  It  is  small  and  open  to  the  sea,  which 
causes  a  great  swell  to  set  in,  and  a  great  surf  breaking  on 
the  shore  renders  the  landing  rather  difficult  ;  the  bottom  of 
it  is  a  high  steep  cliff,  but  the  sides  are  low  and  level,  with  a 
town  upon  each,  at  least  eight  times  as  big  as  any  we  had 
seen  before  in  the  south  sea.  The  country  here  is  one  entire 
plantation,  as  far  as  Ave  could  see  from  the  ship,  which  is 
divided  into  squares  by  stones  thrown  together  or  hedges  of 
sugar-cane  ;  we  moored  with  the  bowers  in  10  fathom  of 
water,  gravel  bottom,  about  two -thirds  of  a  mile  from  the 
town  on  the  north  side,  and  one -third  from  a  low  sandy 
beach  on  the  south  side  ;  near  the  bottom  of  the  bay,  which 
is  the  only  one  in  it. 

We  got  our  observatories  and  tents  on  shore  here,  as 
usual,  and  pitched  them  upon  a  large  oblong  piece  of  ground, 
walled  round  with  stones,  two  or  three  feet  high,  which  was 
held  sacred  by  the  natives,  who,  notwithstanding  their  curi- 
osity, so  great  was  their  superstition,  that  none  but  the  chiefs 
dare  venture  to  come  upon  it,  so  that  our  people  were  the 
less  disturbed  by  them.  The  sailmakers  were  sent  on  shore 
with  the  greatest  part  of  our  sails  to  repair,  they  being  now 
very  much  worn ;  as  was  all  our  rigging,  which  we  carefully 
overhauled  here. 

We  were  surrounded  every  day  with  a  great  number  of 


XI  GILBERTS  STORY  157 

canoes,  and  supplied  l»y  the  natives  with  provisions  in  the 
most  plentiful  and  hospitable  manner  imaginable.  The 
king  of  the  island,  whose  name  was  Terriaboo,  and  several 
other  very  powerful  chiefs,  frequently  came  on  board  to  visit 
Captain  Cook,  who  always  received  them  with  the  greatest 
respect;  they  generally  brought  with  them  a  large  present 
of  hogs,  fowls,  fruit,  etc.,  for  which  in  return  he  gave  them 
at  different  times  four  or  five  small  iron  daggers,  about  two 
feet  and  a  half  long,  in  form  of  their  own  wooden  ones,  and 
made  by  the  armourer  for  that  purpose,  likewise  such  other 
trinkets  as  they  were  pleased  Avith.  What  one  was  most  in 
want  of  here  was  good  water  ;  that  which  there  is  being  in 
standing  pools,  and  very  muddy  and  brackish,  except  some 
we  got  from  a  small  spring  in  a  well,  at  the  foot  of  a  rock 
close  to  the  beach,  which  yielded  very  little  ;  and  though  it 
was  clear  and  much  better  than  the  other,  yet  was  rendered 
brackish  from  its  being  so  near  the  water  side.  AVe  purchased 
not  less  than  10  or  12  puncheons  of  excellent  salt  here,  which 
is  principally  made  by  the  sun,  and  was  the  first  we  met 
with  during  the  voyage  ;  this  proved  a  very  welcome  supply, 
as  it  enabled  us  to  salt  down  pork  for  sea,  which  otherwise 
we  could  not  have  done,  having  used  all  we  had  on  board 
for  that  purpose  at  Otaheite.  One  of  our  seamen  died  here, 
whom  we  interred  on  shore  in  one  of  their  burying-places. 
Captain  Cook  read  prayers  over  him  in  the  usual  manner  ; 
and  the  natives  who  were  present  on  the  occasion,  according 
to  their  custom  threw  a  couple  of  small  pigs  and  some  fruit 
into  the  grave,  which  were  covered  up  with  him.  The  latter 
part  of  the  time  we  lay  in  Matavai  Bay  in  Otaheite,  and  at 
Amsterdam,  one  of  the  Friendly  Islands,  being  five  weeks  at 
each  ;  we  found  supplies  of  all  kinds  began  to  grow  scarce  ; 
but  that  was  far  from  being  the  case  here  ;  for  everything 
was  as  plentiful  the  last  day  as  when  we  first  came  in. 
Having  got  everything  off  from  the  shore,  in  the  evening 
about  seven  o'clock  we  perceived  the  house  to  be  on  fire 
that  our  sailmakers  had  worked  in,  which  we  were  in  general 
of  ojjinion  they  did  on  purpose  through  some  superstitious 
notion  they  had  among  them. 

It  being  now  about  the  4th  of  February  and  the  season 
approaching,  after  a  stay  of  near  a  month  we  sailed   from 


158  CAPTAIN  COOK 


the  bay  with  an  intention  of  going  to  the  westward  to  those 
islands  we  had  been  at  before,  to  take  in  a  supply  of  yams 
for  sea,  as  they  had  got  none  here,  but  in  this  we  were  un- 
fortunately prevented ;  for  after  working  up  along  shore  to 
the  northward  a  considerable  distance  against  a  very  strong 
breeze,  we  discovered  a  spring  in  the  head  of  our  foremast 
right  athwart  from  one  cheek  to  the  other,  which  obliged  us 
to  put  back  to  Carriacoak  Bay,  to  repair  it ;  and  having  a 
fair  wind  for  it,  we  got  in  next  day  and  moored  as  before. 

We  immediately  began  to  unrig  the  ship  as  far  as  was 
necessary,  and  having  raised  a  pair  of  shears  with  two  main- 
topmasts,  we  got  out  the  foremast,  which  was  hauled  up  upon 
the  beach  to  be  repaired,  and  the  carpenters  of  both  ships 
were  sent  on  shore  for  that  purpose.  The  place  our  tents 
were  pitched  upon  before  being  close  to  the  beach,  we  set 
them  up  again  on  the  same  spot  for  the  people  who  were  at 
work  upon  the  mast,  and  ]\Ir.  King,  our  lieutenant,  was  ordered 
to  superintend  this  duty,  with  a  guard  of  about  eight  marines 
for  their  protection.  Tlie  observatories  were  likewise  sent  on 
shore  with  the  astronomical  instruments  ;  and  several  of  our 
sails  to  repair,  having  split  them  while  we  were  out. 

The  natives  did  not  appear  to  receive  us  this  time  with 
that  friendship  that  they  had  done  before  ;  our  quick  return 
seemed  to  create  a  kind  of  jealousy  amongst  them  with  respect 
to  our  intentions  ;  as  fearing  we  should  attempt  to  settle 
there  and  deprive  them  of  part  if  not  the  whole  of  their 
country.  This  idea  Captain  Cook  took  every  method  to  re- 
move, by  telling  and  showing  them  the  reason  that  obliged 
us  to  come  in  again,  with  which  they  apparently  seemed  to 
be  ver}^  well  satisfied.  The  third  day  we  had  been  here,  in 
the  afternoon,  one  of  the  natives  on  board  the  Discovery  stole 
a  pair  of  tongs  from  off  the  armourer's  forge,  and  got  into  his 
canoe  with  them  ;  the  alarm  being  given,  several  of  them 
began  to  paddle  away  as  fast  as  they  could  ;  upon  this  the 
master,  with  a  midsliipman  and  two  men,  instantly  got  into 
their  jollyboat,  and  without  any  arms  pursued  the  canoe  they 
suspected,  which  reached  the  shore  long  before  them,  and 
the  men  had  got  out  and  hauled  it  upon  the  beach,  where 
several  others  were  lying.  The  master  and  midshipman  landed 
amongst  a  great  number  of  the  natives,  and  were  going  to 


XI  GILBERTS  STORY  159 

seize  one  of  tlie  canoes,  when  a  chief  who  was  present  told 
them  that  it  belonged  to  him  and  tliey  should  not  have  it ; 
and  indeed  it  is  very  probable  but  they  mistook  the  one  the 
man  got  into  who  committed  the  theft,  either  in  putting  off 
from  the  ship,  among  so  many,  or  in  hauling  up  ;  but  as 
they  still  foolishly  persisted  in  attempting  to  take  it  away, 
the  chief  laid  hold  of  them  and  gave  them  a  severe  beating 
with  his  hands,  which  the  two  men  who  remained  in  the 
jollyboat  perceiving,  they  rowed  off  to  a  little  distance  and 
got  clear  ;  our  pinnace,  that  was  Ipng  not  far  off  waiting  for 
Captain  Cook  with  only  the  crew  in  her,  who  seeing  the  affair, 
went  without  any  orders  to  their  assistance  ;  but  as  soon  as 
they  came  near  the  shore,  the  natives  laid  hold  of  the  boat 
and  hauled  her  up  high  and  dry  upon  the  beach,  and  broke 
some  of  the  oars  ;  which  obliged  the  crew  to  take  to  the 
water  and  swim  to  the  jollyboat,  the  Indians  at  the  same 
time  pelting  them  with  stones.  In  a  little  time  they  were 
quiet,  and  called  to  the  people  in  the  boat  to  come  on  shore, 
and  that  they  would  let  them  have  the  pinnace  ;  which  they 
did,  with  the  oars  that  remained,  and  likewise  released  the 
master  and  midshipman. 

About  an  hour  afterwards  Captain  Cook,  hearing  of  the 
quarrel,  was  very  angry,  and  gave  our  people  a  severe  repri- 
mand for  their  rashness  ;  he  walked  round  with  one  of  the 
officers  to  the  place  where  it  happened,  and  found  everything 
there  very  peaceable. 

