COOK'S THIRD VOYAGE--THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE--OMAI--HIS RECEPTION
AT HOME--THE CREW FOREGO THEIR GROG--DISCOVERY OF THE SANDWICH
ISLANDS--NOOTKA SOUND--THE NATIVES--CAPE PRINCE OF WALES--TWO
CONTINENTS IN SIGHT--ICY CAPE--RETURN TO THE SANDWICH ISLANDS--COOK
IS DEIFIED--INTERVIEW WITH TEREOBOO--SUBSEQUENT DIFFICULTIES--A
SKIRMISH--PITCHED BATTLE AND DEATH OF COOK--RECOVERY OF A PORTION OF
HIS REMAINS--FUNERAL CEREMONIES--LIFE AND SERVICES OF COOK.
Cook might justly have retired at this period to private life, to enjoy
his well-earned reputation. But the grand question of the Northwest
Passage, now agitated by the press and the public, induced him once
more to tempt the perils of foreign adventure. As every effort to force
a passage through Baffin's or Hudson's Bay had signally failed, it was
determined to make the experiment through Behring's Straits. On the
9th of February, 1776, Cook received the command of the sloop-of-war
Resolution,--the vessel in which he had made his last voyage,--the
Discovery, of three hundred tons, being appointed to accompany the
expedition. Both ships were equipped in a manner befitting the nature
of their mission: they were well supplied with European animals and
plants, which they were to introduce into the islands of the Pacific.
Omai, the young Tahitian whom Cook had brought to England, was placed
on board the Resolution, as it was not likely another opportunity
would occur of sending him home. He left London with regret; but the
consciousness that the treasures he carried with him would raise him to
an enviable rank among his countrymen operated by degrees to alleviate
his sorrow. The Resolution sailed from Plymouth on the 12th of July,
and was followed, on the 10th of August, by the Discovery: both vessels
joined company, early in November, at the Cape of Good Hope.
As we have already been frequently over the track now for the third
time traversed by Cook, we shall merely give his route, without
detailing his adventures, which did not materially differ from those of
his former voyages. He arrived at Van Diemen's Land in December, and
passed a fortnight of the month of February, 1777, in Queen Charlotte's
Sound, New Zealand. Soon after he discovered an island which the
natives called Mangya: he noticed that the inhabitants, for want of a
better pocket, slit the lobe of their ear and carried their knife in
it. At another island of the same group, Omai extricated himself and a
party of English from a position of great danger by giving the natives
an exaggerated account of the instruments of war used on board the
two ships anchored in the offing. "These instruments," he said, "were
so huge that several people could sit conveniently within them; and
one of them was sufficient to crush the whole island at a shot." Had
it not been for this formidable story, Omai thought the party would
have been detained on shore all night. At one of the Society Islands
Cook planted a pineapple and sowed some melon-seeds. He was somewhat
encouraged to hope that endeavors of this kind would not be fruitless,
for upon the same day the natives served up at his dinner a dish of
turnips, being the produce of the seeds he had left there during his
last voyage.
The Resolution soon anchored off Tahiti, and Cook noticed particularly
the conduct of Omai, now about to be restored to his home and his
friends. A chief named Ootu, and Omai's brother-in-law, came on board.
There was nothing either tender or striking in their meeting. On the
contrary, there seemed to be a perfect indifference on both sides,
till Omai, having taken his brother down into the cabin, opened the
drawer where he kept his red feathers and gave him three of them. Ootu,
who would hardly speak to Omai before, now begged that they might be
friends. Omai assented, and ratified the bargain with a present of
feathers; and Ootu, by way of return, sent ashore for a hog. But it was
evident to the English that it was not the man, but his property, they
were in love with. "Such," says Cook, "was Omai's first reception among
his countrymen. Had he not shown to them his treasure of red feathers,
I question much whether they would have bestowed even a cocoanut upon
him. I own I never expected it would be otherwise."
