The Last Voyage: Captain Cook's Lost Diary, page 2
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land Bouvet saw is proved to be no continent. And at Portsmouth I was concerned to learn that my good friend and benefactor, Lord Sandwich, was down channel sailing in a yacht accompanied by Miss Ray*, Mr Joseph Banks and others.
After being so long at sea it was not easy to adjust my mind to the hopes, aspirations and demands of those concerned with affairs of State in a Country from which I had been absent for more than Three years. There was also the matter of the book, the Admiralty requiring that the results of the voyage be presented to the Publick, but not I was determined in the loose and inaccurate manner in which the late Dr Hawkesworth had presented the first Voyage and for which his wife received the munificent sum of £6,000 after his death. I realised that I would have to look to this work myself even if there was no reward for it other than the satisfaction of the result being an accurate account and in this I would need guidance.
And there were domestic matters to occupy my mind, my poor wife not having seen me since the morning of Sunday, June 21st 1772 when I had taken leave of my Family at Mile End and gone down to Sheerness in the company of Mr Wales the Astronomer. It seemed a very long time ago, so much having happened since. And there were the two boys, James who would now be eleven and Nathanial ten. I was most anxious to see them, hoping they were in good health, remembering that three of our children had died.
On arrival in Town I went straight to Mile End, my wife overjoyed at seeing me safe at last, and everybody well and in good heart. I being a Yorkshireman and born of the land, I fear I am not of the most demonstrative, but our sense of family is very strong and it was a great homecoming;
* Martha Ray was the First Lord's mistress.
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better than the last time, which was in some part overshadowed by the death of our daughter Elizabeth only three months before, and poor little Joseph, born just after my departure dead within a month of being baptised. On this occasion there had been no such misadventures in my absence so that the reunion between Mrs Cook and myself was one of the most complete happiness and content.
That same day Mr Wales brought the Watch to London by Post-Chaise. This was the duplicate of Mr Harrisons 4th chronometer made by Mr Kendall to the order of the Board of Longitude. It had proved a most excellent timekeeper throughout the Voyage and the following day he delivered it to Mr Maskelyne, the Astronomer Royal, at Greenwich, together with his observations, which were the purpose of our taking no less than four such machines - three by Arnold, only one of which had been properly tested for a year beforehand, and one by Kendall. Testing the accuracy of all the equipment, using at times portable observatories, had taken up a deal of our time during the Voyage.
There was much to occupy me during the next few days, apart from my family, for I had to report to the various Boards, notably the Sick and Hurt Board to give an account of the crew's health and the effectiveness of such items as the inspissated Juice of wort in assisting my efforts to prevent scurvy. In this Capt Furneaux had not been so successful by failure to adhere to my practice of naval hygiene and the rigorous routine I had devised. He had been posted to the command of the frigate Syren and was leaving for the North American station, so I could not talk with him and had to be content with reading his journal, wishing to be assured that the massacre of his boat crew in Ship Cove had not been the result of any provocation on our part. This the journal seemed to confirm, and having in mind the warlike bearing of the natives and the trouble we had encountered on first
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setting foot on New Zealand in 1769,1 accepted that and was relieved that he had taken no reprisals.
Lord Sandwich arrived at Admiralty House, he and Miss Ray having been so gGod as to leave the yacht and come to Town as soon as he knew I was returned. I spent some time with him and others, repeating to them verbally what I had already reported in my Journal despatched from the Cape regarding the Southern Continent. This I now restate for the benefit of my Readers, it being of the greatest importance that the results of so many weeks of sailing in mist and storm amongst floating ice be clearly stated and understood by the Publick:
I had now made the circuit of the Southern Ocean in a high Latitude and traversed it in such a manner as to leave not the least room for the Possibility of there being a continent, unless near the Pole and out of the reach of Navigation; by twice visiting the Pacific Tropical Sea, I had not only settled the situation of some old discoveries but made there many new ones and left, I conceive, very little more to be done even in that part. Thus I flater myself that the intention of the Voyage has in every respect been fully Answered, the Southern Hemisphere sufficiently explored and a final end put to the searching after a Southern Continent, which has at times ingrossed the attention of some of the Maritime Powers for near two Centuries past and the Geographers of all ages. That there may be a Continent or large tract of land near the Pole, I will not deny, on the contrary I am of the opinion there is, and it is probable that we have seen a part of it. The excessive cold, the many islands and vast floats of ice all tend to prove that there must be land to the South and that this Southern land must lie or extend farthest to the North opposite the Southern Atlantick and Indian Oceans, I
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have already assigned some reasons, to which I may add the greater degree of cold which we have found in these Seas, than in the Southern Pacific Ocean under the same parallels of Latitude. In this last Ocean the Mercury in the Thermometer seldom fell so low as the freezing point, till we were in sixty and upwards, whereas in the others it fell frequently as low in the Latitude of fifty four: this was certainly owing to there being a greater quantity of Ice and extending further to the North in these two Seas than in the other, and if Ice is first formed at or near land, of which I have no doubt, it will follow that the land also extends farther North,
To my great relief neither my Lord Sandwich, nor anybody I talked with, seemed unduly concerned that the Voyage had produced nothing in this respect to the Countrys advantage. Indeed, they had nothing but praise for the diligent manner in which I had proceeded, persevering to the limits that could be expected of both Ship and People in my attempt to discover this Land. I think it right to say that they found my detailed report more to their liking than Mr Dalrymples new book, just published, in which he had let his imagination overreach itself, still dreaming of command of an expedition and advising the setting up of a base at Cape Circumcision for the exploration of the continent attached thereto to the increase of our commerce in those parts - the very Cape the position of which Capt Furneaux had sailed over with no sight of land.
