OCTOBER THE SIXTH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19762, 8 October 1927, Page 1 (Supplement)

OCTOBER THE SIXTH.

BY FERGUS DUNLOP.

CAPTAIN COOK'S COMING.

If the North Sea taught Francis Drake his trade, that grim preceptress found a pupil scarcely less apt when she under took the education of young James Cook. When patriotic piety and a pressgang drove him into the King's Navy, he had already served some 10 years in the northern merchant service and held his " ticket "as master's mate. In 1755, while his ship lay at Wapping, and the pressgangs were busy recruiting for the j French war, Cook, watching their opeia lions, heard suddenly and clearly, and as by inspiration, the call of his country. With the remark that he " had a mind to try his fortune that way," ho walked round to the nearest recruiting rendezvous, and volunteered as a seaman before the mast But the navy then, as now, was quick to recognise genius, and it was not long befoie she perceived that in the quiet and unassuming sailoi she had a personality beyond the ordinary. Therefore it was that aftei a few months only in the ser vice Cook was at Quebec, with a master's warrant, in the most important post pos sible to the rank- the command of the boats landing the troops for the ever famous assault on the heights of Abra ham. So the man who was to add Australasia to the Empire began his career by playing no mean pait in the conquest of Canada, and though no man ever went about his life's work with less thought of glory or recompense. Cook may well have felt that his reward—a lieutenant's commissionwas wel l earned. It was not until his return from his first voyage that he took his place amone the post-captains. The Stars in Their Courses. If anyone doubt that the stars in their courses may influence the destiny of man. et them consider Venus and her transits. She only crosses once every couple of centuries or so, and it is improbable that you or I shall evei see her do it; but when she crossed the sun in 1764 and 1769. ihc " star of eve " not only in augurated an era of Pacific exploration that took Byron, Walhs, Bougainville and Cook into "the South Sea. but she also redeemed astronomy from its unsavoury association with necromancy. For ro member, gentle reader, that until a late date it was the usual, and not altogether unjustifiable, practice, to imprison as tronomers, and any others who talked about things they didn't understand. If the practice still existed, and an occasional medico were laid in durance for talking nonsense, " pour encourager les autres," it might be no bad thing however that may be, the direct purpose of Cook's earliej- journeyings was to view from Tahiti the transit of Venus and to correct or verify certain then in doubt. Someono very aptly said that when Providence has a task to be done, "a man is sent to fit the task who but the task desires." So it was with Cook, for all the enthusiasms of his experience and natural leanings drew him to the task of Pacific exploration. The astronomical and geographical questions interested him keenly; for the earnest studies of his riper years li.id all that bent. In the Canadian war ho had had many dealings with Indians, and had acquired the knack, possible to so few, of understanding savages and their points of view. He had also interested himself in the struggle against that most dreaded enemy of the sailorman, the scurvy, and held emphatic views on its prevention. Beyond all he was endowed with that rare quality of vision amounting almost to prophetic inspiration, that perceived in the potentialities of the rough and uncultivated present the fulfilments of the future. Through the influence of his friend, the Governor of Newfoundland Cook attained his heart's desire, the command of the expedition which was to visit Tahiti, and to make a series of " casts " or exploring trips into the high latitudes of Antarctica, to fix if possible the southern boundaries of the Pacific and to determine definitely the existence of the " Austral continent " of mediaeval geographers, or the " Staten Land," which Tasmrfn, when he touched New Zealand, believed himself to have discovered. No Need for Ulysses' Expedient. The popular imagination at that time was very much inflamed by the Dolphin's reports of Otaheite and its beautiful dusky queen, Oberea. Banks was, of course, tlie prominent figure m Cook's expedition at its commencement, and it was confidently predicted by the press and public that the genial Joseph would be captivated by the Queen of the Canni bal Islands and would either bring her home, or succumb to the simple allure ments of her Arcadian court and stay there. However, Sir Joseph Banks and the gentlemen of the Endeavour, though they enjoyed 'their stay at Tahiti very much, managed to tear themselves away from the Island of Gold, nor was Captain Cook compelled to lesort to Ulysses' expedient of stopping their cars with wax, putting them into blinkers, or binding them to the mast. So it was that the first week of October, 1769, found thern beating up to westward in the 39th degree, against light airs and ot'er a smiling sea. There was no scurvy on board, thanks to Cook's prescience, and though the menu was reduced to salt junk, served up in such variant forms as the ingenuity of the cook could devise, the small beer and the porter is vouched by Sir Joseph to have been excellent. As to the wine, remarks tlie same authority, " whether by the negligence or by the ignorance of the steward, we have not had a glassful foi months." On the 6th October, through the haze ol early afternoon, the boy Nicholas Young, clinging in the swaying crosstrees, sighted the tall white cliffs that bear his name. It is remarkable, by the way, that this sharp-sighted youngster (no pun intended) added to his glory on the home voyage by being the first from those same crosstrees to sight the Lizard. His report from the masthead (doubtless couched in the language of Wapping with a Cockney accent drawled slightly through the nose), " Ah—land a —head ! " must have on the latter occa sion drawn the tear of sensibility from many a sea-weary »ye; but on the 6th October it recorded the discovery of New Zealand, and ushered in " the blackest day of Sir Joseph Banks' life," a day for which Captain Cook found himself compelled to apologise in a heavily laboured grief-stricken summary in his log. An Unkind Pate. '' Black be the mark of it," says Banks. " Pray sucn never return to embitter tutuie recollection!" " 1 am aware that many of the humane will blame me, nor do J myself think my conduct altogethei justifiable," writes (,ook. " But was Ito suffer mysell and my crew to be knocked on the head ? " These expressions relate, not to the discovery of New Zealand (which 1 have heard pessimists denounce as the great and real tragedy of that day), but to the necessity that the natives had laid upon them of shooting one or two. All Hon oui to their soft hearts and tender coii sciences! They stand in graceful con trast to the conduct oi De Surville, Du Clesmeur, or Tasman—who actually fired his full broadsides at the natives, but thanks to his Dutchmen's gunnery fortunately missed them. It were well if the return of the En deavour to England had _ been as happy in its circumstances as the voyage out ward bound But Fate was unkind Batavia the ship's people contracted some Eastern epidemic complaint, and out of 84 of the company only 40 ever sighted the Lizard and heard the cabin boy's cry of " Home," and of those 40 many were sick unto death. But the work of the exploration had been well and truly accomplished.