The important news of the arrival of red feathers was conveyed on shore
by Omai's friends, and the ships were surrounded early the next morning
by a multitude of canoes crowded with people bringing hogs and fruit
to market. At first a quantity of feathers not greater than might be
plucked from a tomtit would purchase a hog weighing fifty pounds; but
such was the quantity of this precious article on board that its value
fell five hundred per cent. before night. Omai was now visited by his
sister; and, much to the credit of them both, their meeting was marked
by expressions of the tenderest affection. Cook foresaw, however, that
Omai would soon be despoiled of every thing he had if left among his
relatives: so it was determined to establish him at the neighboring
island of Huaheine. A large lot of land was obtained there from the
chief, and the carpenters of the two ships set about building him a
house fit to contain the European commodities that were his property.
Cook told the natives that if Omai were disturbed or harassed he should
upon his next visit make them feel the weight of his resentment. Omai
took possession of his mansion late in October, and on Sunday, November
2, bade adieu to the officers of the ship. He sustained himself in this
trying ordeal till he came to Cook, and then gave way to a passionate
burst of tears. He wept abundantly while being conveyed on shore.
"It was no small satisfaction to reflect," writes Cook, "that we had
brought him back safe to the spot from which he was taken. And yet such
is the strange nature of human affairs that it is probable we left him
in a less desirable situation than he was in before his connection with
us. He had tasted the sweets of civilized life, and must now become
more miserable from being obliged to abandon all thoughts of continuing
them." The career and destiny of Omai were perhaps more remarkable
than those of any other savage: he was cherished by Cook, painted by
Reynolds, and apostrophized by Cowper.
During the stay of the vessels at the Society Islands, Cook induced
the crews to give up their grog and use the milk of cocoanuts instead.
He submitted it to them whether it would not be injudicious, by
drinking their spirits now, to run the risk of having none left in a
cold climate, where cordials would be most needed, and whether they
would not be content to dispense with their grog now, when they had so
excellent a liquor as that of cocoanuts to substitute in its place. The
proposal was unanimously agreed to, and the grog was stopped except on
Saturday nights.
[Illustration: OMAI.]
Early in February, 1778, Cook made a most important discovery,--that of
the archipelago now known as the Sandwich Islands, so named by Cook in
honor of the Earl of Sandwich, First Lord of the Admiralty. He visited
five of these islands, one of which was Oahu. He found a remarkable
similarity of manners and coincidence of language with those of the
Society Islands, and in his journal asks the following question:--"How
shall we account for this nation having spread itself in so many
detached islands, so widely separated from each other, in every quarter
of the Pacific Ocean? We find it from New Zealand in the south to the
Sandwich Islands in the north! And, in another direction, from Easter
Island to the New Hebrides! That is, over an extent of three thousand
six hundred miles north and south, and five thousand miles east and
west!"
From the Sandwich Islands Cook sailed to the northeast, and on the
7th of March struck the coast of America, upon the shores of the
tract named New Albion by Sir Francis Drake. The skies being very
threatening, he gave the name of Cape Foulweather to a promontory
forming the northern extremity. Late in March the two vessels entered
a broad inlet, to which Cook gave the name of King George's Sound; but
it is better known now by its original name of Nootka Sound. Cook found
the natives friendly and willing to sell and buy. They were under the
common stature, their persons being full and plump without corpulence,
their faces round, with high prominent cheeks, noses flattened at the
base with wide nostrils, low forehead, small black eyes, thick round
lips, and well-set though not remarkably white teeth. The color of
their skin, when not incrusted with paint or dirt, was nearly as white
as that of Europeans, and of that pale effete cast which distinguishes
the Southern nations of Europe. A remarkable sameness characterized the
countenances of the whole nation, the expression of all being dull and
phlegmatic. It was not easy to distinguish the women from the men; and
not a female was seen, even among those in the prime of life, who had
the least pretensions to being called handsome.
Cook gives a very long and detailed account of the manners and
customs of these people, their habitations, weapons, food, domestic
animals, language, and religious views, and concludes by remarking
that they differ so essentially in every respect from the inhabitants
of the various Pacific islands that it is impossible to suppose their
respective progenitors were united in the same tribe, or had any
intimate connection when they emigrated from their original settlements
into the places where their descendants were now found.
[Illustration: HABITATIONS IN NOOTKA SOUND.]
Cook left Nootka Sound on the 26th of April, and early in May entered
a deep inlet, to which he gave the name of Prince William's Sound.