The Resolution was ordered up to Gallions Reach, the intention being to pay off at Deptford and lay up. On August 9th my Lord was kind enough to present me at St James's Palace where I presented His Majesty with various maps and charts. He expressed great interest in the plant specimens
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we had brought back, wishing that some of these should go to his gardens at Kew now in the care of Mr Banks. He also presented me with my promotion to Post-captain, I having been posted to a seventy-four, something I looked forward to with mixed feelings, never having been closer to action than when I was Master of the Pembroke and sounded the Narrows of the St Lawrence river opposite Quebec, so enabling general Wolfe to storm the Heights, But next day my posting was cancelled, it having been decided to lay the Kent up at Plymouth; as alternative I was offered the post of Fourth Captain at the Royal Hospital, Greenwich, the death of Captain Clements having created a vacancy there.
I was deeply disappointed, but on reflection my wife and I came to feel that this was for the best since it assured me of a pension of £230 per annum and free quarters with time to work on my Journal for publication. Accordingly, I wrote to Mr Stevens, the Admiralty Secretary, applying for the vacancy, but at the same time making it clear that I was ready at any time should my Country call me to more active or more essential Service, knowing myself still capable of ingaging in any duty which their Lordships might be pleased to commit to my charge. I had by then already in talk at Admiralty House had Rumour of such a duty and I had no desire to prejudice my chances of commanding another expedition, and one of such far-reaching possibilities. Mr Stevens was good enough to agree to this condition, replying that I would be employed whenever I asked to be.
So it was settled, and I had time to gather my thoughts.
TJiursday, July 25th
Yesterday we had a fine gale at NNE which took us past Finister, the longitude of which Cape by the Watch und the
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mean of 41 lunar observations we made 9°io/i2*.* I do not intend to include in this Narration all our observations which are set down in the required Book, but only sufficient to remind the Reader of the purpose of the Voyage and indicate that I and my officers are constantly employed on this matter making the fullest use of die Instruments.
Capt Furneaux had brought back in the Adventure a native from Huahine, one of the islands which I had named the Society Isles. This had been somewhat against my wishes, knowing that this man would have to be returned there in due course. His name was Mae, but on my arrival in London I found he was known as Omai. Though far less intelligent than some that I could have delivered to London Society, he was of a most amiable disposition and had proved a great success, much as Ahutoru in Paris, whom M. Bougainville brought back. He has been presented to His Majesty, who has given him a sword and made him an allowance. He was lodged in Warwick Street, dined frequently in Society, stayed with my Lord Sandwich at Hinchinbrook Park, as well as with Mr Banks and Dr Solander, and various artists painted him, among them Mr Reynolds. They claimed he had even learned to skate. It really was most remarkable seeing him talking to the Ladies and remembering those jawbones hung up as indications of success in battle against the neighbouring islands which Mr Banks and I had seen on first going ashore from the Endeavour six years ago. But if any man should have been brought home by us it should surely have been Tupia without whose knowledge of those waters we should never have come safe through such a maze of islands and coral reefs.
He was in truth a strange and somewhat appealing figure,
* The actual position of Cape Finisterre is 9°i8'W, so that at this stage of the voyage a considerable degree of accuracy was i being obtained with the improved instruments.
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being so far from his native islands and trying without any great success to behave like an English gentleman, he not having much command of the language so that I was told he addressed His Majesty as King Tosh, that being the closest Otaheitan equivalent to King George that he could manage. The truth of this I am inclined to doubt, mentioning it only to show how there were stories current about him at the time of my return, Society being not so very different from a Ship and the currency of such stories a mark of popularity,
I do not myself possess these sort of qualities of publick appeal and never have, which is something always to be regretted by those whose nature is of a serious disposition and outwardly reserved. I was never regretful of this on board my ship, for a degree of remoteness is necessary to the command of men close confined. But since I could not change my nature and habit when ashore, I had some cause for regret at that time, my introduction to Society again being not of the most successful.
