Oceania and the Expeditions of James Cook
Overview
Oceania and the Expeditions of James Cook
Far south and east of China is a region dotted with thousands of islands, each as unique as the people who inhabit it: Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanesia. Mixed into this region are also the larger islands of New Zealand and Australia. These regions together comprise Oceania: the South Pacific region of the Southern Hemisphere. Diverse in its peoples, unmatched in its linguistic diversity, and unique in plants and animals, Oceania is a vast oceanic world of volcanic islands, tropical paradises, extraordinary mountain ranges, desert, and untamed rainforests. For centuries, this region’s isolation prevented it from mass exploration. And yet stories and legends of this almost mystical region spread. Asiatic and European explorers turned their attention to the South Pacific in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, unaware of the people and cultures that had conquered continents and claimed islands centuries before.
Learning Objectives
- Identify the key people, clans, and events to occur in Oceania during the eighteenth century.
- Evaluate the expeditions of James Cook.
Key Terms / Key Concepts
Oceania: name for the part of the South Pacific Ocean in which Australia, New Zealand, Micronesia, Polynesia, and Melanesia lie
James Cook: eighteenth-century English explorer and navigator who charted much of the South Pacific
Māori: Clans of diverse peoples who inhabit New Zealand
Omai: Polynesian man who served as Cook’s right hand in matters related to translation and navigation during his second and third voyages
King Kalaniʻōpuʻu: Hawaiian king who initially befriended James Cook
James Cook
According to legend, it was as a teenager that James Cook first fell in love with the sea. Apprenticed as a sailor in a small merchant fleet, Cook excelled in both the practical and intellectual skills of seamanship. Several years later, he traveled to North America with the British naval fleet in the seminal war against the French: the Seven Years’ War. It was during this time that he turned his attention to cartography and charted the Newfoundland coast.
Following the British victory in the Seven Years’ War, Cook’s skills as a marine surveyor and exceptional sailor caught the interest of Britain’s Royal Society. Unlike some of Britain’s more illustrious seamen, Cook lacked bravado but possessed intellect. A combat veteran with a keen eye for cartography, as well as interests in natural history and botany, James Cook was the ideal man to lead Britain’s expeditions to discover the Great South Land.
Cook’s First Expedition
The Royal Society promoted discovery and knowledge for Britain’s sake. Rumors circulated about early expeditions to the Southern Seas of the Pacific, far in the Southern Hemisphere. In 1768, James Cook set out on his first of three voyages. Ideally, he would discover new islands and water routes for Britain’s expanding empire.
Setting sail from Britain in 1768, Cook and his crew reached the Pacific Island of Tahiti in 1769. After resupplying, Cook set forth again in pursuit of the “Great South Land” rumored to be deep in the South Pacific. Charting islands and coastlines as he sailed, Cook followed the pattern of the planet Venus, which was crossing over the sun. In June 1769, Cook and his crew caught their first sight of New Zealand. Four months later, they charted and sailed around the southern island of New Zealand.
Portrait of James Cook. The scene with mountains and ships behind Cook’s portrait is suggestive of his landing in New Zealand.
Cook and the Māori
In October of 1769, Cook’s shipboy, Nicholas Head, spotted land. Briefly, the crew moored. All too soon they encountered the fierce Māori clans. Originating from Polynesian peoples much in the same way that Australia’s Aborigines had, the Māori proved far fiercer. Tall and tattooed, the Māori were warriors who were unpleased with the European encounter. Their violent reception forced Cook to quickly set sail once more. In his fabled ship the Endeavour, Cook sailed to the far northeastern side of New Zealand’s North Island.
Landing at Mercury Bay, Cook and his crew received a far different reception from the local Māori. For the first time, the Europeans engaged in trade with the Māori. Peaceful relations ensued, carefully crafted by both the Māori and Cook’s crew. Perhaps the reason for the shift in receptions can be partially attributed to Cook’s right-hand man, Tupaia. A Polynesian man who served as a navigator and a priest, Tupaia was also Cook’s translator. When the Endeavour landed at Mercury Bay, Tupaia also got off the ship and worked to bridge the language barrier between Māori and Cook. When the ship departed, Tupaia shared his knowledge of the winds and currents with Cook, who in turn, held unusual respect for native learning and knowledge. The routes charted by Cook were used extensively by sailors until the 1900s.
Cook and the Aborigines
Following his stay in New Zealand, Cook sailed up the west coast of Australia, as the first known European to do so. Along his journey, Cook landed at Botany Bay and Port Jackson. Reports of his missions inland documented Europeans first encounter with kangaroos. Moreover, they were the first Europeans to encounter Australia’s Aborigines.
James Cook’s impression of the Aborigines is as unique as it is insightful. Cook recorded that the Aborigines seemed “far happier” than Europeans. They were not materialistic but rather connected to everything they needed through the earth and sea. The description provided by Cook showcases him as a more humane man than his predecessors, successors, and contemporaries who demonstrated little respect, if not outright disregard for the Aborigines. But he was also a severe disciplinarian. He did not hesitate to flog his sailors. And tragically, the sympathetic view he expressed toward the Aborigines would not prevail among white Europeans.