Proceeding on his course, as he supposed, toward Behring's Strait,
he was surprised to find various indications that he was no longer
in the sea, but ascending a wide and rapidly-flowing river. He was,
however, encouraged to proceed by finding the water as salt as that of
the ocean. Having traced the stream a distance of two hundred miles
from its entrance, without seeing the least appearance of its source,
and despairing of finding a passage through it to the Northern seas,
Cook determined to return. Mr. King, one of the officers, was sent on
shore to display the flag and take possession of the country and river
in his majesty's name, and to bury in the ground a bottle containing
some pieces of English coin of the year 1772. The vessels left the
river--afterward named, by order of Lord Sandwich, Cook's River--on the
5th of June.
On the 9th of August, Cook arrived at a point of land, in north
latitude 66°, which he called Cape Prince of Wales, and which is the
western extremity of North America. Had he sailed directly north
from this spot, he would have passed through Behring's Straits. But
the attraction of two small islands drew him to the westward, and by
nightfall he anchored in a bay on the coast of Asia, having in the
course of twenty-four hours been in sight of the two continents. On the
12th, while sailing to the north, both continents were in sight at the
same moment. On the 17th, a brightness was perceived in the northern
horizon, like that reflected from ice, commonly called the blink. But
it was thought very improbable that they should meet with ice so soon.
Still, the sharpness of the air and gloominess of the weather seemed
to indicate some sudden change. The sight of a large field of ice soon
left no doubt as to the cause of the brightness of the horizon. At
half-past two, being in latitude 71° and in twenty-two fathoms water,
Cook found himself close to the edge of the ice, which was as compact
as a wall and twelve feet out of water. It extended to the north as
far as the eye could reach. A point of land upon the American coast
obtained the name of Icy Cape.
The season was now so far advanced that Cook abandoned all attempts
to find a passage through to the Atlantic this year, and directed
his attention to the subject of winter quarters. Discovering a deep
inlet upon the American side, he named it Norton's Sound, in honor of
Sir Fletcher Norton, Speaker of the House of Commons. At Oonalaska,
an island some distance to the south, he fell in with three Russian
carriers, who had some store-houses and a sloop of thirty tons' burden.
They appeared to have a thorough knowledge of the attempts which had
been made by their countrymen, Kamschatka, Behring, and others, to
navigate the Frozen Ocean.
On the 26th of October, Cook left Oonalaska for the Sandwich Islands,
intending to spend the winter months there, and then to direct his
course to Kamschatka, arriving there by the middle of May in the
ensuing year. On the 26th of November, the two ships anchored at the
archipelago of the Sandwich Islands and discovered several new members
of the group. At Owhyhee, Cook found the natives more free from reserve
and suspicion than any other tribe he had met; nor did they even once
attempt a fraud or a theft. Cook's confidence, already great, was still
further augmented by a singular, if not grotesque, incident.
[Illustration: MAN OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.]
[Illustration: WOMAN OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.]
The priests of the island resolved to deify the captain, under the
name of Orono. One evening, as he landed upon the beach, he was
received by four men, who immediately swathed him in red cloth, and
then conducted him to a sort of sacrificial altar, where, by means of
an indescribable ceremony, consisting of rapid speeches, offerings
of putrid hogs and sugarcanes, invocations, processions, chants, and
prostrations, they conferred upon him a celestial character and the
right to claim adoration. At the conclusion, a priest named Kaireekeea
took part of the kernel of a cocoanut, which he chewed, and with which
he then rubbed the captain's face, head, hands, arms, and shoulders.
Ever after this, when Cook went ashore, a priest preceded him, shouting
that Orono was walking the earth, and calling upon the people to humble
themselves before him. Presents of pigs, cocoanuts, and bread-fruit
were constantly made to him, and an incessant supply of vegetables sent
to his two ships: no return was ever demanded or even hinted at. The
offerings seemed to be made in discharge of a religious duty, and had
much the nature of tribute. When Cook inquired at whose charge all this
munificence was displayed, he was told that the expense was borne by a
great man, named Kaoo, the chief of the priests, and grandfather of
Kaireekeea: this Kaoo was now absent, attending Tereoboo, the king of
the island.