I was much in demand it is true and paid the greatest attention and respect, but since it is not in my nature to be other than exact in answer to a question, I did find some time that when the Ladies enquired about even the most ordinary matters of seamanship, my explaining it to them was apparently so tedious that before I had finished they would have vanished from my side. At other times, while I was considering how I should reply to them in a manner that would be more easily understood, they would ask me about some other matter quite unconnected with the first. Something else of which I was always conscious was that, having no like background to the people I was meeting, I did not feel myself capable of engaging in general conversation and so was not at ease in their company.
I was, I must confess, more at home at the Mitre, the
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tavern where the Royal Society did used to dine, and I went frequently to Jacks Coffee House and Young Slaughters to which Mr Banks had introduced me as a place frequented by artists and men of learning.
In November I was nominated for election to the Royal Society, something that was very close to my heart and a great honour. As well as Mr Banks and Dr Solander, also Mr Stevens, the Admiralty Secretary, there were no less than 22 other Members supporting me. It was March 7th of this year before I was finally admitted and in that same month my letter to the President, Sir John Pringle, on the health of seamen was reproduced in the Societys Philosophical Transactions. A great privilege.
Sir John Pringle, as well as being His Majestys physician, is also the authority on military hygiene and medicine. His was one house at which I greatly enjoyed dining, he being most hospitable to Mrs Cook and myself, and the discussions afterwards, and often at table, turning repeatedly to the problem of scurvy in ships at sea for long periods. We had, in fact, much to say to each other on this and similar subjects, and I greatly enjoyed these discussions, so full of fects and examples, in which I was able to explain the reasons for going ashore at each new anchorage to bring off vegetables and roots from which my crew might benefit by the improvement of their blood.
It was at one of these dinners that I met Mr Boswell, the friend of Dr Johnson, who listened most attentively to every thing I said. I met him again some two weeks later dining at the Mitre with Sir John Pringle and others of the Societys members. He seemed most anxious that I should take him on my next voyage, even though the discussion tinned to cannibalism, a matter that was in everybodys mind and about which there was much curiosity after the bloody and unpleasant business at Ship Cove. Mr James Boswell was
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a writer with a most curious way of changing the meaning of words. At the end of the meal Sir John apologised for the poorness of it, whereupon Mr Boswell said laughingly something to the effect that he had had an excellent dinner because he had had a good cook, and he pointed at me, meaning I suppose that he had enjoyed our conversation. Everybody laughed heartily at this and we went on to Browns for coffee and then to the Royal Society.
Four days later he called upon me at Mile End, Mrs Cook giving us tea in the garden, and we talked for some time. Later he presented me with a signed copy of his book Account of Corsica in which he had written: Presented to Captain Cooke by the Author y as a small memorial of his admiration of that Gentleman's most renowned merit as a Navigator, of his esteem of the Captain's good sense and worth, and of the grateful sense which he shall ever entertain of the civil and communicative manner which the Captain was pleased to treat him. I read the book immediately for what I could learn from it as to the best way to present travel to the Publick, it then being April and myself deeply engrossed in my own work, which I found no easy matter, the manuscript already so full of alterations and additions that it was difficult to read.
Wednesday, July 31st
We have been on deck the greater part of the night observing the Eclipse of the Moon through the Night Tellescope. By this means, and the use of the Ephemeris tables, our longitude was i5°3S , 3o' f , whereas by the Watch it was I5°26'45". Clouds hid the Moon the greatest part of the time, particularly during the beginning and end of total darkness, so that our observations were not of the best. Tomorrow we shall anchor in Tenerife if the wind holds and there being much to do there, including the procuring of water as well as hay and
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com and other articles we are in want of, also a description of the place to enter in my official Journal, I must now take this opportunity of giving some account of the work that occupied so much of my time ashore before the start of this Voyage,
Dr Hawkesworth, having died of a slow fever three years ago, I was spared the possibility of the preparation of my Journal being offered to him. In his account of the first Voyage, which I read at the Cape outward bound on my second Voyage, I found he had quite disregarded all my amendments and requests. He knew little of seamanship or navigation, had no knowledge or interest of the world I had explored, yet wrote as though he was the very person in command. A strange mannerism which I found most mortifying. And he adopted this mode of writing, not for my own Journal alone, but also for those of the other commanders* which were the subject of the first of his three volumes. He spoke thus with several voices, but it was all the same, his endeavour to entertain and thereby attract the attention and support of the Publick involving flights of fancy so that both I and the officers were for ever saying things we would never have said and in a manner foreign to us.
I was determined that this time the work should not get out of my hands. But I am not myself a writer, though I know very well what I wish to say and can set it down after a fashion. Three years in the Great Cabbin of the Endeavour in the close company of such learned gentlemen as Mr Banks and Dr Solander had much improved my ability to express myself. Whether my Lords, conscious of my lack of suitable education, had in fact proposed that Mr Forster should have charge of the work I do not know, but certainly that would appear to be his impression. Indeed, he went so far as to
* The first volume of Hawkesworth's Voyages comprised three earlier voyages, those of Byron, Wailis and Carteret.
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