CAPTAIN COOK

Hokitika Guardian, 12 August 1932, Page 8

CAPTAIN COOK

NEW ACCOUNT OF HIS DEATH. GLEAMED FROM A SHIP’S LOG. New Zealand’s debt of gratitude to Captain Cbok is that ho rediscovered these islands in 1769 after .they had been practic&lly forgotten for a' period of one. hundred and twenty-seven years, that he took possession of them in the name of George the Third, that to him she is-indebted :V its cdmprehensiv-a and (authentic early information, and that the publication of hi.s voyage created a sensation in ■Europe, and made known the islands of New Zealand to the wide world. His .name is Iso famous in the annals of the country as that of the first .European who landed on its shores. Tasman came at the end of 1642 and departed in th- ; aext month; January, without having trod its shores, and though he had a sensational encounter with the natives. Cook coming over a century later found that recollection of Tasman’s visit, was so completely- forgotten as .not to be commemorated' in the traditions/ of the natives. In the course of his three' voyages England’s greatest navigator visited New Zealand no less than -five times, <and in that time was here three hundred and twenty-seven days, afbmarkable feature' without parallel "in other lands visited by him.

In the last ten years of his life James Cook sailed three times round the world. He not only discovered New,. Zealand, but the Society Islands, the Sandwich Islands, the New' Hebrides, and numberless small islands iff; the South Paoific. 'He discovered; and. explored a large extent of' the eastern coast of Australia, he added greatly to our knowledge of Van Di&nen s Land, and of .every country he visited. He resolved the great problem of a southern continent and made a great effort to find the north-east passage from the <cifie into the Atlantic! as New Zealand is concerned, a. wellknown writer, oyer- fifty years ago linked the name of J'-mes Cook and Ed ward- Gibbon Wakefield—the Discover;')' ana the Coloniser. What Cook was to discovery, Wakefield, was to colonisation ; Wakfield was to Cook” what iStephenson was .to Watt in the utilise; tion of the steam engine, and he •added, .that when people’s merits-* are fully reoognised in this world, 'statues t( Cook and Wakefield should stand not. far, apart. / , •/ ;• Towards the eVd of 1762 Cook'returned to England, and on the recommefida tion of Lord Colville and Sir Hugh, Paliiser was appointed, marine surveyor. at Newfoundland, and ' over r period of four years not Only- charted ’.its coast and seas, and. those of Labrador, but explored the interior of Newfoundland. His work had been done /with such conspicuous ability that when an*impasse was reached: in 1768 as to who should command the great expedition to the South Seas, his old commander, Sir Edward Hawke,- First tiord of the Admiralty, .Sir Piercy Brett, and i,Mr Philip Stephens, Secretly of - the Admiralty Board, fixed on him to command, and this having also' been warmly recommended by Sir Hugh Pallise r , Cook was promoted to the Tank of lieutenant tinder date May 25, 1-768., In this voyage Lieutenant Cook. made the coast of New ZealaniToff Young Nick’s Head, Poverty Bay, on October <?, 1769. in the Whitby barque Endeavour, and i with what result is the land we are now living, in. ! LOG OF THE DISCOVERY.

I news of Cook’s death at the I hands of savages in the Bay of Kealakekua, Hawaii, reached England it created profound sensation and general I regret, and the nation so eagerly ! awaited, the .publication of the. narrative ]of. his last voyage that. when, it. catae' lout the edition was exhausted in three 'days, ahd as much as, ten guineas werj offered for a copy, The, accounts 5 of' 'his death are now many, and the most ! interesting nowadays are those contemIporary manuscripts which have come to | i light in regent years. One.i.of. these is . j the “Log of the Proceedings of His | Majesty’s Sloop Discovery.' Charles ! Clerke, Commander commencing February 10, 1776, to July 19, 1780,” kept' iby Thomas 'Edgar, master. ‘ It: does not i appear that this log has been drawn jupon by any writer on Captain Cook. | iT’he log has long been deposited in the ; Public Record Office., London. A photo- ; stat of it is In the Mitchell Library, > '(Sydney, and it is found, that Edgar’s j i artless narrative of Cook’s death is in I ; ways more, valuable than the pre- ! pared account given in the authorised ) publication of the lajtt yqyage. In de- ■ scri'hipg Cook’s death, on September 14, j 1779* Edgar records: V j “Had Captain Cook come down to the I |boats, directly, as he was advised he j most, .probably would have saved bis 'life, but he, too, wrongly thought, as he 1 ! said, that the flash of a musket would 'disperse the whole island. 1 Led on by (these, idea 3 he harkened to no advice, ! till, it was too, late. The (natives clos- ! ingj .in and knocking down thp marines 'obliged them to fire, at, --which time the, boats began firiqg. t'll Captain Cook called, to thqm to. leave off and corrje in with the boats. As he was coTping down to the water’s side a man rtypig. behind. t him' and knocked him down with a. club on his K ne ®- ' ® e immediately got up and. rashly went j along into, the, middle of -the crowd, foj’djwng the man Whom he heat with the end of his] pigce. He, returned dcrvyn again, and was close to the water fKop.),, catpft, behind him and stabbed him. in. the small of the back, which ''thijey? him into the. water, he, not being able to swim. The seeing this rushed oil with great eagerness to the marines and IdUcri four. The otlor fiy e firing, away" tlieir- shot were ’ fore?' 1 jo swim off to the boats, leaving their .arms behind them- The natives polled Cap,tain Cook's oody on the shoie,

| dashed, his' head against the rocks and 11 stabbed him in several places, altho at , the same time our people were filing at them from the boat, and the Resolution \ firing her great guns. . . . The muskets from the boats must have done great execution, at the same tipie the great guns were fired from the ships, which one might suppose might intimidated ..it he nr (the natives), as the echoing unI. der jtho high land made a terrible noise, '■ :, ut it did not stop them in the least, as they fought With a surprising resolution, and were quite desperate, .siigtyhing the iron spikes or daggers from out of each other’s binds cm purpose to have the satisfaction of mangling our p.v v mid unhappy shipmates, whom they pulled neok and heels upon the rocks. The natives were -more particularly enraged with 'Captain Cook, who they crowded round in such a manner that by the time one man had stnbbed him another would snatch the spike out of the dead body and give it a fresh wound. After this shocking scene of slaughter was ended and the boats had expended the greatest part of their ammunition they returned to the Resolution with the loss of Captain Cook ami four marines, and nine stand of arms and a double barreled gun belonging to the i- ' ’