The king, upon his return, set out from the village in a large canoe,
followed by two others, and paddled toward the ships in great state.
Tereoboo gave Cook a fan, in return for which Cook gave Tereoboo a
clean shirt. Heaps of sugarcane and bread-fruit were then given to the
ship's crew, and the ceremonies were concluded by an exchange of names
between the captain and the king,--the strongest pledge of friendship
among the inhabitants of the Pacific islands.
It was not long before Tereoboo and his chiefs became very anxious
that the English should bid them adieu. They imagined the strangers
to have come from some country where provisions had failed, and that
their visit to their island was merely for the purpose of filling their
stomachs. "It was ridiculous enough to see them stroke the sides and
pat the bellies of our sailors," says King, the continuator of Cook's
journal, "and telling them that it was time for them to go, but that if
they would come again the next bread-fruit season they should be better
able to supply their wants. We had now been sixteen days in the bay;
and, considering our enormous consumption of hogs and vegetables, it
need not be wondered that they should wish to see us take our leave."
When Tereoboo learned that the ships were to sail on the next day
but one, he ordered a proclamation to be made through the villages,
requiring the people to bring in presents to Orono, who was soon to
take his departure.
On the 4th of February, 1779, the vessels unmoored and sailed out of
the harbor, after having received on board a present of vegetables and
live stock which far exceeded any that had been made them either at
the Friendly or Society Islands. The weather being, however, extremely
unfavorable, they were compelled to return for shelter, and on the 11th
dropped anchor in nearly the same spot as before. The foremast was
found to be much damaged, the heel being exceedingly rotten, having
a large hole up the middle of it capable of holding four or five
cocoanuts. The reception of the ships was very different from what it
had been on their first arrival: there were no shouts, no bustle, no
confusion. The bay seemed deserted, though from time to time a solitary
canoe stole stealthily along the shore.
[Illustration: FIGHT WITH ISLANDERS.]
Toward the evening of the 13th, a theft committed by a party of the
islanders on board the Discovery gave rise to a disturbance of a very
serious nature. Pareea, a personage of some authority, was accused
of the theft, and a scuffle ensued, in which Pareea was knocked down
by a violent blow on the head with an oar. The natives immediately
attacked the crew of the pinnace with a furious shower of stones and
other missiles, and forced them to swim off with great precipitation
to a rock at some distance from the shore. The pinnace was immediately
ransacked by the islanders, and would have been demolished, but for the
interposition of Pareea, who, upon the recognition of his innocence,
joined noses with the officers and seemed to have forgotten the blow he
had received.
When Captain Cook heard of what had happened, he expressed some
anxiety, and said that it would not do to allow the islanders to
imagine that they had gained an advantage. It was too late to take
any steps that evening, however. A double guard was posted at the
observatory, and at midnight one of the sentinels, observing five
savages creeping toward him, fired over their heads and put them
to flight. The cutter of the Discovery was stolen, toward morning,
from the buoy where it was moored. At daylight, Cook loaded his
double-barrelled gun and ordered the marines to prepare for action. It
had been his practice, when any thing of consequence was lost, to get
the king or several of the principal men on board, and to keep them as
hostages till it was restored. His purpose was to pursue the same plan
now. He gave orders to seize and stop all canoes that should attempt
to leave the bay. The boats of both ships, well manned and armed, were
therefore stationed across the mouth of the harbor. Cook went ashore
in the pinnace, obtained an interview with the king, satisfied himself
that he was in no wise privy to the theft committed, and invited him to
return in the boat and spend the day on board the Resolution. Tereoboo
readily consented, and, having placed his two sons in the pinnace, was
on the point of following them, when an elderly woman, the mother of
the boys, and a younger woman, the king's favorite wife, besought him
with tears and entreaties not to go on board. Two chiefs laid hold of
him, insisting that he should go no farther. The natives now collected
in prodigious numbers and began to throng around Captain Cook and their
king. Cook, finding that the alarm had spread too generally, and that
it was in vain to think of kidnapping the king without bloodshed, at
last gave up the point.
[Illustration: DEATH OF CAPTAIN COOK.]
