CAPTAIN COOK.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 17 August 1907, Page 3

CAPTAIN COOK.

Another biogapbv of Captain Cook has been issued and promises to be accepted as a standard work. The author is Ml' Arthur Kitson. Having found inaccuracies in the existing biographies, he applied himself to (lie subject, and as the result ot patient researches extending over years, in which he appears to have overhauled every scrap of original documentary evidence on the subject. lie is able to present a detailed picture of the career of the great navi"ator. One of the best-known legends of the boyhood of Captain Cook is the story tliat young .fames Cook when he was apprenticed to a mercer near Whit- | by, in Yorkshire, stole a shilling from | the till, and so ran away to sea. Mr Kitmiu deals the memorv ot the "reat captain from that accusation, as Cook, seeing a new shilling in the till, took' it out, replacing it by one of his own. The master, missing the bright Mulling, searched Cook's box, ami finding it there! sent for a constable and Cook's father 1 and charged the boy with the theft. Tile

boy declared his innocence and explained; the muster expressed his regret: and, although Cook's father and the master pressed him to stay, his reply was, 'No, father; I can't. Once a tliicf always a thief. I must go.' And then in: went to Whitby, and was there apprenticed to the sea."

Attei dealing with Cook's supposed Scotch extraction, the author proceeds: "J'he first positive information to lie found is that at Morton, in the parish of Orinsby, where .Tames Cook and his wife (trace (her maiden name has so far escaped identification, though she is known to have been a native of Cleveland) resided for some time, and their eldest son John was baptised on 10th ■lamiary. 1727. Dr George Young (who published a 'Life of Cook' in 183(1) says that Mrs Cook, of Ednam, when saying ! good-bye to her son, said 'Cod send vou

grace, and that, the son looked upon this speech as prophetic of his marri-

age. Shortly after the birth of their eldest child, the Cooks left Morton for Martin, a village a few miles away, and the similarity of the two names has caused some slight confusion. At Mar-

:on the father worked for a Mr M«vmm, living in a small two-roomed cottage built of mud, of the kind called in :he district a 'clay biggin.' In this nimble cottage James Cook, the circnmlavigator, was born on 27th October,

1725, and, according to the register of Marlon Church, was baptised oil 3rd November, being entered as 'James, ye son of a dav laborer.""

After leaving .school young .Tames remiiinoil on the farm 011 which his father was employed as lun<l or bailiff, ami at seventeen went to work at Staitlics for a Mr Sanndeißon, grocer and liaberdasher, being free to leave or be discharged at any time. And here it was that young .lames Cook caught the first glimmering of tlw famous career marked out for him: "Staithes is a picturesque little village built in a narrow cleft 011 the cliffs about ten miles from Whitby, whose inhabitants were chiefly occupied in the North Sea fishery, and doubtless also interested in the smuggling at that time so rife all along the southern ami eastern coasts of England. Here Cook remained as Saunderson's assistant for ii.liout eighteen months, and it may easily lie pictured how the growing lad listened with all his ears to the tales of the old sailors, telling of brave deeds and strange experiences in storm and shine on that element which for so' many years was to be his home; and at last, perhaps impelled by some instinctive feeling that here lay the path at his feet to lead him on to future distinction, he vowed to himself that he could not bind down his life to the pet-

ty round of a country storekeeper." According tf> Dr Young, it was Saui derson himself, who, seeing that th boy was bent upon going to sea, obtain ed the father's permission, took him t Whitby himself, and introduced him t Mr John Walker a member of a coal shipping firm of repute, to whom he wa bound apprentice, and with whom h never lost touch till the end of his lift Indeed, one special attraction of M Kitsn's recital is the reproduction o Cook's letters, the portion which de scribes hjS experiences in New Zealam being especially interesting to reader at this end of the world. While wit! the Walkers lie voyaged in the Vroclov (his first ship), the Three Brothers, th -Maria, and the Friendship, being a;: pointed mate of the latter vessel. Con corning this step up the ladder, Mr .Kit son remarks: "This was rapid promc n for a youtli with nothing to bac him up but his own exertions, and tend to prove that he had taken full advan tage of the opportunities that fell in hi way tluit he must even then have dis played a power of acquiring knowledge of his profession beyond the average and that he had gained something nion than a smattering of seamanship." Most people are aware that Captaii Cook's first voyage to the South Sea: was undertaken under instructions fron the Admiralty, acting at the suggestioi of the Royal Society, which desired thai an expedition should be despatched foi the purpose of observing the transil of Venus across the sun's disk, an astro nomical event calculated to take place on Juno, 1709. Mr Kitson quotes tin letter written by the Navy Hoard to tho Admiralty,informing their lordships that the Navy Board had purchased "a cat built Bark, in buthcrn 308 Tuns, and ol the age of three yeaTS and nine months," for the purpose of tho expedition. It is explained that a "cat-built" ship is one that has round bluff bows, a wide. dee]> waist, and tapering towards the stern. This "cat-built" ship was the famous Endeavor, and in these pages we arc enabled to follow Its long voyage, first, to Otaheite, where the Transit of Venus was successfully observed on June 3, 17G!), afterwards to New Zealand, where Cook landed at Poverty Bay, and came in touch with the Maoris, and thence; after many" adventures, towards the east coast of Australia Mr Kitson quotes from Cook's journal to show that the navigator was perfectly well aware of the existence of the Australian continent.

In regard to the chart of the coast of New Zealand drawn by Cook ns the result of his first voyage, Admiral Wharton is quoted as saying; "Never has a coast lieen as well laid down by a first explorer and it must liave required uuceasing vigilance and continual observation, in fair weather and foul, to arrive at such a satisfactory conclusion, and with such a dull sailor as the Endeavor was the six and a-half months occupied in {lie work (2400 miles of coast) must be counted as a short interval in which to do it."

Although Oaptaiu Cook's career is so wen-known, the personal touch is curiously lacking in the details available. Mr Kitson says: "For so distinguished a man thera is a most curious dearth of personal anecdote, even from those who were in close companionship with him on his voyages. So great is the dearth, tlmt in this whole booE there is only one anecdote that gives the real personal touch. After Cook's return from his first famous voyage, he paid a visit to his old employers, the Walkers. Their housekeeper (Mary Proud), who had been good to the lad, was carefully instructed that a commander in his Majesty's Navy was a very different person from one of her master's apprentices, and that lie must he received with all the marks of respect due to his rank. Win promised obedience, but, when the time came, she forgot her instruction!), and opening wide her arms exclaimed, 'Oh, honey, James! How glad lis to see thee!"

The account of the circumnavigator's death at the liands of savages in the Sandwich Islands is very full, and the story recently published as to the onset of the savages having been incited by native "priests" in consequence of some unwitting infraction of their religious ceremonial receives substantal corroboration. Indomitable perseverance in the accomplishment of bis own bold designs i]ip«irs to have been the distinguishing ■ 'niracteristics of Cook, and the author I quotes the judgment of a Fieneli authority, If. Diunont DVrville, who wroteI 'i" name of Cook will perpetually re-

call io tb< s sailors and geographers of civilised nations this, the most illustrious navigator of all the centuries, past; or ful ure. No one has rendered Such groat services lo navigation, and the actual state of our knowledge would if'Vov allow any other man to attain Ibe same degree of celebrity. Tn him Nature seems to have formed fho f nu , type of sailor, and no tine else has shed -o much honor on a profession which is lull of hardship and distress for flm si , who would worthily carry out the duties which if imposes. Captain Cook will stand for ever at the head of the lifivig.itors of all centuries and of all naI ions."