Cook’s Second Expedition
The success of Cook’s first voyage prompted the Royal Society to support him on the second voyage in 1772. This time, he sailed south in search of present-day Antarctica. Rumors flew of a great land covered in ice deep in the South and Cook wanted to find it. His trusted compatriot, Tupaia, had died during the first voyage. This time, Cook employed a dazzling commoner from Polynesia named Omai. Although less knowledgeable than his predecessor, Omai charmed sailors and British citizens alike. Serving as a translator and assistant navigator, he helped Cook chart routes through the South Pacific. After a trying voyage, the crew approached Antarctica, but they fell just short of laying eyes on the great continent. However, Cook’s second voyage brought back significant knowledge of South Pacific Islands such as Vanuatu, Tahiti, Tonga, Tasmania, and the Cook Islands. From an ecological and economic standpoint, Cook’s second voyage is also important because of his experiences in New Zealand. His crew rested and resupplied in the South Islands’ fjords for seven weeks. It was during this period of rest that Cook introduced his crew to “spruce beer,” a beverage packed with vitamin C. Cook quickly administered the drink to his crew to repel the dreaded illness of scurvy, which resulted in muscle weakness and abnormal bleeding. During their stay, Cook and Omai helped win the trust of the Māori: Omai, for his ability to interpret, and Cook for his gifts of seeds, fowl, and pigs to the Māori. The beginning of a cultural exchange and partnership began.
Portrait of Omai.
Cook’s Third Expedition
In 1776, Cook set off for a final voyage. This time, the Royal Society commissioned him to find the rumored “Northwest Passage”: an oceanic link between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans thought to be somewhere in the North Atlantic. Cook set forth with his trusted companion, Omai, on his third voyage with the goal of securing the route for Britain. No such Northwest Passage existed, but that did not prevent Cook from exploring and charting much of the Alaskan and western Canadian coasts. Exhausted by the efforts, Cook decided to take his crew and ship south for the winter. In 1778, Cook fatefully landed in Hawaii.
Cook in the Hawaiian Islands
He moored his ship off the coast of Hawaii’s main island. To the delight and astonishment of James Cook, the Hawaiian islanders welcomed them reverentially. What he did not know initially was that their landing coincided with the Hawaiian festival of Makahiki. The festival centered around spiritual activities and games, including the arrival of the all-important deity Lono.
Cook, who was approaching fifty years old, was welcomed with open arms to the island and decorated in ceremonial dress. Reports flew that he and the Hawaiian, King Kalaniʻōpuʻu, had formed a close friendship. For a month, the islanders supplied him and his crew with food and other provisions. But not all islanders welcomed the prolonged European presence. Many felt that the Europeans took advantage of their hospitality and resources. When Cook finally departed on February 4 1780 his ship was laden with supplies.
A week later, storms forced Cook’s ships to return to the Hawaiian Islands for repairs. Confused by the reappearance of this man and his crew, the Hawaiians received Cook far less warmly than previously. They viewed their visitors with a suspicion that intensified when the hungry Europeans sought supplies from the Hawaiians again, and hostility between the Hawaiians and the Europeans increased over the successive days. At one point, a ship was stolen from Cook’s fleet. To negotiate for its return, Cook fatefully attempted to take King Kalaniʻōpuʻu as a hostage on one of his ships.
The Death of James Cook.
Cook’s attempt at kidnapping their king demonstrated to the Hawaiians that he was their enemy. As James Cook walked through the surf with the Hawaiian king towards his ship, a large group of Hawaiians approached him. One struck him violently on the back of the head, knocking him into the surf. Almost immediately after, Cook was stabbed to death. His body was hoisted by the Hawaiians who later disemboweled, baked, and divided his body. Out of respect to him, they returned a few of his remains to the crew for sea burial. But of the crew who set out with Cook in 1776, only a handful would complete his third voyage and return to Britain, only to report that no Northwest Passage existed.
Cook’s Legacies
James Cook’s legacy remains complex and complicated. He was, undoubtedly, among the greatest marine surveyors and navigators in history. Equally undisputed is that he demonstrated greater compassion for the local peoples of Polynesia, Australia, and New Zealand than his successors would. His early interactions with the Māori people in New Zealand particularly began a long network of collaboration. But his violent death in the Hawaiian Islands also stripped away European ideas of Oceania as a second Eden. In place of the romantic ideas emerged a collective European impression of Oceania as a place of grim human existence riddled with violence. That legacy would carry forth into the twentieth century with disastrous consequences for Oceania.
Cook’s explorations brought together European and Oceanic worlds. British citizens remained fascinated by Cook’s voyages and by Polynesian navigator, Omai. However, Cook’s brutal death at in Hawaii caused European attitudes to turn critical of Oceania and its peoples. No longer did that region of the world seem like a magical, timeless Eden full of unusual plants and animals, and charmingly quaint peoples. Instead, it appeared as dark and ominous, and in need of conquering.
Attributions
Images from Wikimedia Commons
Matsuda, Matt K. Pacific Worlds: A History of Seas, Peoples, and Cultures. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge: 2012. 136-41.
Insight Guides: New Zealand, Ed. Le Bas, Tom. Langenscheidt Publishers, Inc. Long Island City, NY. 2009. 30-32.
Welsh, Frank. Australia: A New History of the Great Southern Land. The Overlook Press, New York: 2004. 22.