The  next  morning,  which  was  the  14th  February  1779^  at 
daylight  the  Discovery  found  her  six-oared  cutter  missing,  that 
had  been  moored  at  the  buoy,  which  we  immediately  supposed 
to  have  been  stolen  by  the  natives,  in  consequence  of  the 
above  quarrel.  When  Captain  Cook  was  informed  of  it,  he 
ordered  a  boat  from  each  ship,  well  armed,  to  row  off  the 
mouth  of  the  bay  to  prevent  the  canoes  from  going  out,  and 
if  any  attempt  it,  to  seize  and  send  them  in  again ;  at  the 
same  time,  proposed  to  Captain  Clerke  for  him  to  go  on  shore 
and  endeavour  to  persuade  the  king  to  come  on  board,  that 
he  might  confine  him  till  the  boat  was  returned,  according 
to  his  usual  custom  in  these  cases,  but  he  seemed  to  express  a 
desire  to  decline  it  on  account  of  his  health.  Captain  Cook 
said  no  more  about  the  matter,  but  went  himself  with  three 


i6o  CAPTAIN  COOK  chap. 

boats — viz.  a  six-oared  pinnace,  iu  wliicli  lie  liad  with  him  a 
mate,  the  lieutenant  of  marines,  and  some  of  his  men ;  a  six- 
oared  launch,  with  the  Srd  lieutenant,  a  mate,  some  marines, 
and  a  few  additional  seamen  ;  and  a  four-oared  cutter,  with  a 
mate  and  the  midshipmen  that  rowed  her  ;  being  in  all,  in- 
cluding the  crews  of  the  launch  and  pinnace,  about  38  people, 
with  each  a  musket,  a  cutlass,  and  cartridge-boxes.  Having 
landed  at  the  town  on  the  north  side  of  the  bay  with  the 
lieutenant  of  marines,  a  sergeant,  corporal,  and  seven  private 
men,  he  ordered  the  boats  with  the  rest  of  the  people  to  lie 
off  at  a  little  distance,  and  w^ait  for  him.  He  then  proceeded 
with  the  marines  under  arms  up  to  the  king's  house,  which 
was  about  two  hundred  yards  from  the  water  side  ;  where  he 
found  him  with  several  chiefs  and  not  less  than  two  or  three 
thousand  of  the  natives.  After  the  usual  ceremonies  had  2>assed, 
the  captain  invited  him  to  come  on  board,  which  at  first  he 
absolutely  refused,  but  after  being  pressed  for  some  time  he 
seemed  inclinable  to  consent,  and  it  was  thought  he  would  have 
come  had  he  not  been  prevented  by  the  chiefs,  who  would 
not  permit  him,  as  in  all  probability  they  saw  into  the  design. 
This  enraged  Captain  Cook  very  much,  as  he  was  not  accus- 
tomed to  have  his  intentions  frustrated  by  any  person,  and 
had  but  little  command  over  himself  in  his  anger  ;  at  this 
instant  a  canoe  came  over  from  the  other  side  of  the  bay, 
and  brought  the  natives  intelligence  that  a  chief  was  killed 
there  by  one  of  our  boats  firing  on  shore  :  upon  this  they 
began  to  arm  themselves  with  spears  and  pieces  of  the 
branches  of  trees  that  they  broke  up  in  a  hurry  instead  of 
clubs  ;  and  some  of  the  chiefs  had  the  same  iron  daggers 
that  we  had  given  them  ;  the  Captain  had  with  him  a  double- 
barrelled  piece,  one  loaded  •with  small  shot,  the  other  with  ball, 
and  a  hanger  by  his  side.  They  now  began  to  press  together 
and  grew  rather  tumultuous,  and  some  in  particular  insulting 
him,  he  beat  them  with  the  butt  end  of  his  musket,  which 
caused  them  to  be  still  more  so  ;  Mr.  Philips,  the  lieutenant 
of  marines,  perceiving  this,  repeatedly  told  Captain  Cook  of 
the  danger  he  apprehended  they  were  in,  and  urged  him  to 
retire,  which,  as  if  Fate  had  determined  he  should  fall,  he 
took  not  the  least  notice  of ;  but  fired  at  one  of  them  with 
small  shot  and  wounded  him,  and  a  little   afterwards  at  a 


XI  GILBERTS  STORY  i6i 

chief  with  ball  ;  but  missing  him  killed  the  man  that  stood 
next  to  him  outright,  and  although  this  enraged  them  to 
the  highest  degree,  yet  they  then  did  not  dare  to  attack 
him. 

At  last,  finding  it  was  impossible  to  accomplish  his  design, 
he  ordered  the  marines  to  retreat,  and  was  himself  following 
them,  and  possibly  would  have  got  safe  off,  had  not  the 
people  in  the  boats  very  unfortunately,  on  hearing  the  second 
report  of  his  musket,  begun  to  fire  upon  the  natives,  which 
threw  them  into  a  state  of  fury ;  the  marines  likewise  on 
shore  without  orders  followed  their  example;  and  Captain  Cook 
had  no  sooner  got  to  the  water  side  and  waved  to  the  boats 
to  give  over  firing,  when  one  of  the  chiefs,  more  daring  than 
the  rest,  stepped  behind  and  stabbed  him  betwixt  the  shoulders 
with  an  iron  dagger  ;  another  at  that  instant  gave  him  a  blow 
•w-ith  a  club  on  the  head,  by  which  he  fell  into  the  water ; 
they  immediately  leaped  in  after  and  kept  him  under  for  a 
few  minutes,  then  hauled  him  out  upon  the  rocks  and  beat 
his  head  against  them  several  times  ;  so  that  there  is  no 
doubt  but  that  he  quickly  expired.  The  marines  likewise  at 
the  same  time,  after  they  had  discharged  their  pieces,  were 
closely  attacked,  and,  not  being  able  to  load  again,  the  corporal 
and  three  private  men  that  could  not  swim  were  seized  and 
killed  upon  tlie  spot.  The  lieutenant,  sergeant,  and  the  other 
four  leaped  into  the  water,  which  was  four  or  five  feet  deep 
close  to  the  rocks,  and  escaped  to  the  pinnace,  which  was 
lying  -wdthin  thirty  yards  of  the  shore ;  but  by  reason  of  the 
continual  showers  of  stones  that  were  thrown  at  them  and  the 
confusion  of  those  people  getting  in,  they  could  not  afford  the 
least  assistance  to  Captain  Cook,  and  very  narrowly  escaped 
from  being  taken.  The  launch,  that  lay  close  without  her, 
and  the  cutter,  that  was  inshore  at  a  little  distance,  both  kept 
up  a  brisk  fire  for  the  space  of  ten  or  fifteen  minutes  till 
they  were  obliged  to  retire ;  having  killed  and  wounded 
several  of  the  natives,  and  caused  the  greatest  part  of  them  to 
retreat ;  and  we  were  informed  by  the  gentlemen  in  the  cutter, 
who  were  the  last  that  left  the  shore,  that  very  few  of  them 
remained  by  the  dead  bodies  when  the  launch  and  pinnace 
came  away.  During  the  firing  on  shore  we  saw  a  great 
number  of  the  natives  running  away  up  an  adjacent  hill,  at 

M 


1 62  CAPTAIN  COOK 


whom  we  fired  five  or  six  shot  from  our  great  guns,  but  our 
first  lieutenant  would  not  allow  of  any  more. 

When  on  the  return  of  the  boats  informing  us  of  the 
Captain's  death,  a  general  silence  ensued  throughout  the 
ship  for  the  space  of  near  half  an  hour  ; — it  appearing  to  us 
somewhat  like  a  dream  that  we  could  not  reconcile  ourselves 
to  for  some  time.  Grief  was  visible  in  every  countenance  ; 
some  expressing  it  by  tears,  and  others  by  a  kind  of  gloomy 
dejection,  more  easy  to  be  conceived  then  described  :  for  as 
all  our  hopes  centred  in  him  our  loss  became  irreparable, 
and  the  sense  of  it  was  so  deeply  impressed  ujjon  our  minds 
as  not  to  be  forgot. 

Such  was  the  confusion  of  the  people  when  they  came 
on  board  that  they  did  not  perceive  till  a  quarter  of  an  hour 
afterw'urds  how  many  of  the  marines  were  missing ;  Mr, 
Philips,  the  lieutenant,  who  behaved  with  great  prudence  and 
courage,  received  a  large  wound  upon  his  shoulder  by  a  spear, 
and  one  of  the  private  men  was  wounded  in  his  cheek  close 
below  his  eye,  two  inches  and  a  half  of  the  point  of  a  spear 
having  broken  short  off  and  was  buried  in  his  head ;  the  others 
had  several  bruises  from  the  stones  that  were  thrown  at  them, 
but  suffered  no  hurt  of  any  consequence.  During  this,  our 
people  on  the  south  side  of  the  bay,  under  the  direction  of 
Mr.  King,  the  second  lieutenant,  were  very  fortunately  rein- 
forced by  some  of  our  boat's  crew  that  had  been  rowing  off  the 
mouth  of  the  bay  before  any  disturbance  had  begun  there  ; 
being  then  altogether  about  twenty-four  in  number,  though 
not  above  two-thirds  of  them  had  muskets,  on  perceiving  they 
were  likely  to  be  attacked  they  took  possession  of  a  burying- 
place  that  lay  near  them  ;  which  was  a  large  platform  of  earth 
thrown  up  and  fenced  with  stones,  being  about  a  hundred 
and  fifty  yards  in  length,  sixty  in  breadth,  and  the  sides  six 
or  eight  feet  perpendicular  all  round,  except  a  small  i)assage, 
where  not  more  than  two  people  could  go  up  abreast.  Nothing 
could  be  more  conveniently  situated  than  this  place  ;  as  from 
thence  they  could  not  only  protect  the  masts,  tents,  and  observa- 
tories, which  lay  between  them  and  the  beach  and  within  less 
than  a  musket  shot,  but  were  secure  from  an  encounter  that 
they  would  not  have  been  able  to  resist.  The  natives  did 
not  venture  either  to   make  an  open  effort  to   force  them 


XI  GILBERTS  STORY  163 

from  their  post  or  to  come  near  the  tents,  but  kept  up  a 
distant  and  vigorous  attack  by  heaving  a  great  number  of 
stones  from  behind  the  trees  and  houses  which  lay  behind 
them.  By  creeping  along  under  cover  of  these  walls,  they 
were  able  to  approach  very  close  to  the  platform  without 
being  seen  ;  and  when  they  thought  themselves  near  enough 
would  stand  up  and  heave  several  stones,  and  then  retire 
for  more  ;  this  they  continued  for  some  time,  and  when  any 
of  them  fell,  another  of  them  would  step  forth  and  carry  off 
the  body  at  the  risk  of  his  own  life.  These  Indians  use  a 
large  thick  mat,  which  they  hold  before  them  by  way  of  a 
shield  against  their  own  wooden  spears  ;  and  at  the  beginning 
of  the  attack  several  of  them  came  to  the  edge  of  a  pool, 
within  reach  of  the  shot,  to  dip  them  in  the  water,  and  then 
would  hold  them  up  in  defiance,  thinking  by  that  means  to 
quench  the  fire  of  the  musket  by  which  they  supposed  they 
were  killed  ;  but  in  that  point  we  quickly  undeceived  them. 
The  Discovery,  lying  nearest  over  to  this  side,  fired  several 
shot  on  shore,  which  terrified  them  very  much. 

