Cook

by Rob Mundle

  On 27 June, Resolution was anchored off Nomuka, in the Tongan group of islands, and once again, every man was welcomed in typical island fashion. Offsetting what was perhaps an even greater display of friendliness compared with the previous stopovers, petty (and not so petty) thieving was an art form with these people also. The first such incident came when the surgeon, James Patten, had his musket stolen while he was away hunting wild fowl. Soon afterwards, some of the cooper’s tools, as well as a second musket, disappeared from where they’d been left on a beach. Cook called in the marines to pursue the perpetrators, which they did and the muskets were duly recovered.

  Later, the captain discovered one of the adzes that had been stolen, and through actions and words he left the culprit in no doubt that he wanted the item returned. She would have no part of it, until remorse set in. The woman not only returned the adze to Cook, but offered him a form of apology he wasn’t prepared for:

  … this woman and a man presented to me a young woman and gave me to understand she was at my service. Miss, who probably had received her instructions, I found wanted by way of Handsel [an advance payment], a Shirt or a Nail, neither the one nor the other I had to give without giving her the Shirt on my back which I was not in a humour to do. I soon made them sensible of my Poverty and thought by that means to have come off with flying Colours but I was mistaken, for I was made to understand I might retire with her on credit, this not suiting me neither the old Lady began first to argue with me and when that failed she abused me … Sneering in my face and saying, what sort of a man are you thus to refuse the embraces of so fine a young Woman, for the girl certainly did not [want] beauty which I could however withstand, but the abuse of the old Woman I could not and therefore hastened into the Boat, they then would needs have me take the girl on board with me, but this could not be done as I had come to a Resolution not to suffer a Woman to come on board the Ship on any pretence whatever and had given strict orders to the officers to that purpose …

  Despite the thefts, Cook and his men had nothing but the highest admiration for the islanders they met while cruising through this archipelago. On departing the region, he would write: ‘this group [of islands] I have named the Friendly Archipelago as a lasting friendship seems to subsist among the Inhabitants and their Courtesy to Strangers entitles them to that name.’

  Cook’s plan for exploring this part of the Pacific included an attempt to find ‘Quirós’s Isles’, which he believed were about 1000 nautical miles north-west of the Friendly group. His interest was stimulated by the knowledge that when Spain’s Pedro Fernandez de Quirós found these islands in 1606, he was so certain that he had discovered part of the perimeter of the mythical Terra Australis Incognita that he named it ‘Terra Austrialia del Espíritu Santo’ (Southern Land of the Holy Spirit). Resolution was soon underway once more, and on 3 July, having sailed north-west, arrived at a small and previously uncharted island, Vatoa. This stay was brief, and with nothing to be seen on the immediate horizon, Cook continued in his efforts to locate the ‘Isles’, which he was convinced lay to the north-west. Had he headed more to the north from Vatoa, he would have made yet another great discovery: Fiji, an archipelago comprising more than 332 islands. Tasman recorded some of the most northerly islands in this group when he sailed through the region in 1643, but the major part of Fiji would be recorded by Captain William Bligh in 1789, following the Bounty mutiny. Cook’s determination to unravel the entire riddle of this part of the Pacific saw him adopt a zigzag course to the north-west, so that the greatest possible area of ocean could be scoured. The ship proceeded at maximum speed through the daylight hours, then, for safety reasons, was brought back to a near-drift at night.

  It was 3 pm on Sunday, 17 July, when land was next sighted, but a howling gale out of the south-east – which saw many sails ‘split and torn to pieces’ – made for a difficult approach. Even so, he soon entered an important note in his journal: ‘I made no doubt but this was the Australia Del Espiritu Santo of Quiros.’ Over the next six weeks, Resolution circumnavigated almost all of the eighty-three islands in the group, which stretched for more than 300 nautical miles in a line to the south-south-east. Cook subsequently applied his own name to them – the New Hebrides (today Vanuatu). Initially he tracked south, then back to the north, charting the majority of islands along the way.

