CAPTAIN COOK

King Country Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 164, 14 June 1909, Page 5

CAPTAIN COOK

By W. 8., Te Kuiti.

No, V.

Perhaps in no field of hi* acttrtacs was biff genius so pronounced, and his success so apparent, as in th* means be devised to arrive at a mutual understanding with whatever aboriginal race be met in bistravels. For no matter bow doll the facial indication of hjs Via a vis, his sign language—which hi* toccwaors also learnt and adopted left no space for doubt as to the information sought, or the intention to b« conveyed. Upon this object he expended a patience, the admirable relations he established testify; and the stranger relying on the assurance of fair dealing b>» actions supplemented, tmbiced also a certainty that such was expected in exchange. Because hts *iow» extended beyond the present boor: his seer instincts ranged beyond bio present expedition. Had be mere fbtty itcordod—as he has in part— the panorama the future years held perdu, who knows of the harbours, the cities. the mercantile fleets, the shadows of whose innumerable keels lay hatchments of many lines upon the sands of the deep; where the whiteman should lead, and the brown man, not far to rear, be a loyal co-worker and participant in the profits of these manifold exigenciest Therefore it lay in his meridians that his initial contacts neither mar nor maim these perdu solution* by present mistakes. I say, if acts speak, hia proclaimed from the housetops where the multitude jam a , elbow to elbow. For so it befell, that | later arrivals were subjected to a | searching scrutiny for tokens of j "Kapene Kuki/* And that they faded to discover, many graves, many battle fields, and a bitter aftermath of rankling hatred and distrust certify! He obeyed instructions, when he took possession of these island* to decorate the Crown of His Majesty the third George. He knew the whiteman must dominate--he says so, and commonsense agrees the thesis-but with jus- , tice and mercy, the justice and mercy j of his own unapproachable soul. He j decided upon not hasty, first ,superft- I ctai impressions: no race nor colour : prejudicial inceptions: he dug his foundations to bed rock bottoms, that bis cornerstone be well and truly laid. as this incident, chosen from among others for its risible adjuncts, bears witness: —

. . . "Early the next morning some of cor *N»ti Ve > ir icnd3 h roK £ ht os a targe supply of fish. One of them agreed to go away with os; but afterwards when it came to the point, he ehnged his mind, as did some others who had promised to go with the* Adventure, the sister ship. It was even ■aid that some of them offered their children for sate. 1 however found that this was a mistake. Th«r report first took its rise on board the Adventure, i where they were utter strangers to { their language and customs, it was | very common for these people to bring ; their children with them, and present I them to us. in expectation that we ; would make them presents; this hap- j pened to me the preceding morning: | A man brought his son, a boy about j Bine or ten yearn! of ag-\ and presented , him to me. A3 the report of setting I their children was tl.en current, I j thought at first that he wanted me to j boy the boy. But at last I found that | be wanted me to give him a white j shirt, which accordingty I did. The | boy was so fund at his new dress, that i he went all over the ship, presenting | Himself before eveyone that came in | his way. Thi* freedom used by him | offended Old Will, the ram-gcat, who j gave him a butt with his horns, and I knocked him backward rn the deck. Will would have repealed his blow. bad rot some of the people come to his assistance. The misfortune, however, seemed to him irreparable. The shirt | was dirtied, and he was afraid to appear in the cabin before his father until brought in by Mr Foster; when he told a lamentable story against Gouri (kori?) the great dog for so they call all the quadrupeds we had on board--nor could he be reconciled tilt bis shirt was washed and dried. This story, though extremely trifling in itself, wilt show how liable wc are to mistake these people's meaning, and to ascribe to them customs which they never even thought of/' But that which snuggled htm ctoae to the hearts o? his crew, was his unsleeping cam for their comfort and health. In those days, no ships on a year's cruise, but returned depleted by more than one half, by reason of that loathsome salt meat and biscuit feeder's disease, the scurvy. Hence he set bis abnormal intellect the task to dis cover effectual anti-scorbutics, which would keep pure, despite sea-churn and changes of climate. This he found in - bate your breath hard and take hold somewhere, my intemperate prohibi-tion-made kindred in Beer. r t Bot as the consumption by 1&3 men, en an indefinite voyage, would occupy more space than could be reserved for it, he invented the diabolical outrage to hold on again - to inspissate, or condense its bulk by evaporation, and the residual "wort," he says: "I found to answer . . beyond alt expectations." Consider it my birth land bom brothers and sisters: this Peart of Creation discovered by-Beer 11 inspissated Beer!! Wantonly dituted with warm water and yeast, and fermented to a -ttrcngth that the retaining cask had to be double hooped test it burst I r Is it a wonder then, that, consequent upon the deplorable debauch which discovered our land, it has become a hatching rookery for the insane rejections of four thousand year old civilisations T! And all these calamities because of a tovpbie humanitarians detection, that • reliable, three year extended, aratiicorbotic is—Beer f I Verily I say t nU» you: there wriggleth an unsafe vermieularfy shaped nail somewhere I! I rede ye "tent" it! And, he continues, st the «nd of his second voyage : "Having been absent from England thee* years and eighteen days, in which tiaw, and under all changes of climate, 1 lost hot four men, and only one by sickness, it may not be amiss, at the conclusion of this journal, to enomeraiet the causes to which.. I conceive this uncommon good state of health experienced by my people is owing. ."I snail not trespass upon the readers time in mentioning them all, hot cooißTmvseif to *W* •» *«« icm * mmt

useful: "We were furnished with a quantity of malt, of which was made Sweet Wort. To soch of the men as showed the least symptoms of the scurvy. . . this was given, as prepared above, fsom one to two or three pints a day . . . which sometimes amounted to three quarts. This is without doubt, one of the best anti-scorbutic*ca medicines yet discovered Care was also taken to expose them—the men—as little to wet weather as possible. Proper methods were used to keep tbeir persons, hammocks, bedding, clothes, etc., constantly "lean and dry. Equal care was taken to keep the ship clean and dry between decks . . . ." And so en. Why do 1 love this singlcmindcd servant of his King and homeland? Because be was humane, justly temperate,and temperately just. Because, he. where his loud voiced com peers failed, steed upon those failures to erect structures inconceivable to his days* nation builders. Because, he neither regarded the platitudinarian's ©nc-brain-lcbed shrunken porvtues of his world, nor was dismayed when apparently insuperable magnitudes of Fail crossed athwart his course: but surmounted all as became a hero and a man.