IN MEMORY OF COOK.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLVI, Issue 115, 13 May 1912, Page 3

IN MEMORY OF COOK.

The name o.'r Captain Cook still receives its meed of honor in Australia. A week ago the" people of Sydney celebrated the anniversary oi the great navigator's landing in Botany Bay one hundred and forty-one years before, and the ceremony, was a fitting tribute to his memory. Cook's discovery of the eastern coast of Axistralia was romantic It was stormy weather, and the little Endeavour had had a severe buffeting. Suddenly above the roar of the gale rang out the voico of the first lieutenant, "Land ahoy ! :> The captain stopped in his march along the deck and peered into the distance. "Ay, land/ he .'aid. "But what land?" He know of the land that la 3'_ to the south, but this dim outline in .the northern horizon was a mystery. It was six o'clock on the morning of Thuisday, ■ April 19th, l"70, described in the ship's log, according to the nautical reckoning from noon to soon,.as "the 38th hour of the 18th day of April." Intense excitement prevailed as the little ship approached the coast and the daring navigators' realised that they had discovered a new country. . For nine days they sailed along, look- ; ing for a suitable harbor. A souther- ; ];y wind carried them past Jeivis Bay, J and an attempt to land a little fur- j t 1 er on was frustrated by the rough i surf; but at daybreak on April 28th j t-hA opening into Botany Bay was senii, atid by the afternoon'the Endeavour was "at anchor in the bay and i Captain Cook set foot upon the new land. Tho hoisting of the flag of pos- I session, and perhaps the discovery of Ne-.v South Wales., dates from that j day, though the existence of a great southern continent had been known for many years. The intrepid Dutch explorers discovered Cape York and the Gulf of Carpentaria in 1580, and the Portuguese and Spanish voyagers 'knew something of the land many years earlier, but it 'remained for Cook, after his visit to Tahiti and\his circumnavigation of New Zealand, to c-bim the great Australian continent for the British Crown. Last week's celebration took place on the spot that- is held sacred as that upon which Cook and his little band hoisted the 'flag. ' ' "- ' ■■'■■■ ■■•■'■-': -' "'■""■. Cook's stay at Botany Bay lasted from April 28th till daybreak on. May oth, and it is recorded in "Cook's Voyages" - that the leader of ; the ex--petition' "caussduthe English colors' to' I-b<»'displayed.every day on shore, and took care that the ship's name and i the date of bha year should be inscribed on one cf the trees near the water-ing-place." Cook, Banks, Solarsder, and Monkhouse examined the neighborhood toloseiy, and, of course, they acquired'a great deal of very interest-, ins: information. They made several attempts to gain the confidence of the "Indians" whom they saw in the locality, but always without success. The journal of the voyage ;Says thai "the, Indians seemed, like other animals, to bo scatteied about along the coast and in the woods. Not a single article was touched by them of all thsvt were left at their huts, or at the places which they frequented, so 'ittle sense had they of those small conveniences and ornaments which are generally very to the uncivilised • tribes of'"th« globe." The Endeavour lay at. anchor near the south shore, "about a mile Avithin the entrance,'' and the, bay was explored closely. The "Voyages" states that Cook' "'found the north shore to be 'without wood, and to _ resemble in some degree our moors in England." "The surface of the .ground was., however, covered with ?,, thin brush of plants, rising to about the height of tho knee "Near the coast the hills are low, but there are others behind them which gradually ascend to a considerable distance, and are intersected with marshes■ and morasses.'" This was New South Wales| one hundred and forty-two years ago. as described by the first band of British who set foot on it. They were the men who gay.:3 an impetus to colonisation. Cool-: realised the value and importance of his discovery, and it was as a direct result of his visit that the settlement of New South Wales was undertaken. Barely- eighteen years before the "First Fleet" anchored in Port Jackson and the pioneer colonists laid the foundations of a tliriymg, vigorous nation.