  The first anchorage there that Cook chose was off Malekula Island, and inevitably natives were clambering aboard in no time, initially full of curiosity and friendship. Soon though, fear was the prevailing emotion: this came about after one of the islanders, armed with a bow and what the visitors thought was a poison arrow, threatened to shoot a member of the crew. The aggressor was immediately peppered with small shot, but it was the noise of the musket discharging that caused most alarm among the natives. They immediately began leaping overboard – some through the stern windows of the great cabin, others from up the rigging – and began swimming ashore. Simultaneously, many of the islanders who had remained in the canoes took up their weapons and started firing a fusillade of arrows towards the ship. But, as the commander explained, ‘a Musket discharged in the air and a four pounder over their heads sent them all off in the utmost confusion.’

  A week later, some of Resolution’s men were in fact poisoned. The cause was from an altogether more natural source. Cook explained:

  The Night before we came out of Port two Red fish about the size of large Bream and not unlike them were caught with hook and line of which Most of the officers and Some of the Petty officers dined the next day. In the Evening every one who had eat of these fish were seized with Violent pains in the head and limbs, so as to be unable to stand, together with a kind of Scorching heat all over the Skin, there remained no doubt but that it was occasioned by the fish being of a Poisonous nature and communicated its bad effects to every one who had the ill luck to eat of it even to the Dogs and Hogs, one of the latter died … We had reason to be thankful in not having caught more of them for if we had we should have been in the Same Situation …

  The visitors also became aware of what, due to the dense amount of smoke, appeared to be a large forest fire high on a nearby island. Darkness revealed that it was actually an erupting volcano, throwing up large volumes of smoke and fire, and making ‘the same noise like thunder’.

  The reception from the natives in the New Hebrides had generally been affable so far, but that changed when the ship landed at Eromanga Island. Hundreds of fully armed warriors formed a semicircle on a beach, where their chief had encouraged Cook to come ashore, and the moment he stepped off the pinnace and onto the sand – as usual, in uniform – he sensed a trap, simply because of the way the chief was talking to his men and gesticulating. Cook did an immediate about-turn, hurrying back up the boarding plank of the pinnace while ordering his own men to retreat as quickly as possible. With that, the natives tried to restrain the boat, grabbing the oars, so that Cook knew there was only one effective form of defence: to shoot the chief for his treachery, the hope being that this would bring the shock needed to quell the threat. The musket misfired, however, and suddenly a hail of arrows, spears and rocks targeted the boat, slightly wounding two of the crew. Cook called on his marines to take up their arms and return fire, which they did. As this was happening, other crewmen rowed the pinnace and cutter back to the ship, achieving a lucky escape for all. Once there, the men clambered up over the side and onto the deck, where they began helping others who were already initiating plans to weigh anchor and get the ship under sail as soon as possible.

  Later, Cook would ponder the reason for this attack. A significant point for consideration was that these people were Melanesian, very different from the Polynesians who had mostly shown great warmth towards the visitors. One theory that subsequently emerged was that the Englishmen, being white, might have been seen by the Melanesians as ghosts – the spirits of the islanders’ ancestors. But there is no known reason why these people would want to kill their ancestors.

&nb
sp; By the middle of August, when the ship was at anchor at Tanna Island, Cook decided to continue his cruise around the New Hebrides by exploring the islands all the way to the north of the group. Once there, Resolution rounded the island that Quirós had named Austrialia del Espíritu Santo (today known just as Espiritu Santo).

  It appears that, for much of the time during this particular part of his circumnavigation, Cook held no great desire to revisit Queen Charlotte Sound, his primary goal being to reach Cape Horn by November that year and enter the South Atlantic. But once again, the temptation to explore and discover new lands was becoming all too powerful. So he put New Zealand back on the agenda, noting that he must do this ‘while I had yet some time left to explore any lands I might meet with between this and New Zealand, where I intended to touch to refresh my people and recruit our stock of wood and Water, for another Southern Cruise’. By 1 September, Resolution was sailing away from modern-day Vanuatu. She was being steered into the open ocean towards the south on a course that would take her to New Zealand’s west coast.