After  two  or  three  hours  they  retired  with  the  loss  of 
six  or  eight  killed  and  some  wounded,  finding  it  vain  to  carry 
on  anything  further  against  our  people  in  their  present  situa- 
tion, and  thinking,  I  suppose,  by  that  means  to  draw  them 
from  it ;  but  they  wisely  kept  possession  of  their  post. 

About  two  hours  after  the  death  of  Captain  Cook  we 
went  ^\itli  all  the  boats  from  both  ships  well  manned  and 
armed,  and  brought  them  off",  ^vith  the  mast  and  everything 
else  we  had  on  shore  very  safe,  the  natives  not  daring  to 
molest  us.  The  remainder  of  the  forenoon  we  were  employed 
in  getting  the  mast  upon  the  booms  for  the  carpenters  to 
work  at ;  they  haWng  done  very  little  to  it  as  yet. 

Captain  Gierke  now  came  on  board,  and  took  the  com- 
mand of  the  Resolution,  and  appointed  Mr.  Gore,  our  first 
lieutenant,  to  that  of  the  Discovery,  and  Mr.  Harvey,  one  of 
the  mates,  to  be  lieutenant  in  his  room. 

In  the  afternoon,  not\nthstanding  what  had  passed,  two 
of  the  natives  from  the  town  on  the  north  side  of  the  bay 
had  courage  to  come  alongside,  which  was  placing  great 
confidence  in  us,  and  proves  the  high  opinion  they  entertain 
of  our  integrity.     One  of  them  was  a  priest,  whom  we  had 


1 64  CAPTAIN  COOK 


often  before  known  to  have  behaved  very  treaclierously, 
therefore  supposed  in  the  present  case  that  he  had  no  good 
intentions  towards  us  ;  and  so  highly  were  our  people  ex- 
asperated at  the  sight,  that  it  was  with  great  difl&ciilty  the 
officers  could  prevent  their  firing  at  him.  After  staying  about 
a  quarter  of  an  hour  he  returned  to  the  shore,  and  continued 
to  make  these  short  visits  on  board  every  forenoon  and  after- 
noon, for  three  or  four  days  afterwards  ;  which  I  believe  was 
to  see  whether  or  not  we  were  making  any  further  preparations 
against  them.  Mr.  King,  now  our  first  lieutenant,  was  sent  off 
to  the  town  on  the  north  side  with  all  our  boats  well  manned 
and  armed  to  treat  with  the  natives  for  the  bodies  ;  carrying 
a  white  flag  as  a  signal  of  peace  for  that  purpose.  They 
were  assembled  along  the  shore  in  great  numbers,  with  their 
weapons  in  their  hands  and  bidding  us  defiance  in  tlie  most 
contemptuous  manner  imaginable  ;  for  they  seemed  to  pride 
themselves  very  much  in  having  killed  our  principal  chief. 
But  from  what  we  afterwards  learnt  they  had  very  little 
reason,  ha\ing  lost  not  less  than  eight  or  ten  chiefs  and 
about  twenty  common  men,  besides  several  wounded  ;  amongst 
whom  chanced  to  be  the  greatest  part  of  those  who  assisted 
in  the  murder  of  our  people.  They  strove  much  to  persuade 
us  to  land,  but  without  effect.  One  of  them  was  dressed  in 
Captain  Cook's  jacket  and  trousers,  and  another  had  his 
hanger  in  his  hand,  which  he  kept  shaking  at  us,  and 
making  use  of  every  threatening  and  insolent  gesture  he 
could  possibly  invent.  This  enraged  the  sailors  to  the  highest 
degree,  and  it  was  ^vith  the  utmost  difficulty  tliey  were 
restrained  from  firing  upon  them.  Finding  we  would  not 
come  any  nearer,  two  of  them  ventured  to  swim  oft*  to  us  ; 
whom  we  informed  that  we  had  no  intentions  of  making  an 
attack,  but  came  only  to  demand  the  bodies,  which,  to  amuse 
us  for  the  present,  they  said  were  carried  away  some  distance 
into  the  country  ;  that  we  could  not  have  them  then,  but 
promised  to  bring  them  off  to  us  in  the  morning  ;  therefore 
perceiving  they  were  not  to  be  procured  at  that  time,  the 
boats  returned  on  board. 

We  were  rather  apprehensive  that  they  intended  to  make 
an  attack  upon  the  ships  in  the  night  ;  therefore  took  every 
necessary  precaution  to  prevent  being  surprised,  by  keeping 


XI  GILBERT'S  STORY  165 

our  guus  and  s^\ivels  loaded,  and  sentry  forward,  abaft,  and 
on  each  gangway,  one-third  of  the  people  always  under  arms, 
and  a  four-oared  cutter  well  armed  constantly  rowing  round 
us,  at  a  little  distance,  while  it  was  dark  \  which  both  ships 
continued  to  do  during  our  stay  here. 

The  next  morning  the  seamen  earnestly  solicited  the 
captain  that  they  might  go  on  shore  wdth  their  arms  to 
revenge  the  death  of  their  old  commander,  which  he  did  not 
think  proper  to  permit ;  as  it  was  not  the  intention  of  the 
officers  to  pursue  measures  of  that  kind  for  g,  quarrel  we  had 
principally  brought  upon  ourselves ;  but  perceiving  they 
were  very  eagerly  bent  upon  it,  he  framed  an  excuse  to 
pacify  them  for  the  present,  by  telling  them  he  could  not 
possibly  think  of  allowing  it  whilst  the  ships  remained  in 
such  a  defenceless  state,  but  that  in  two  days'  time,  when  we 
had  got  things  into  a  little  order,  they  should  have  leave  for 
that  purpose.  By  keeping  them  thus  in  suspense  for  three 
or  four  days  their  rage  began  to  abate  ;  and  it  is  well  he  did, 
for  had  he  at  first  positively  denied  them,  so  highly  were 
they  incensed  against  the  natives,  that  I  believe  the  officers 
would  not  have  been  able  to  have  kept  them  on  board. 
Being  rather  suspicious  that  they  were  assembling  canoes 
round  the  north  point  of  the  bay,  a  boat  with  an  officer  was 
sent  to  see,  who  found  no  appearances  of  any.  The  forenoon 
a  canoe  with  three  men  in  her  came  off  from  the  north  side 
about  half-way  to  the  ship,  where  they  stopped  and  began  to 
throw  stones  towards  us  ;  in  which  they  could  not  heave 
half  that  distance,  they  could  not  have  any  other  intention 
but  that  of  insulting  of  us  :  one  of  them  all  the  time  very 
triumphantly  kept  waving  Captain  Cook's  hat  over  his  head, 
till  some  muskets  were  fired  at  them,  and  then  they  in- 
stantly put  back  to  the  shore. 

Our  chief  object  at  present  was  the  foremast,  which  the 
carpenters  of  both  ships  were  working  upon  Avith  the  utmost 
expedition,  making  new  cheeks  for  it  out  of  a  spare  anchor 
stock.  In  the  afternoon,  seeing  a  great  number  of  the  natives 
assemble  upon  the  shore  on  the  north  side  of  the  bay,  we 
fired  a  few  shot  at  them  from  our  great  guns,  which  quickly 
dispersed  them. 

When  the  old  priest  came  on  board  we  inquired  of  him 


i66  CAPTAIN  COOK  chap. 

concerning  the  boilies,  but  could  get  no  satisfactory  account 
of  them  ;  and  when  we  asked  him  why  they  were  not  brought 
off,  agreeable  to  the  promise  made  yesterday,  he  said  that 
they  had  been  carried  to  different  parts  of  the  island,  and 
were  not  yet  collected  together,  but  that  we  should  have  them 
the  next  day  ;  which  we  perceived  was  only  an  excuse  to 
keep  us  quiet,  therefore  gave  over  every  hope  of  having 
tliem  returned,  as  judging  that  they  had  otherwise  disposed  of 
them,  and  did  not  wish  us  to  know  in  wliat  manner.  On 
the  16th  nothing  remarkable  hajjpened  till  aljout  nine  o'clock 
in  the  evening,  when  some  people  were  discovered  paddling 
very  softly  to  the  ships.  It  being  quite  dark,  and  (knowing  ?) 
not  knowing  how  many  there  might  be,  two  or  three  of  the 
sentries  instantly  fired  at  them ;  nevertheless  they  persisted 
coming  towards  us,  and  finding  there  was  only  one  small 
canoe,  we  suffered  her  to  come  alongside  ;  when  to  our 
great  astonishment  they  proved  to  be  two  of  the  natives,  who 
had  brought  with  them  about  five  pounds  of  human  flesh, 
which  they  told  us  was  Captain  Cook's,  and  that  they  were 
sent  by  a  priest  that  lived  on  the  south  side  of  the  bay, 
who  had  before  always  treated  us  with  great  hospitality  ; 
we  learnt  that  he  and  his  adherents  still  remained  firmly 
attached  to  us,  but  were  too  few  to  declare  it  to  their 
countrymen,  which  was  the  reason  of  their  coming  in  the 
dark,  that  it  might  not  be  known.  After  giving  them  some 
presents,  they  returned  to  the  shore,  having  luckily  escaped 
being  hurt  in  approaching  the  ship.  This  small  remains  of 
our  unfortunate  commander,  which  appeared  to  have  been 
taken  from  the  inside  of  his  thigh,  was  all  our  friend  could 
procure  for  us,  and  a  great  proof  of  his  sincerity  ;  but 
answered  no  good  purpose  to  us,  as  the  sight  of  it  struck 
every  one  with  horror,  and  tended  only  to  disquiet  the 
sailors,  by  renewing  their  desire  to  be  revenged  of  the 
natives,  which  began  to  wear  off. 