Thus far, the person and life of Cook do not appear to have been
in danger. An accident now happened which gave a fatal turn to the
affair. The ships' boats, in firing at canoes attempting to escape,
had unfortunately killed a chief of the first rank. The news of his
death arrived just at the moment when Cook, after leaving the king, was
walking slowly toward the shore. It caused an immediate and violent
ferment: the women and children were at once sent off: the warriors
put on their breastmats and armed themselves with spears and stones.
One of the natives went up to Cook, flourishing a long iron spike
by way of defiance, and threatening him with a large stone. Cook
ordered him to desist, but, as the man persisted in his insolence,
was at length provoked to fire a load of small shot. As the shot did
not penetrate the matting, the natives were encouraged, by seeing
the discharge to be harmless, to further aggression. Several stones
were thrown at the marines: their lieutenant, Mr. Phillips, narrowly
escaped being stabbed by knocking down the assailant with the butt end
of his musket. Cook now fired his second barrel, loaded with ball,
and killed one of the foremost of the natives. A general attack with
stones and a discharge of musketry immediately followed. The islanders,
contrary to the expectations of the English, stood the fire with great
firmness, and, before the marines had time to reload, broke in upon
them with demoniacal shouts. Four marines were instantly killed; three
others were dangerously wounded; Phillips received a stab between the
shoulders, but, having fortunately reserved his fire, shot the man who
had wounded him just as he was going to repeat the blow.
The last time that Cook was seen distinctly, he was standing at the
water's edge, calling out to the people in the boats to cease firing.
It is supposed that he was desirous of stopping further bloodshed, and
wished the example of desisting to proceed from his side. His humanity
proved fatal to him; and he lost his life in attempting to save the
lives of others. It was noticed that while he faced the natives none
of them offered him any violence, deterred, perhaps, by the sacred
character he bore as an Orono; but the moment he turned round to give
his orders to the men in the boats, he was stabbed in the back and
fell, face foremost, into the water. The islanders set up a deafening
yell and dragged his body on shore, where the dagger with which he had
been killed was eagerly snatched by the savages from each others'
hands, each one manifesting a brutal eagerness to have a share in his
destruction.
"Thus fell," writes King, "our great and excellent commander. After a
life of so much distinguished and successful enterprise, his death, as
regards himself, cannot be reckoned premature, since he lived to finish
the work for which he seemed designed, and was rather removed from the
enjoyment than cut off from the acquisition of glory. How sincerely
his loss was felt and lamented by those who had so long found their
general security in his skill and conduct, and every consolation in
their hardships in his tenderness and humanity, it is neither necessary
nor possible for me to describe: much less shall I attempt to paint
the horror with which we were struck, and the universal dejection and
dismay which followed so dreadful and unexpected a calamity."
When the consternation consequent upon the loss of their commander
had in some measure subsided, Clarke, the captain of the Discovery,
assumed the chief command of the expedition. The ships were in such
a bad condition, and the discipline became so relaxed upon the
withdrawal of the master-mind, that it was decided to employ pacific
measures, rather than a display of vigorous resentment, to obtain the
restitution of the remains of Cook and of the four massacred soldiers.
The moderation of the English produced no effect, however, the natives
using the bodies of the marines in sacrificial burnt-offerings to their
divinities. As they considered that of Cook as of a higher order, they
cut it carefully in pieces, sending bits of it to different parts
of the island. Upon the evening of the 15th, two priests brought
clandestinely to the ship the portion they had received for religious
purposes,--flesh without bone, and weighing about nine pounds. They
said that this was all that remained of the body, the rest having been
cut to pieces and burned: the head, however, and all the bones, except
what belonged to the trunk, were in the possession of Tereoboo.
The natives on shore passed the night in feasts and rejoicings,
seeking evidently to animate and inflame their courage previous to
the expected collision. The next day, about noon, finding the English
persist in their inactivity, great bodies of them, blowing their
conch-shells and strutting about upon the shore in a blustering and
defiant manner, marched off over the hills and never appeared again.
