Captain James Cook 4
Continued on from Captain Cook Part 3
Captain Cook named Poverty Bay in honour of his own failure and sails north in search of safe anchorage and supplies. He knows to tread carefully and sails to Tolaga Bay to get wood and water. He is learning that respect goes a long way with the Maori people. He deals fairly with the local tribes and shows a great deal of cultural sensitivity. Tupaia was sent in to mediate with the local Maori tribes peoples, and it became a smooth interaction.Captain James Cook continued to sail on and he suspects that this is an island and not the great southern land. Cook decides to chart the two islands of New Zealand and claims them for Britain. The map is pioneering and accurate, and puts the British far ahead of their European rivals - the Spanish and the French.
Captain James Cook confronts the officers and tells them that there is no great southern land. He is free to go home, but which way would he go home. He could go east and back around the Horn and South America. But he decides to go west to explore the east coast of Australia. Just three weeks later, Cook sights the east coast of Australia and he sails up the east coast until he finds a small bay that is sheltered from the winds. It is now the site of Sydney Airport. Cook anchors the Endeavour in Botany Bay.
Australia is a wonder to Joseph Banks and the scientist naturalists. This was a new place of discovery for botany and natural history. Cook is mystified that the local aborigines want nothing to do with the white visitors. There is no meaningful contact between the two peoples. In later years, England will send their convicts to Botany Bay as punishment. Cook is remembered as the discoverer of Australia, an imperial icon and symbol. But in 1895 Collingridge claimed that the Portuguese had discovered Australia before him. The Dieppe maps, he claimed, showed the east coast of Australia. History had over-empasized the discovery of Australia by James Cook, he said.
Cook, meanwhile, makes his way up the East coast of Australia, charting as he goes. He does a running survey from the ship. Cook is constantly sounding and surveying along the coast. The men are getting wound up a bit and when drunk, a sailor's ear is cut off. Cook is outraged and takes it as a personal insult. His crew wanted to go home as soon as they could. As he pushed up the east coast of Australia, he is approaching the Great Barrier Reef, a dangerous obstacle to navigation. Endeavour smashes onto the reef and Cook is about to face his greatest challenge.
The Voyages of Captain James Cook Part 5 continued
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