Beginning  now  to  be  greatly  in  want  of  water,  we  were 
necessitated  to  go  on  shore  again  at  all  events,  and  endeavour 
to  get  off  a  sufficiency  to  last  us  to  some  other  place  ;  accord- 
ingly in  the  morning  of  the  17th  we  sent  the  two  launches 
full  of  casks  to  a  small  well,  befoixj  mentioned,  on  the  south 
side  close  above  the  beach,  with  other  boats,  manned  and 


XI  GILBERTS  STORY  167 

armed,  to  protect  them.  The  Discovery  also  hauled  close  in 
for  that  purpose.  We  had  not  been  long  ashore  before  the 
natives  began  to  annoy  us  by  throwing  stones  from  behind 
the  houses  ;  and  the  well  being  situated  at  the  foot  of  a 
steep  hill  they  kept  rolling  large  ones  down  from  the  top 
of  it,  which  were  often  near  doing  us  much  mischief.  To 
prevent  this,  in  a  great  measure,  it  was  determined  by  the 
officers  to  set  fire  to  the  adjacent  houses,  which  would  not 
only  terrify  them,  but  hinder  their  approaching  to  molest 
us  ;  as  they  then  would  have  no  shelter  from  our  muskets. 
Therefore,  when  the  people  went  on  shore  again  after  dinner, 
several  of  them  were  given  port  fires  for  that  purpose  ;  when 
it  was  amazing  with  what  alacrity  they  carried  this  scheme 
into  execution,  the  eagerness  with  which  they  grasped  at 
this  small  opportunity  of  revenge  being  so  great,  that  the 
officers  could  not  keep  them  in  the  least  order,  for  they  all 
instantly  separated  and  were  guided  only  by  their  own 
impetuosity,  setting  fire  to  the  houses,  and  killing  the 
natives  wherever  they  met  with  any,  who  were  struck  with 
such  terror  at  seeing  the  flames  that  they  made  off  as  fast 
as  they  could  ;  and  it  was  very  fortunate  that  they  did,  for 
our  people  were  so  much  scattered,  that  had  they  made  the 
least  resistance,  they  might  have  cut  several  of  them  off,  and 
the  rest  of  us  known  nothing  of  it,  till  this  business  was 
over,  which  was  in  about  an  hour,  when  with  great  difficulty 
we  collected  the  people  together,  and  stopped  their  fm'ther 
progress :  during  this  they  had  burnt  about  thirty  houses, 
and  killed  six  of  the  natives.  Two  Irishmen  concerned  in 
the  affair  extended  their  malice  even  to  the  dead  bodies,  by 
cutting  the  heads  from  two  of  them,  which  they  brought 
down  and  fixed  upon  the  stems  of  the  boats.  While  the 
houses  were  yet  blazing  we  perceived  a  party  of  them 
coming  down  the  hill,  but  upon  some  of  our  people  firing 
a  few  muskets  at  them  they  immediately  fell  flat  on  the 
ground  and  lay  still  for  about  five  minutes  ;  they  then  got 
up,  and  advanced  slowly  towards  us  with  white  flags  in  their 
hands,  and  finding  they  were  not  very  numerous,  we  suffered 
them  to  approach  us  ;  when  they  proved  to  be  our  friend 
the  priest,  whom  I  mentioned  last,  with  some  of  his  followers, 
coming  to  entreat  for  peace  for  himself  and  his  people.     His 


l68  CAPTAIN  COOK  chap. 

house,  being  unknown  to  us,  was  unfortunately  burnt  with 
the  others  :  we  carried  him  on  board  the  ships,  where  we 
consoled  him  in  the  best  manner  we  could,  and  made  him 
several  presents,  being  well  convinced  of  his  sincerity  to  us. 
When  the  natives  that  came  down  the  hill  perceived  the  two 
bodies  lying  without  their  heads,  they  set  up  a  most  fright- 
ful cry,  followed  with  great  lamentation,  seemed  to  be  more 
affected  at  that  than  anything  we  had  done  to  them,  which 
must  arise  entirely  from  superstition. 

I  cannot  proceed  without  mentioning  an  instance  of  re- 
markable courage  in  one  of  these  Indians,  who  had  for  some 
time  greatly  annoyed  the  waterers  by  throwing  stones  at  them 
from  behind  the  rocks.  At  last,  being  closely  pursued  by 
several  of  our  people,  he  retreated  to  a  deep  narrow  cave, 
and  immediately  began  raising  a  small  breastwork  of  stones 
towards  the  bottom  of  it,  behind  which  he  placed  himself ; 
they  searched  all  round,  but  to  no  purpose  ;  and  it  is  a  doubt 
whether  they  would  have  found  him  or  not,  had  not  he 
discovered  himself  by  throwing  stones  at  them  the  instant 
they  appeared.  Upon  this  three  or  four  of  them  stepped  to 
the  entrance  of  the  cave  and  presented  their  muskets  at  him, 
and  at  the  same  time  made  signs,  and  told  him  that  if  he 
would  come  out  he  should  not  be  hurt  ;  when,  like  ^Eneas, 
he  returned  an  answer  with  a  flying  stone,  which  was  followed 
by  others  as  fast  as  he  could  throw  them.  They  then  fired  at 
him  five  or  six  times,  at  which  he  seemed  to  be  not  in  the 
least  intimidated,  still  persisting  in  throwing  at  them  ;  but 
perceiving  that  he  was  much  wounded  and  resolved  to  fight 
to  the  last  moment,  one  of  them  rushed  in  upon  him,  clapped 
a  pistol  to  his  breast,  and  instantly  despatched  him  ;  on 
examining  him  we  found  he  had  received  no  less  than  four 
balls,  in  different  parts.  He  was  a  tall,  well-made,  handsome 
young  man,  and  had  the  appearance  of  a  chief.  We  took 
one  of  the  natives  prisoners  that  was  attempting  to  escape  in 
his  canoe,  whom  we  bound  hand  and  foot  and  put  him  into 
a  boat  that  had  the  head  of  one  of  his  countrymen  on  the 
stem  of  it.  In  the  evening  the  boat  returned  on  board, 
having  got  a  sufficiency  of  water  to  last  us  to  Towi,  one  of 
the  other  islands  where  we  knew  we  could  get  plenty.  The 
officers  would  not  permit  the  seamen  to  bring  the  two  heads 


XI  GILBERTS  STORY  169 

into  the  ship,  but  obliged  them  to  throw  them  into  the 
water  alongside. 

The  prisoner  being  brought  upon  the  quarter-deck,  and 
set  down  bound  as  before,  everybody  thronged  round  him,  as 
is  usual  in  such  cases,  when  it  is  scarce  possible  to  conceive 
how  strongly  every  sign  of  fear  was  imprinted  in  his  coun- 
tenance ;  lie  was  seized  with  a  most  violent  trembling  from 
head  to  foot ;  his  complexion,  which  was  naturally  of  a 
light  copper,  was  changed  to  that  of  a  pale  lead  colour  ;  and 
he  remained  silent  and  immovable.  His  apprehensions  of 
death  in  every  horrid  form  appeared  to  be  so  strong  as  not 
to  admit  of  the  least  ray  of  hope  to  his  relief,  and  entirely 
deprived  him  of  the  faculty  of  speech.  By  his  looks,  which 
expressed  the  most  exquisite  distress,  he  seemed  to  implore  for 
mercy,  in  a  manner  so  affecting  that  it  excited  pity  in  every 
breast,  and  all  being  desirous  for  it  we  unbound  him.  He 
now  thought  we  were  going  to  put  into  execution  what  his 
fears  had  suggested  ;  and  when  we  returned  him  his  canoe 
and  told  him  that  he  might  go  on  shore,  he  paid  no  attention 
to  it  for  some  time,  imagining  we  did  it  only  to  insult  him 
in  his  misery,  by  tantalising  him  with  what  he  had  too  great 
a  dread  upon  his  mind  to  believe  ;  but  when  he  found  we 
were  in  earnest,  his  excess  of  joy  was  then  as  predominant 
as  his  fears  had  been  before,  and  his  gratitude,  which  he 
expressed  in  the  sincerest  manner,  was  not  disguised  under 
the  veil  of  politeness,  but  flowed  from  the  heart  free  and 
uncorrupted.  He  had  not  been  long  on  shore  before  he  came 
off  again,  with  his  canoe  loaded  with  whatever  he  could 
procure  as  a  present  to  us  ;  for  which  in  return  we  gave 
him  something  of  equal  value  j  this  he  continued  to  do  two 
or  three  times  a  day,  and  became  a  most  faithful  friend. 

On  the  19th  the  carpenter  having  finished  the  mast, 
after  great  difficulty  it  was  got  in  ;  the  hawser  we  had  reeved 
for  that  purpose  being  so  rotten  that  it  stranded  in  five  or 
six  places  as  we  were  heaving,  and  we  had  no  better  on  board. 
On  the  20th,  in  the  morning,  a  chief  that  we  had  not  seen 
before  came  on  board,  to  negotiate  a  peace  with  us ;  and 
promised  to  restore  part  of  the  captain's  body.  Accordingly 
in  the  afternoon  Captain  Gierke,  with  three  or  four  boats  well 
armed,  went  close  inshore  on  the  south  side,  where  he  con- 


170  CAPTAIN  COOK  chap. 

eluded  a  peace  witli  that  cliief,  and  brought  on  board  Captain 
Cook's  head  and  hands,  which  were  all  the  remains  we  could 
possibly  procure.  The  head  was  too  much  disfigured  to  be 
known,  but  one  of  the  hands  we  were  well  assured  was  his, 
from  a  wound  he  had  formerly  received  in  it  which  made  it 
remarkable.  One  of  the  natives  brought  about  a  handful 
of  small  human  bones  which  he  said  belonged  to  the  marines, 
whom  they  had  burnt ;  we  made  several  inquiries  to  know 
if  they  ate  them,  but  could  not  find  the  least  reason  to  believe 
so  :  for  they  seemed  to  express  as  great  an  abhorrence  of  such 
an  act  as  any  European.  They  told  us  that  no  part  of  Captain 
Cook  was  burnt,  but  what  became  of  the  remainder  of  his 
body  we  could  not  learn  ;  they  also  brought  off  the  double- 
barrelled  piece  he  had  with  him  when  he  was  killed,  but  they 
had  entirely  spoiled  it  by  beating  the  barrels  quite  fiat  at 
the  muzzle.  We  could  never  get  the  least  intelligence  of  the 
cutter  that  was  stolen,  which  was  the  first  cause  of  this 
unfortunate  affair. 

On  the  21st  some  of  the  natives  from  the  south  side  of 
the  bay  brought  off  provisions  and  began  to  trade  with  us  as 
usual  ;  but  excepting  the  old  priest,  we  were  seldom  visited 
by  any  of  those  on  the  north  side,  who  did  not  seem  so 
much  inclined  as  the  others  to  come  to  a  reconciliation  :  yet 
from  every  appearance  I  make  no  doubt,  had  we  remained 
there,  but  that  in  three  or  four  weeks  we  should  have  been 
nearly  upon  as  friendly  terms  with  them  as  we  were  at  our 
first  coming. 

In  the  afternoon  we  buried  the  remains  of  our  much- 
lamented  commander  alongside,  with  every  ceremony  due  to 
liis  rank  ;  whose  name  will  be  perpetuated  to  after-ages  and 
ever  stand  foremost  on  the  list  of  British  navigators. 