  On departing from the New Hebrides, Cook could satisfy himself with the knowledge that he had confirmed the existence and location of Quirós’s Isles, and at the same time was able to highlight the navigational inaccuracy that emerged from the 1768 visit by Frenchman Louis-Antoine, Comte de Bougainville.

  While en route to New Zealand, Cook made two other important discoveries that were inscribed onto the map of the South Pacific. Three days after leaving the New Hebrides, yet another large island was located. As Resolution closed on this coast from a north-easterly direction, Cook and his men realised that they were observing a very large tract of mountainous terrain – land that stretched from horizon to horizon, one that would eventually be revealed to be more than 200 miles long and around 30 miles wide. A suitable anchorage was located on the eastern shore, and Resolution sheltered there for a week. While at anchor, Wales and Clerke went ashore and set up the observatory, so that they could monitor an eclipse of the sun – much to the intrigue of the friendly natives – while the always energetic, but still generally unpopular, Förster botanised extensively. There was again a lesson for Cook and some of the officers relating to poisonous fish, in this case toadfish:

  A Fish was procured from the Natives by my Clerk … only the Liver and roe was dressed of which the two Mr Forsters and myself did but just taste. About 3 or 4 o’Clock in the Morning we were seized with an extraordinary weakness in all our limbs attended with a numbness … I had almost lost the sense of feeling … We each of us took a Vomit and after that a sweat which gave great relief … When the Natives came on board and saw the fish hanging up, they immediately gave us to understand it was by no means to be eat …

  An air of sadness enveloped the entire ship while anchored here when the ship’s butcher, Simon Monk, fell down the forward hatch and died soon afterwards as a result of his injuries. It was the third loss of life among the crew since leaving England.

  For an expedition commander, and as required by the Admiralty, a very important undertaking was to take possession of each new land for King and Country. Cook did so and recorded the find as follows:

  [This main island] will prove at least 40 or 50 leagues long, & is therefore the greatest new Tropical Island we have hitherto seen … It lies NWbW & SEbE, but seems to be but narrow across … It deserves to be called New-Caledonia, as we do not know its true Name, for what we got from the Natives were only Names of Districts on the Isle …

  Resolution sailed the 300 nautical miles of the eastern side of this archipelago, much of the time paralleling the extensive coral reef along the coast. Then, when the ship was close to its southern extremity, the men sighted a beautiful small island surrounded by long strands of golden sand beaches and azure waters, and cloaked in palms and pine trees. Cook appropriately named it the Isle of Pines. But as beautiful as this island was, there was nothing attractive about the shallows the ship encountered south of New Caledonia. At one stage, Resolution appeared to be in an inescapable trap: she was surrounded by reefs, where large waves were breaking into wild furrows of white water. Once again, it was only through the great skill of the captain, the dedication of the crew, and possibly an additional influence from above, that the threat was overcome.

  From there, it was a 1200-nautical-mile passage south-east to Queen Charlotte Sound. When Resolution was near halfway, a call laden with considerable excitement came from the lookout stationed high in the rig. He had spotted a previously undiscovered island – small, with a rocky shoreline, and crowned in vivid green. As Cook’s journal confirmed, a stopover was essential:

  Hoisted out two boats in which myself, some of the officers and gentlemen went to take a view of the Island and its produce … We found the Island uninhabited … the chief produce of the isle is Spruce Pines which grow here in abundance and to a vast size, from two to three feet diameter and upwards, it is of a different sort to those in New Caledonia and also to those in New Zealand and for Masts, Yards [etcetera] superior to both. We cut down one of the Smallest trees we could find and Cut a length of the upper end to make a Topgallant Mast or Yard … Here then is another Isle where Masts for the largest Ships may be had …

  Cook claimed the island in the name of King George and identified it as Norfolk Isle, ‘in honour of that noble family’, in particular, as Wales would note, the Duchess of Norfolk. The anchor was then weighed and the south-easterly course resumed, this time with a highly favourable northerly wind blowing.

  The perfect setting came to an abrupt end, however, when a spring storm hurtled out of the heavens, bringing with it thunder, lightning and a strong wind that ‘split the jib to pieces’. The moment the lightning appeared, the men on watch hurriedly hauled the lightning chain to the masthead to provide the maximum possible protection for their ship.