Those who remained compensated for the paucity of their numbers by the
insolence of their conduct. One man came within musket-shot of the
Resolution and waved Cook's hat over his head, his countrymen upon the
water's edge exulting in his taunts and jeers. The watering-party sent
upon their daily duty were annoyed to such an extent that they only
obtained one cask of water in an afternoon. An attack upon the village
was in consequence decided upon, and was executed by the marines in a
vigorous and effective manner. A sanguinary revenge was taken for the
death of their commander: many of the islanders were slain, and their
huts were burned to the ground. This severe lesson was necessary, for
the natives were strongly of opinion that the English tolerated their
provocations because they were unable to suppress them, and not from
motives of humanity. At last, a chief named Eappo, a man of the very
first consequence, came with presents from Tereoboo to sue for peace.
The presents were received, but answer was returned that, until the
remains of Captain Cook were restored, no peace would be granted.
On Saturday, the 20th, a long procession was seen to descend the
hill toward the beach. Each man carried a sugarcane or two upon his
shoulders, with bread-fruit and plantains in his hand. They were
preceded by two drummers, who planted a staff with a white flag upon
it by the water's edge and drummed vigorously, while the rest advanced
one by one and deposited their presents upon the ground. Eappo, in a
long feathered cloak, and with a bearing of deep solemnity, mounted
upon a rock and made signs for a boat. Captain Clarke went ashore in
the pinnace, ordering Lieutenant King to attend him in the cutter.
Eappo went into the pinnace and delivered to the captain a quantity of
bones wrapped up in a large quantity of fine new cloth and covered with
a spotted cloak of black and white feathers. The bundle contained the
hands of the unfortunate commander entire; the skull, deprived of the
scalp and the bones that form the face; the scalp, detached, with the
hair cut short, and the ears adhering to it; the bones of both arms,
the thigh and leg bones, but without the feet. The whole bore evident
marks of having been in the fire, with the exception of the hands, the
flesh of which was left upon them,--with several large gashes crammed
with salt, apparently for the purpose of preventing decomposition. The
lower jaw and feet, which were wanting, had been seized by different
chiefs, Eappo said, and Tereoboo was using every means to recover them.
The next morning Eappo came on board, bringing with him the missing
bones, together with the barrels of Cook's gun, his shoes, and several
other trifles that had belonged to him. Eappo was dismissed with orders
to "taboo" the bay--that is, to place it under interdict--during the
performance of the funeral ceremonies. This was done: not a canoe
ventured out upon the water during the remainder of the day, and, in
the midst of the silence and solemnity of the scene, the bones were
placed in a coffin and the service of the Church of England read
over them. They were then committed to the deep, beneath the booming
thunders of the artillery of both vessels. "What our feelings were on
this occasion," says King, "I leave the world to conceive: those who
were present know that it is not in my power to express them."
No one man ever contributed more to any science than did Captain
Cook to that of geography. We have seen that on his first voyage he
discovered the Society Islands, determined the insular character of
New Zealand, discovered the straits which cut that island in halves,
and made a complete survey of both portions. He explored the eastern
coast of New Holland, gave Botany Bay its name, and surveyed an extent
of upward of two thousand miles. In his second voyage he resolved the
problem of a Southern continent, having traversed that hemisphere in
such a manner as to leave no probability of its existence, unless near
the Pole, out of the reach of navigation and beyond the habitable
limits of the globe. He discovered New Caledonia, the largest island
in the South Pacific except New Zealand; he settled the situations of
numerous old discoveries, rectifying their longitude and remodelling
all the charts. On his third voyage he discovered, to the north of the
equator, the group called the Sandwich Islands,--a discovery which,
all things considered, and from their situation and products, may be
said to be the most important acquisition ever made in the Pacific.
He explored what had hitherto remained unknown of the western coast
of America,--an extent of three thousand five hundred miles,--and
ascertained the proximity of the two great continents of Asia and
America. "In short," says King, "if we except the Sea of Amur, and
the Japanese Archipelago, which still remain imperfectly known to the
Europeans, he has completed the hydrography of the habitable globe."
After Christopher Columbus, Cook acquired, and now, at a distance of
nearly a century, still enjoys, the highest degree of popularity which
ever fell to the lot of a navigator and discoverer.
[Illustration: LAPÉROUSE.]