On  the  22nd,  the  ship  being  rigged  again  and  ready  for 
sea,  in  the  morning  we  sailed  out  of  the  bay  ;  having  no  desire 
to  stay  any  longer  at  a  place  where  we  had  suffered  so  great 
a  misfortune. 

Thus  ended,  ingloriously,  and  as  the  result  of  an  ill- 
advised  attempt  at  high-handed  justice,  the  life  of  the 
greatest  navigator  of  any  age.     I  think  there  can  be  no 


XI  EXPLANATIONS  OF  THE  DEED  171 

doubt  that  the  attack  on  Cook  was  rendered  possible  by 
a  strong  revulsion  of  feeling  as  regards  his  real  character  : 
king,  priests,  and  chiefs  were  perhaps  by  this  time 
ashamed  of  their  own  credulity^  though  certainly  still 
afraid  of  the  captain  and  his  men.  That  they  showed 
human  passions  and  emotion — ate  fiercely,  drank  freely, 
and  made  love — would  by  no  means  detract  from  their 
divinity.  Quite  the  contrary.  The  god  of  the  islanders 
was  as  much  a  god  of  animal  parts  and  passions  as  the 
god  of  many  people  much  more  highly  civilised.  Neither 
king  nor  priest  contemplated  the  murder  of  Cook ;  but 
among  such  people  a  quarrel  soon  leads  to  a  fight,  and 
in  a  fight  somebody  naturally  gets  killed.  On  the  other 
hand — one  does  not  know — perhaps  it  may  have  occurred 
to  some  native  humorist — such  things  have  been  done 
— to  wonder  how  a  god  woidd  look  and  behave  with  a 
spear  stuck  right  through  him. 
Cook  was  dead. 

In  this  journey  he  explored  the  unknown  part  of  the 
North  American  coast  from  lat.  43°  N.  to  lat.  70°  X. — 
that  is  to  say,  for  3500  miles.  He  proved  the  proximity 
of  the  continents  of  Asia  and  America ;  passed  the  straits 
between  them  and  surveyed  the  coast  on  each  side  to  such 
a  height  of  northern  latitude  as  to  demonstrate  the  im- 
practicability of  a  passage  in  that  hemisphere  from  the 
Atlantic  into  the  Pacific  Ocean  either  by  an  eastern  or 
a  western  course.  In  short,  if  we  except  the  Sea  of  Amoor 
and  the  Japanese  Archipelago,  which  still  remain  imperfectly 
known  to  Europeans,  he  has  completed  the  hydrography  of 
the  habitable  globe.  ^ 

^  King's  Journal,  He  may  be  forgiven  a  little  exaggeration. 
Cook  was  not  the  first  sailor  in  those  seas,  nor  did  he  discover  the 
straits,  and  the  impossibility  of  a  north-west  passage  was  not  quite 
proved. 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE   END   OF  THE  VOYAGE 

When  such  of  the  remains  of  their  captain  as  could  be 
recovered  had  been  buried — it  Avas  alongside  and  not  on 
shore,  with  "  every  ceremony  due  to  his  rank  " — Captain 
Clerke  put  out  to  sea  and  the  voyage  was  resumed. 
The  remaining  history  of  the  expedition,  told  admir- 
ably by  Captain  King,  seems  like  the  last  act  of  a 
play  whose  hero  has  disappeared.  Briefly,  they  spent 
the  summer  ofi"  the  coasts  of  Ivamschatka,  and  in  October 
steered  a  course  for  home  by  way  of  Japan,  Macao,  and 
the  Narrow  Seas.  In  August,  Captain  Clerke  died  of 
consumption  after  a  long  and  languishing  illness.  He 
was  succeeded  by  Captain  Gore,  and  Lieutenant  King 
was  appointed  to  the  Discovery.  Gilbert  was  transferred 
to  the  Besolutiou  with  King — he  does  not  say  in  what 
capacity. 

On  arriving  off  Macao  all  the  gentlemen  were  ordered 
to  hand  over  their  journals,  charts,  drawings,  and  ob- 
servations of  all  kinds  taken  during  the  voyage,  and  a 
diligent  search  was  made  amongst  the  sailors  for  any- 
thing they  had  jotted  down.  This  was  by  order  of  the 
Admiralty,  and  in  order  to  prevent  the  scramble  for 
publication  which  experience  had  even  then  shown  to 
follow  after  every  such  expedition.     If  the  Admiralty  had 


CHAP.  XII  END  OF  THE   VOYAGE  173 

possession  of  everything  written  and  noted  by  their 
officers,  nothing  except  in  general  terms  could  be  pub- 
lished ;  while,  the  drawings  and  observations  of  all  kinds 
being  reserved,  no  scientific  value  whatever  could  attach 
to  vague  narrative.  One  is  here  faced  by  a  certain 
uneasiness  respecting  the  journal  from  which  so  much 
has  been  taken.  It  is  certainly  written  from  copious 
notes,  and  it  was  certainly  written  after  the  voyage,  be- 
cause the  author  in  more  than  one  place  shows  that  he 
is  arranging  his  notes,  and  reserving  certain  remarks  for 
a  second  visit  to  the  place  which  he  is  partly  describing. 
Did  Mr.  Gilbert  then  give  up  everything,  as  the  Ad- 
miralty ordered?  Or — which  is  certainly  possible — 
did  the  Admiralty  return  him,  and  other  officers,  their 
journals  after  the  official  publication  %  It  matters  very 
little,  but  the  c-[uestion  insists  on  being  put. 

On  reaching  the  Channel  they  met  with  winds  so 
contrary  that  Captain  Gore  took  the  ships  along  the 
west  coast  of  Ireland,  and  anchored  at  Stromness  in 
the  Orkneys.  Here  he  sent  Captain  King  to  London 
with  all  the  papers  and  reports,  and  after  being  detained 
a  month  at  Orkney  was  able  to  sail  for  London.  It  is 
melancholy  to  remark  that  on  this,  the  very  last  bit  of 
the  voyage,  two  more  of  the  Resolution  men  died.  On 
October  7th,  1780,  "we  lashed  along  the  Sheer-hulk  at 
Woolwich." 

Thus  ended  this  voyage,  long  and  eventful,  which 
failed  in  its  primary  object,  3'et  succeeded  in  so  many 
others.  The  passage  from  ocean  to  ocean  was  not  to  be 
discovered  for  eighty  years  to  come.  When  it  was  dis- 
covered it  proved  to  be  useless.  The  world  for  three 
hundred  years  had  been  looking  for  a  thing  which  was 


174  CAPTAIN  COOK 


CHAP.    XII 


there  all  the  time  and  could  be  put  to  no  practical  pur- 
pose. It  is  the  history  of  a  good  many  human  enter- 
prises. We  seek  St.  Brandan's  Island,  we  look  for 
Terra  Australis  Incognita;  and  we  find  New  Zealand 
and  Cape  Horn,  the  Continent  of  Australia,  and  the 
great  Pacific  Ocean,  studded  with  islands  as  the  firma- 
ment is  studded  by  the  stars. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE  ship's   company 

We  can  learn  more  about  the  individual  officers  and  men 
belonging  to  Cook's  three  expeditions  than  would  be 
expected  by  reading  the  journals  of  the  voyages. 
Cook  himself  tells  us  nothing  of  his  officers  except  in 
connection  with  special  service,  when  he  is  always  ready 
to  give  them  credit.  There  are  no  private  letters  pre- 
served, for  the  simple  reason  that  it  is  no  use  writing 
letters  when  there  is  no  post.  We  cannot  ascertain  the 
grumblings  of  the  forecastle,  or  the  criticisms  of  the  ward- 
room, but  something  may  be  recovered  from  the  journals 
themselves ;  and  there  was,  as  we  have  seen,  the  narra- 
tive of  George  Forster  and  the  journal  of  Gilbert.  Also 
there  are  the  books  of  Ellis,  Sydney  Parkinson  the 
draughtsman  brought  by  Banks,  and  one  or  two  more, 
from  reading  which  one  acquires  some  knowledge  of  the 
officers. 

In  general  terms  Cook  makes  known  his  solicitude 
for  the  welfare  of  his  crew ;  he  tells  us  how,  directly 
they  got  into  cold  weather,  he  had  the  sleeves  of  their 
jackets  lengthened  with  baize  and  gave  them  caps  made 
of  the  same  warm  material ;  he  dilates  on  the  grand 
antiscorbutic  effects  of  his  malt,  his  sour-krout,  and  his 
portable  broth ;  he  prides  himself  on  his  preservation  of 


176  CAPTAIN  COOK  chap. 

the  crew  from  scurvy.  We  have  seen  how  he  made  a 
kind  of  tea  for  the  men  from  the  leaves  and  t^ags  of 
the  spruce  ;  how  he  had  celery  and  scurvy  grass  boiled 
in  the  peas  and  wheat,  though  the  men  at  first  would 
not  eat  them  ;  how  he  made  beer  out  of  the  sugar-cane, 
and  when  the  men  refused  it  knocked  off  their  grog. 
We  see  how  he  sends  out  the  young  gentlemen  on  shoot- 
ing parties,  and  allows  them  to  accompany  the  scientific 
men  on  their  botanical  expeditions.  We  cannot  but 
remark  how  careful  he  is  to  mention  any  officer  who 
does  any  special  service  ;  and  when  he  loses  his  surgeon, 
William  Anderson,  it  is  not  a  formal  entry  in  the  log 
that  records  his  death,  but  a  careful  tribute  to  his  worth 
and  his  attainments  that  shows  his  justice  and  his  desire 
to  give  to  every  man  the  credit  due  to  his  zeal  and 
knowledge. 