  It was 19 October 1774 when Cook recorded: ‘being little wind, weighed and Warped into the Cove [in Queen Charlotte Sound] and there moored a cable each way, Intending to wait here to refresh the Crew, refit the ship in the best manner we could and complete her with Wood and Water.’

  The captain went ashore personally and searched for evidence of Adventure having been there. ‘As soon as I landed I looked for the bottle I had left behind in which was the Memorandum it was gone, but by whom it did not appear.’ It certainly looked as if foreigners had been there, though, as trees had been felled using saws and axes. There were also signs that an astronomer had had his equipment set up on the shore: it could be no other person than William Bayley, from Adventure. The captain and crew were no doubt pleased to know that their fellow expedition members had reached safe sanctuary in Ship Cove. But for now, they remained unaware of the atrocity that had befallen the ten men from Adventure at the hands of the Maoris.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  One Last Look

  The commander sensed an air of apprehension among the Maoris as his men set about the repair work on Resolution in Ship Cove, readying her for the arduous homeward voyage. While the locals had been generous in supplying the visitors with considerable quantities of fish previously, they were now noticeably reserved in their contact with the Englishmen. Cook was eager to know if they were aware of Adventure’s recent stay at the cove and whether they had any specific details. Eventually, some information was forthcoming.

  Through a very limited form of dialogue with the Maoris, some of Cook’s men learned that a ship not dissimilar to Resolution had apparently been wrecked in the nearby strait, and the natives there had killed and consumed anyone from her crew who had made it to shore. Cook found that the claim did not stand up to scrutiny, however, since: ‘when I examined them on this … they not only denied it but seemed wholly ignorant of the matter.’ He suspected that miscommunication was to blame: ‘our people had Misunderstood them … the story referred to some of their own people and boats.’

  The major requirements for the overhaul of the ship were for extensive caulking of the topsides and deck – a makeshift job,
as all the proper caulking fibre had already been used; considerable maintenance of the fore and main topmasts, which had to be lowered to the deck; and the replacement of many sails. With there being no need for cannons during the planned trip across the Southern Ocean, six of them were lowered from the deck and into the hold, so that their weight would contribute to the stability of the ship.

  Wales had been busy taking no end of observations from a small base set up onshore, and he soon established that the captain’s positioning of Ship Cove on the chart created in 1770 was out by as much as 40 nautical miles. Ever methodical, Cook then set about taking additional sights along with Wales. When these were completed, the captain had to agree that he was 20 miles in error. As he had done elsewhere throughout the voyage, Cook spent considerable time studying the magnetic variation of the compass and the dip in the compass needle, the results from which he recorded in his journal.

  The crew enjoyed whatever free time they could by going ashore and relaxing, but, as always, there were breaches of discipline. John Marra, the young man who had tried to desert as they were sailing away from Matavai Bay, had his name entered in the ship’s log once more for the wrong reasons: ‘Punished Jno Marra with a Dozen Lashes for Drunkenness and going off the Ship without leave.’ While the log suggested that he had again been planning to desert, that was certainly the intention of another crewman less than a week later. ‘Punished Jno Keplin with a dozen lashes for leaving the Boat when on duty and declaring he would go with the Indians,’ wrote Joseph Gilbert, Resolution’s sailing master. ‘He thought proper to come back of himself.’

  On 10 November, when the ship was ready to put to sea, Cook called to hove up the anchor and ‘drop out of the cove’ to a location on the sound. From there, she awaited the arrival of a favourable wind, one that would allow her to sail to the east and back into the Southern Ocean. The wait was brief – just until daylight the following morning. A few hours later, when Cape Palliser was abeam to the north, Cook wrote: ‘From this cape I shall for the third time, take my departure … we steered SBE [south by east] all sails Set, with a view of getting into the Latitude of 54 degrees or 55 degrees. My intention was to cross this vast Ocean nearly in these Parallels, and so as to pass over those parts which were left unexplored last summer.’