But  when  the  ship's  beef  is  so  rank  that  it  can  no 
longer  be  eaten  even  by  the  strongest  stomach,  when 
the  biscuit  is  half  eaten  and  wholly  defiled  by  the 
cockroaches,  M'hen  the  crew  is  weakened  by  privation 
and  bad  food,  when  half  the  ship's  company  are  down 
through  having  eaten  poisonous  fish,  the  captain  says 
nothing.  These  things  were  part  and  parcel  of  such  a 
voyage ;  those  who  cannot  endure  them  had  better  not 
come  a-sailing  on  the  broad  Pacific  ;  sufficient  happiness 
for  them  to  escape  the  dreadful  scurvy  and  to  come 
home  again,  at  length,  alive.  Once  or  twice,  it  is  true, 
he  mentioned  things  which  have  reached  a  pass  beyond 
any  previous  experience.  We  learn,  for  instance,  on 
one  occasion  how  the  ship  was  pestered  with  cock- 
roaches, whose  numbers  could  not  be  kept  down.  They 
swarmed  everywhere ;  at  night  they  made   everything 


XIII  THEIR  HARDSHIPS  177 

in  the  cabins  seem  to  be  moving  about  by  their  multi- 
tudes. They  devoured  the  ink  on  labels  and  letters ; 
they  even  climbed  up  into  the  rigging,  and  when  the 
sails  were  unfurled  they  fell  in  thousands  on  the  deck. 
The  surgeon,  Mr.  Anderson,  discovered  that  there  were 
two  kinds — the  Blatta  Gennanica,  a  daylight  companion, 
and  the  Blatta  Orientalis,  their  joy  by  night.  But  this 
discovery  brought  no  comfort  to  the  crew,  as  it  could  not 
help  to  get  rid  of  them ;  and  the  cockroaches,  although 
named  and  classified,  went  on  multiplying. 

Again,  certain  fish,  the  captain  says,  which  were  eaten 
by  the  officers  and  the  pett}^  officers  caused  a  violent 
pain  in  the  head  and  bones,  with  a  scorching  heat  of 
the  skin  and  a  numbness  in  the  joints.  "It  was  a 
week  or  ten  days  before  all  the  gentlemen  recovered." 
Forster's  account  of  the  same  misfortune  shows  what 
a  narrow  escape  they  all  had  of  being  poisoned. 

Our  ship  now  resembled  an  hospital.  The  poisoned 
patients  were  still  in  a  deplorable  situation ;  they  continued 
to  have  gripes  and  acute  pains  in  all  their  bones.  In  the  day- 
time they  were  in  a  manner  giddy,  and  felt  a  great  heavi- 
ness in  their  heads.  At  night,  as  soon  as  they  were  warm 
in  bed,  their  pains  redoubled  and  robbed  them  actually  of 
sleep.  The  skin  peeled  off  from  the  whole  body,  and  pimples 
appeared  on  their  hands.  Tliose  who  were  less  aifected  with 
pains  were  much  weaker  in  proportion,  and  crawled  about 
the  decks  emaciated  to  mere  shadows.  We  had  not  one 
lieutenant  able  to  do  duty  ;  and  as  one  of  the  mates  and  several 
of  the  midshipmen  were  likewise  ill,  the  watches  were  com- 
manded by  the  gunner  and  the  other  mates. 

One  would  think  that  so  severe  a  visitation  would  have 
called  for  more  than  a  mere  note  of  passing  sickness. 
It  may  be  judged  from  Forster's  journal  \nth  how 


178  CAPTAIN  COOK 


much  heart  the  people,  including  even  the  scientific  men 
on  board,  endured  these  privations  and  suffered  this  hard- 
ness. We  can  see  the  captain,  his  face  set  southwards, 
looking  over  the  heads  of  the  hungry  and  discontented 
crew.  He  is  thinking  how  he  can  break  through  the 
wall  of  ice  and  learn  what  is  beyond.  They  are 
wondering  how  long  it  will  be  before  the  captain  will 
give  up  this  foolishness  and  turn  back  to  warmer  climates. 
The  officers  and  passengers  shared,  as  Forster  plainly 
tells  us,  in  the  general  dejection.  Their  store  of  special 
provisions  had  long  since  vanished,  and  they  were  now 
reduced  to  the  fare  of  the  common  sailors.  "  The  hope 
of  meeting  with  new  lands  had  vanished ;  the  topics 
of  common  conversation  were  exhausted ;  the  cruise  to 
the  south  could  not  present  anything  new,  but  appeared 
in  all  its  chilling  horrors  before  us."  The  conversation 
and  opinions  of  Columbus's  crew  have  onl}'  partly  been 
preserved;  but  such  as  they  were,  such  were  those  of 
Cook's  officers  and  scientific  passengers.  They  were  ready 
to  exchange  all  their  chances  of  glory  in  the  discovery 
of  the  Terra  Australis  Incognita  for  another  month  at 
Otaheite,  among  the  fruits  and  the  "  blooming  beauties  " 
of  that  island.  Many  other  instances  will  be  found  by 
him  who  reads  not  only  the  Voyages  themselves,  but 
also  the  books  which  belong  to  them  and  surround  them, 
as  the  big  fish  is  attended  by  the  little  fish.  Always  it 
is  the  same  thing.  The  captain  endures  and  murmurs 
not,  the  men  endure  and  grumble. 

As  one  makes  his  way  through  these  volumes,  a 
personal  interest,  as  I  have  already  said,  is  presently 
awakened  in  the  officers.  Some  of  them  begin  to  stand  out 
clear  of  outline  j  we  see  their  faces,  we  hear  their  voices. 


XIII  SOME  OF  THE  OFFICERS  179 

Among  these  is  Captain  Gierke,  he  who  follows  at 
Cook's  heels  in  the  Discovery.  He  is  a  silent  shade  and 
pensive ;  he  carries  out  instructions  and  endures  hard- 
ships, uncomplaining  even  though — perhaps,  because — 
the  hand  of  death  is  upon  him.  When  his  chief  is  killed 
he  is  carried,  already  in  the  last  stage  of  consumption,  on 
board  the  Resolution^  to  die  in  a  few  more  weeks.  Another, 
who  stands  out  a  clear  and  well-defined  figure,  is  that  of 
Anderson,  the  surgeon,  who  picked  up  the  language  every- 
where, compiled  the  vocabularies,  and  wrote  these  admir- 
able reports  on  the  manners  and  customs  of  the  people, 
one  of  the  earliest  and  best  of  anthropologists,  next  to 
the  captain  the  man  most  zealous  and  eager  for  the  success 
of  the  expedition.  He  died  before  his  chief.  Then 
comes  King,  who  wrote  the  conclusion  of  the  journal 
— King,  whom  the  natives  loved  and  called  Tinnee,  a 
man  of  genial  and  winning  manners,  a  favourite  with 
all.  He  came  home  in  command  of  the  Discovery.  They 
made  him  a  post  -  captain,  but  four  years  after  his 
return  he  died  in  the  south  of  France.  Then  there  is 
Gore,  who  succeeded  Clerke  in  the  command ;  w^e  see  a 
good  deal  of  Gore ;  he  is  always  going  off  with  boats, 
sounding,  surveying,  examining,  a  capable  officer;  but 
apparently,  since  King  -wrote  the  journals,  not  gifted 
with  the  pen  of  the  ready  writer.  He  died  in  1790, 
one  of  the  Captains  of  Green^vich  Hospital.  There  are 
also  those  stout  fellows — Eoberts,  the  first  lieutenant; 
Phillips,  who  behaved  with  so  much  pluck  at  the 
murder  of  the  captain;  Samwell,  the  surgeon ;  Edgecumbe, 
the  marine.  There  are  the  two  Forsters,  grumbling  and 
discontented;  the  amiable  youth  Sydney  Parkinson, 
draughtsman,  who  died  ;  j\Ionkhouse,  the  surgeon,  who 


i8o  CAPTAIN  COOK 


died ;  Charles  Green,  the  astronomer,  who  died ;  Spair- 
man,  the  naturalist,  whom  we  remember  emerging  from 
the  bush  where  the  natives  had  stripped  him  of  every- 
thing but  his  spectacles. 

As  for  Gilbert,  from  whose  log  I  have  quoted,  he  is 
a  voice  and  nothing  more.  He  was  transferred  from 
one  ship  to  the  other.  On  his  return  home  he  was  pro- 
moted with  the  rest,  but,  as  I  have  said  already,  he 
died  shortly  afterwards  of  smallpox. 

I  have  mentioned  Isaac  Smith,  the  boy  whom  Cook 
took  with  him — his  wife's  cousin — midshipman  on  his 
first  and  mate  on  his  second  voyage.  After  his  second 
voyage  he  was  made  lieutenant,  and  continued  in  active 
service  till  the  year  1794,  when  his  health  gave  waj-,  and 
he  retired,  receiving  the  rank  of  admiral  in  the  year  1804. 
He  was  the  first  Englishman  who  landed  in  Australia. 
When  the  captain  went  ashore  he  took  the  boy  with 
him.  "Now  then,  Isaac,"  he  said,  "you  go  first."  And 
the  lad  jumped  ashore.  Admiral  Smith  after  his  retire- 
ment lived  with  his  cousin  the  ^ddow. 

There  are  one  or  two  of  the  crew  who  deserve  mention. 
The  old  and  faithful  Watman,  who  followed  Cook  on  the 
third  voyage,  never  weary  of  the  sea,  has  been  already 
mentioned.  It  was  an  ill  seri^ice  that  he  did  his  master 
in  dying  at  the  juncture  when  the  natives  were  trying 
to  believe  the  strangers  to  be  all  gods  and  superior  to 
death.  Next,  there  is  Corporal  Lediard,  that  gallant 
marine  who,  next  to  Anderson,  developed  the  greatest 
quickness  in  learning  the  language  wherever  they  touched. 
He  was  by  birth  an  American,  and  in  the  year  1786  he 
formed  the  project  of  walking  across  the  continent  of 
America.    For  that  purpose  he  thought  he  would  journey 


XIII  CORPORAL  LEDIARD  l8i 

through  Europe  and  across  Siberia  to  Kamschatka, 
where  their  Russian  friends  of  their  last  visit  would  per- 
haps take  him  across  the  straits.  Sir  Joseph  Banks  and 
others  raised  a  sum  of  fifty  pounds  for  him.  With  this 
slender  provision  he  sailed  to  Hamburg,  and  thence  to 
Copenhagen  and  Stockholm.  He  thought  to  find  the 
Gulf  of  Bothnia  frozen  over ;  as  it  was  not,  he  walked 
all  round  it,  through  Tornea  to  St.  Petersburg.  Here 
he  found  a  convoy  of  military  stores  about  to  start  for 
the  use  of  one  Billings,  who  had  been  on  one  of  Cook's 
expeditions  and  had  now  taken  service  with  the  Russians, 
being  employed  in  making  surveys  for  the  Russian 
Government  on  the  north-west  coast  of  America.  He 
obtained  permission  to  join  this  convoy,  and  in  August 
reached  the  town  of  Irkutsk  in  Siberia.  Thence  he 
proceeded  to  Yakutsk,  -where  he  met  with  Captain 
Billings.  He  returned  to  Irkutsk,  intending  to  pass  the 
winter  there.  But  in  January  he  Avas  arrested,  brought 
back  under  the  guard  of  an  officer  and  two  soldiers  in 
a  post-sledge  for  Moscow.  He  was  then  taken  to  the 
frontier  and  dismissed,  with  the  Empress's  prohibition 
ever  again  to  set  foot  within  her  territories.  What  harm 
this  poor  soldier-sailor  could  possibly  do  to  the  empire 
of  Russia  is  not  apparent.  Sir  Joseph  Banks  heard  from 
him  from  Konigsberg.  He  died  in  1790,  and  his  adven- 
turous life  has  been  written  and  may  be  read. 

One  feels  a  certain  sympathy,  too,  M-ith  the  Irishman 
who  had  been  in  the  Danish  service,  and  somehow  seemed 
to  have  no  country  left,  so  that  when  he  ran  away  with 
the  intention  of  remaining  away  for  the  rest  of  his  life, 
a  general  compunction  was  felt  for  him,  and  though  he 
was  brought  back  his  punishment  was  no  more  than  a 


i82  CAPTAIN  COOK  chap. 

fortnight  in  irons.  Many  tried  to  run  away ;  a  sailor  in 
New  Zealand,  enticed  from  his  duty  by  a  girl ;  a  mid- 
shipman and  a  sailor  in  Otaheite,  thinking  that  life  on 
such  an  island  was  better  far  than  to  go  on  ploughing  the 
barren  wave ;  they  were  caught,  too,  but  not  severely 
punished — Cook  was  hard,  but  he  could  feel  for  those 
weaknesses  of  human  nature  which  did  not  interfere 
with  the  proper  discharge  of  work.  Lastly,  two  men  ran 
away  with  the  six -oared  gig,  but  this  was  off  Macao. 
They  were  never  heard  of  again.  One  pictures  the  re- 
ception which  these  misguided  and  unhappy  sailors  would 
meet  with  from  the  Chinese  mariners  who  should  chance 
upon  them  and  their  six-oared  gig.  One  more  remini- 
scence of  the  voyages.  It  is  Christmas  Day,  the  ship  is 
in  lat.  65°  S.  It  is  midsummer,  so  that  the  nights  are 
short ;  but  the  skies  and  seas  are  hidden  with  continual 
fog,  so  that  nothing  can  be  seen  around  or  above ;  the 
vessel  is  in  the  midst  of  ice,  a  wall  of  ice  is  before  them, 
broken  ice,  floating  ice,  ice  in  small  lumps  and  in  great 
hills  all  about  them.  For  months  the  crew  have  been 
saving  up  their  brandy  in  readiness  for  this  sacred  day, 
which  they  keep  by  all  getting  drunk  —  very  drunk, 
says  the  historian,  though  the  captain  passes  over  the 
occurrence. 

On  the  discipline  of  the  ship  a  good  deal  might  be 
said,  but  Cook  must  not  be  judged  by  the  practice  of 
modern  days.  The  sailors  get  drunk  unrebuked  on 
Christmas  Day — that  would  not  be  permitted  in  these 
days.  When  the  ship  was  in  port,  things  were  allowed 
to  go  on  aboard  which  can  hardly  now  be  related — 
they  may  be  found  in  great  detail  in  Forster's  book. 
At  sea  a  stem  rule  prevailed,  and  the  lash  was  freely 


COOK'S  BIBLE 


used  ;  on  shore  and  in  port  the  men  did  what  they 
pleased.  Those  who  know  who  went  down  on  board 
the  Royal  George  with  brave  Kempenfeldt  will  under- 
stand that  Cook  followed  the  usual  practice.  "  Certain 
things,"  he  said,  "  I  permitted,  because  I  could  not  pre- 
vent them."  There  might  have  been,  one  feels,  some 
restrictions — an  attempt  at  restraint — but  there  were 
none.     It  was  exactly  the  same  with  Wallis. 

One  more  point  of  difference.  I  know  not  when 
every  ship  began  to  carry  its  chaplain,  but  there  was 
no  chaplain  on  any  of  Cook's  voyages.  It  was,  however, 
the  custom  for  the  captain  to  read  the  service  to  the 
whole  crew  on  Sunday  mornings.  The  Bible  from 
which  Cook  read  the  lessons  during  his  last  voyages 
was  given  to  his  widow,  who  used  no  other  during  the 
rest  of  her  long  life.  It  is  a  well-bound  quarto,  Ed. 
Baskett,  Oxford,  1765,  and  is  now  in  Sydney  with  other 
relics  of  the  great  navigator. 


CHAPTER   XIV 

THE   LAST 

It  seems  idle  to  add  anything  concerning  the  character 
of  James  Cook  to  what  has  gone  before.  He  was  hard 
to  endure,  true  to  carry  out  his  mission,  perfectly  loyal 
and  single-minded,  he  was  fearless,  he  was  hot-tempered 
and  impatient,  he  was  self-reliant,  he  asked  none  of  his 
subordinates  for  help  or  for  advice,  he  was  temperate, 
strong,  and  of  simple  tastes,  he  was  born  to  a  hard  life, 
and  he  never  murmured  however  hard  things  proved. 
And,  like  all  men  bom  to  be  great,  Avhen  he  began  to 
rise,  A^th  each  step  he  assumed,  as  if  it  belonged  to 
him,  the  dignity  of  his  new  rank.  A  plain  man,  those 
who  knew  him  say,  but  of  good  manners.  If  this 
volume  does  not  show  the  manner  of  the  man,  then  it 
has  failed.  Such  as  his  achievements  required,  such 
he  was. 

Let  us,  however,  once  more  repeat  briefly  what  those 
achievements  were,  because  they  were  so  great  and 
splendid,  and  because  no  other  sailor  has  ever  so  greatly 
enlarged  the  borders  of  the  earth.  He  discovered  the 
Society  Islands ;  he  proved  New  Zealand  to  be  two 
islands  and  he  surveyed  its  coasts ;  he  followed  the  un- 
known coast  of  New  Holland  for  two  thousand  miles 
and  proved  that  it  was  separated  from  New  Guinea ;  he 


CHAP.  XIV  HIS  ACHIEVEMENTS  185 

traversed  the  Antarctic  Ocean  on  three  successive  voj^'ages, 
sailing  completely  round  the  globe  in  its  high  latitudes, 
and  proving  that  the  dream  of  the  gi^eat  southern  con- 
tinent had  no  foundation,  unless  it  was  close  around  the 
Pole  and  so  beyond  the  reach  of  ships ;  he  discovered  and 
explored  a  great  part  of  the  coast  of  New  Caledonia,  the 
largest  island  in  the  South  Pacific  next  to  New  Zealand  ; 
he  found  the  desolate  island  of  Georgia,  and  Sandwich- 
land,  the  southernmost  land  yet  known ;  he  discovered 
the  fair  and  fertile  archipelago  called  the  Sandmch 
Islands ;  he  explored  three  thousand  five  hundred  miles 
of  the  North  American  coast,  and  he  traversed  the  icy 
seas  of  the  North  Pacific,  as  he  had  done  in  the  south, 
in  search  of  the  passage  which  he  failed  to  discover. 
All  this,  without  counting  the  small  islands  which  he 
found  scattered  about  the  Pacific. 

Again,  he  not  only  proved  the  existence  of  these 
islands,  but  he  was  in  advance  of  his  age  in  the  observa- 
tions and  the  minute  examination  which  he  made  into 
the  religion,  manners,  customs,  arts,  and  language  of 
the  natives  wherever  he  went.  It  was  he  who  directed 
these  inquiries,  and  he  was  himself  the  principal  observer. 
When  astronomical  observations  had  to  be  made  it  was 
he  who  acted  as  principal  astronomer.  He  was  as  much 
awake  to  the  importance  of  botany,  especially  of  medicinal 
plants,  as  he  was  to  the  laying  down  of  a  correct  chart. 
It  is  certain  that  there  was  not  in  the  whole  of  the 
king's  navy  any  ofiicer  who  could  compare  with  Cook  in 
breadth  and  depth  of  knowledge,  in  forethought,  in  the 
power  of  conceiving  great  designs,  and  in  courage  and 
pertinacity  in  carrying  them  through.  Let  us  always 
think  of  the  captain  growing  only  more  cheerful  as  his 


1 86  CAPTAIN  COOK  chap. 

ship  forced  her  -way  southwards,  though  his  men  lay 
half-starved  and  half-poisoned  on  the  deck. 

His  voyages  would  have  been  impossible,  his  dis- 
coveries could  not  have  been  made,  but  for  that  in- 
valuable discovery  of  his  whereby  scurvy  was  kept  off 
and  the  men  enabled  to  remain  at  sea  long  months 
without  a  change.  I  have  called  attention  to  the  brief 
mention  he  makes  of  privation  and  hardships  ;  he  barely 
notes  the  accident  by  which  half  his  company  were 
poisoned  by  fish,  he  says  nothing  about  the  men's  dis- 
comforts when  their  biscuit  was  rotten.  These  things, 
you  see,  are  not  scurvy.  One  may  go  hungry  for 
a  while,  but  recover  when  food  is  found  and  is  none 
the  worse;  one  gets  sick  of  salt  junk,  but  if  scurvy 
is  averted,  mere  disgust  is  not  worth  observation.  To 
drive  off  scurvy — to  keep  it  off — was  the  greatest  boon 
that  any  man  could  confer  upon  sailors.  Cook  has  the 
honour  and  glory  of  finding  out  the  way  to  avert 
this  scourge.  Those  who  have  read  of  this  horrible 
disease — the  tortures  it  entailed — the  terror  it  was  on 
all  long  voyages — Avill  understand  how  great  should  be 
the  gratitude  of  the  country  to  this  man.  Since  the 
disease  fell  chiefly  upon  the  men  before  the  mast,  it  was 
fitting  that  one  who  had  also  in  his  youth  run  up  the 
rigging  to  the  music  of  the  boatswain's  pipe  should 
discover  that  way  and  confer  that  boon. 

The  gratitude  of  Cook's  country  was  shown  in  several 
ways,  all  rather  curious.  Had  he  been  a  member  of  a 
noble  family  his  son  would  certainly  have  been  raised  to 
the  peerage.  As  he  was  not,  the  king  granted  his 
family  a  coat  of  arms.     I  think  that  this  must  have 


XIV  HIS  COAT  OF  ARMS  187 

been  the  last  occasion  when  a  coat  of  arms  was  granted 
as  a  recognition  of  service.  In  these  days,  if  a  man 
wants  a  coat  of  arms,  he  gets  some  one  who  understands 
heraldry  to  draw  him  one  or  to  find  him  one,  or  perhaps 
he  ignorantly  tries  to  make  one  for  himself.  A  coat  of 
arms ;  such  a  grant  seems  now  to  mean  nothing.  We 
think  we  can  confer  gentility  upon  ourselves — as, 
indeed,  for  all  practical  purposes  we  can ;  but  not  of 
the  ancient  kind.  The  old  notion  that  gentility  can  be 
conferred  by  the  sovereign  as  the  fountain  of  honour 
is  clean  forgotten.  But  it  was  not  then  forgotten.  No 
man  could  make  himself  armiger.  Cook's  family,  there- 
fore, were  rewarded  with  a  shield  :  they  were  advanced 
to  the  first  step  of  nobility.     The  shield  is  thus  described. 

Azure,  between  the  two  polar  stars  Or,  a  sphere  on  the 
plane  of  the  meridian,  shewing  the  Pacific  Ocean,  his  track 
thereon  marked  by  red  lines.  And  for  crest,  on  a  wreath  of 
the  colours,  is  an  arm  bowed,  in  the  uniform  of  a  Captain  of 
the  Royal  Navy.  In  the  hand  is  the  Union  Jack  on  a  staff 
proper.     The  arui  is  encircled  by  a  wreath  of  palm  and  laurel. 

A  very  noble  shield  indeed  ! 

A  pension  of  two  hundred  pounds  a  year  was 
bestowed  upon  the  A\ddow,  and  the  Government  further 
bestowed  upon  her  half  the  profits  arising  from  the 
publication  of  her  husband's  Journal  of  the  Third 
Voyage.  She  also  received  a  share  in  the  profits  of  the 
Journal  of  the  Second  Voyage,  but  in  both  cases  the 
interest  alone  was  to  be  hers  for  life,  the  children  to 
receive  the  princijml  after  her  death.  At  their  death 
the  principal  was  paid  to  her.^     Mrs.  Cook  was  thus 

^  I  have  before  me  a  copy  of  Captain  Cook's  will.  The  amount  for 
which  it  was  proved  is  not  stated.     He  bequeaths  an  annuity  of  £10 


i88  CAPTAIN  COOK 


left  fully  provided  for.  It  only  remains  to  tell  the 
story  of  the  fate  which  fell  upon  Cook's  children  as  well 
as  upon  himself.  There  were  six  children  in  all.  Three 
died  in  infancy  or  in  tender  years.  Three  grew  up  to 
manhood.  Of  these  the  eldest,  James,  was  in  the  navy. 
The  second,  Nathaniel,  also  went  into  the  navy.  The 
third  and  youngest,  Hugh,  was  sent  to  Cambridge, 
where  he  entered  at  Christ's  College  in  the  year  1793. 

The  news  of  her  husband's  death  reached  the  unhappy 
Avidow  in  the  first  week  of  October  1780.  In  the  same 
week  her  second  son  Nathaniel  went  down  on  board 
the  ThuTiderer  in  a  hurricane  oft*  Jamaica.  The  news 
reached  her  before  the  end  of  the  year.  Then  followed 
a.  period  of  thirteen  years,  during  which  she  saw  her 
eldest  son  from  time  to  time — a  gallant  and  active 
officer,  always  on  service — and  educated  the  youngest 
boy,  Hugh.  In  July  1793  this  son,  as  I  have  said, 
was  entered  as  a  pensioner  at  Christ's,  and  went  into 
residence  in  October.  Two  months  later  he  was  attacked 
by  scarlet  fever,  and  died  on  December  21st  in  his 
eighteenth  year.  A  portrait  of  this  unfortunate  youth 
in  the  possession  of  Canon  Bennett  shows  a  face  of 
very  remarkable  beauty  and  delicacy,  with  none  of  the 
severity  which  belonged  to  that  of  his  father. 

Only  five  weeks  later  another  blow  fell  upon  the 
hapless  woman,  already  bereaved  of  husband  and  five 
out  of  her  six  children.  Her  eldest  son,  who  had  been 
in  the  autumn  of  1793  promoted  to  the  rank  of  com- 
mander, was,  while  with  his  ship  at  Poole,  in  Dorset- 

to  his  father,  certain  "bequests  of  £10  each  to  nephews  and  nieces,  and 
the  rest,  including  his  messuages  at  Mile  End  Town,  to  his  wife.  He 
was  thus,  before  starting  on  his  last  voyage,  possessed  of  substantial 
means. 


XIV  DEATH  OF  THE  ELDEST  SON  1S9 

shire,  appointed  to  the  command  of  the  Spitfire  sloop  of 
war.  On  January  24th,  1794,  he  received  from  Captain 
Yeo,  commanding  officer  of  the  station,  his  letters  and 
orders  to  take  command  without  delay.  He  started 
immediately  in  an  open  boat,  manned  by  sailors  return- 
ing from  leave,  to  sail  from  Poole  to  Portsmouth.  It 
was  in  the  afternoon.  His  boat  was  rather  crowded : 
there  was  a  strong  ebb  tide  and  a  fresh  wind ;  it  was 
grooving  dark.  This  was  the  last  seen  of  James  Cook, 
the  younger. 

For  he  never  reached  his  ship.  What  happened  will 
never  now  be  known.  His  body,  with  a  wound  on  the 
head  and  stripped  of  all  his  money  and  valuables,  was 
found  on  the  beach  at  the  back  of  the  Isle  of  Wight ; 
the  boat  was  also  found  broken  up;  but  no  trace  of 
any  of  the  crew  was  discovered.  Perhaps  they  were 
drowned.  Perhaps  they  murdered  the  captain,  made 
for  the  island,  laid  his  body  on  the  beach,  broke  up 
the  boat,  and  dispersed. 

The  body  was  brought  over  to  Portsmouth  and  taken 
to  Cambridge,  where  it  was  laid  in  the  same  grave  with 
the  remains  of  his  brother  Hugh. 

Overwhelmed  by  this  final  blow,  the  unhappy  woman 
was  prostrated  with  an  illness  of  mind  and  body  which 
kept  her  to  her  house  for  two  years.  When  she  re- 
covered she  asked  her  cousin,  Admiral  Isaac  Smith, 
who  was  unmarried,  to  live  with  her.  They  took  a 
house  together  at  Clapham,  where  she  continued  to  live 
until  her  death  in  1835,  being  then  ninety-three  years 
of  age.  By  her  own  request  she  was  buried  with  her 
two  sons  in  the  centre  aisle  of  St.  Andrew's  Church, 
Cambridge. 


190  CAPTAIN  COOK  chap. 

She  kept  her  faculties  to  the  end.  My  informant 
describes  her  as  a  handsome  and  venerable  lady,  her 
white  hair  rolled  back  in  ancient  fashion,  always  dressed 
in  black  satin,  with  an  oval  face,  an  aquiline  nose,  and 
a  good  mouth.  She  wore  a  ring  with  her  husband's 
hair  in  it ;  and  she  entertained  the  highest  respect  for 
his  memory,  measuring  everything  by  his  standard  of 
honour  and  morality.  Her  keenest  expression  of  dis- 
approbation was  that  Mr.  Cook — to  her  he  was  always 
Mr.  Cook,  not  Captain — "would  never  have  done  so." 

Like  many  widows  of  sailors,  she  could  never  sleep 
in  high  wind  for  thinking  of  the  men  at  sea,  and  she 
kept  four  days  in  the  year  of  solemn  fasting,  during 
which  she  came  not  out  of  her  own  room :  they  were 
the  days  of  her  bereavements ;  the  days  when  she  lost 
her  husband  and  her  three  boys.  She  passed  those 
days  in  prayer  and  meditation  with  her  husband's 
Bible ;  and  for  her  husband's  sake  she  befriended  their 
nephews  and  grand-nephews  and  nieces  and  grand-nieces 
of  his  whom  she  never  saw ;  they  were  not  suffered  to 
want. 

With  her  pension  and  her  share  of  the  profits  of  the 
books  and  with  other  things — such  as  the  inheritance 
of  her  sailor  son's  fortune,  sworn  under  £5000 — Mrs. 
Cook  became  a  wealthy  woman.  Her  house  was  good,  and 
filled  with  old  furniture  of  the  style  called  Louis  Quinze ; 
it  was  also  crowded  and  crammed  in  every  room  with 
relics,  curiosities,  drawings,  maps,  and  collections  brought 
home  from  the  voyages.  It  would  seem  that  the  Govern- 
ment gave  back  the  drawings  and  charts  after  they  had 
been  published.  On  Thursdays  she  always  entertained 
her  friends  to  dinner,  which  was  served  at  three  o'clock. 


XIV  TABLE  OF  CHILDREN  191 

After  the  death  of  her  cousin  the  admiral  she  was 
taken  care  of  by  a  faithful  old  servant  whom  she  re- 
membered in  her  will,  and  b}-  younger  members  of  her 
own  family.^ 

The  greater  part  of  the  relics  preserved  were  sent  to 
the  Colonial  Government  Museum,  Sydney,  after  the 
Colonial  Exhibition.  But  the  log  of  the  First  Voyage 
and  the  gold  medal  conferred  on  the  captain  by  the 
Eoyal  Society  are  in  the  British  JMuseum. 

The  following  genealogy  shows  the  numbers  and  the 
end  of  Cook's  family.  All,  as  has  been  seen,  were  cut 
off  in  youth  or  infancy,  and  no  descendant  now  survives 
of  England's  greatest  navigator. 

James  Cook  =  Elizabeth  Batts 
I    I.     1742,  d.  1835 


James 

1 
Nathaniel 

1 
Hugh 

Elizabeth 

Joseph 

1 
George 

I. 

1763 

h. 

1764 

6.  1776 

h. 

1766 

h.  and  d. 

h.  and  d. 

d. 

1794 

d. 

1780 

d.  1793 

d. 

1771 

1768 

1772 

^  For  these  personal  recollections  of  Mrs.  Cook,  and  also  for  various 
documents  connected  with  her  husband's  domestic  life,  I  am  indebted 
to  Canon  Bennett,  of  Maddingtou  Vicarage,  Devizes.  As  he  is  probably 
the  only  survivor  of  her  personal  friends,  this  information  could  not 
have  been  procured  from  any  one  else  ;  without  it  the  history  of 
Cook's  private  life  would  have  been  indeed  shadowy. 


THE  END 


Printed  by  R.  &  R.  Clark,  Limited,  Edinburgh. 


I 


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