JAMES COOK THE MAN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20088, 27 October 1928, Page 4 (Supplement)

JAMES COOK THE MAN.

HIS PERSONAL CHARACTER.

A VIVID PEN PORTRAIT

TITLE TO UNIVERSAL ESTEEM

In spito of Emerson's dictum that wo should not take our gods off their pedestals, and should look at our great men from a distance, we constantly pry into our heroes' habits of life and tricks of speech. Captain Cook, for all tho dazzling splendour of what he did, must needs provoko inquiry as to what lie was in appearanco, in character, in all that combines to make up tho subtlo compound called personality. Of what stuff was this Yorkshiro youth made, who furnishes tho only case on l-ecord of a sailor boy starting from a humble origin, and with tho slenderest outfit of learning, to reach at thirty the rank of master in the Royal Navy, and to bo selected for tho doing of a pieco of work calling for sound technical knowledge '!

His " bodily presence " lias been limned with enthusiasm by Sir Walter Bosant:

As for liis personal appearance, several portraits remain of him. The best seems to bo that by Webber, the artist, of bis third voyage. Every biography ought, at tlint point when the keynote of the character is struck, to establish clearly in the mind of tho reader the true effigies of the mon. Ono is not interested in tho personal appearance of James Cook, mate of a collier; but when James Cook has become a master in the Koyal Navy, when tho really important step in his career has been taken in tho execution of special service by special appointment, it is time that wo should learn what manner of man he was to those who only looked upon him. Wo know n man when wo have seen him, when wo have spoken with him or heard him Hpeak, when wo have read his books or hia letters, and when we know what ho has done. Cook's voice is noj often heard; for the most part others speak for him and of him; but his portrait remains. Ho was, to begin with, over sis feet high, thin and spare; hia head was small; liis forehead was broad; his hair was of a dark brown, rolled back and lied behind in the fashion of tho time; his noso was long and straight; his nostrils clear and finely cut; his cheek-bones were high—a feature which illustrated his Scotch descent; his eye 3 wero brown and small, but well set, quick, and piercing; his eyebrows wero large and bushy; his chin was round and full; his mouth firmly set; his face long. It is an austere face, hut striking. Ono thinks, perhaps wrongly, that without having been told whoso faco this is, in tho portrait, we might know it as tho face of a man remarkable for patience, resolution, perseverance, and indomitable courage. A Man Who Never Rested. Tho portraits of naval worthies are sometimes disappointing—the faces of some gallant admirals have even, if ono may respectfully übo the word, a fatuous expression, no doubt the fault of tho rascal painter. That of James Cook satisfies. It ia a faco worthy of the navigator. Such was the appearance of tho man; tall, thin, grave, even austere. As for his personal habits, ho was. as all agree, of robust constitution, inured to labour, and capable of undergoing the severest hardships. Every north-easterly gale that buffeted the collier's boy in the German Ocean, every night spent in with tho winter gales between Newcastle and the port of London, helped to build up this strength

and enduranco. He was ablo to cat without difficulty tho coarsest and the moat ungrateful food—oll what luxuries nvo even tho mates of a collier nourished'/ " Great was tho indifference with which he submitted to every kind of self-denial." A man who felt 110 hardships, who desired 110 better fare than was served out to his men, who looked on rough weather as tho chief part of life, who was never sick. and never tired—whero was thoro his like? And a man who never rested: lio was always at work. "During his long nnd tedious voyages." writes Captain King after his death " his eagerness and activity were never in tho least degree abated. £<o incidental temptation would delniu him for a moment; oven thoso intervals of recreation which sometimes unavoidably occinred, and wero looked for by ua with a longing that persons who liavo experienced tho fatigues of sorvico will readily excuse, wero submitted to by him with a cortam impatience whenover they could not be employed in making a further provision lor tho more effectual prosocution of his designs."

Although the delineator of this pen portrait says "one is not interested in tho personal appearanco of James Cook, mate of a collier," tho picturo reproduced on this page is not without value. It shows him in thoso earlior years before his fame was won, and suggests tho power of his character no less than do tho better-known pictures, in which determination is associated with poise. Here it is enthusiasm for adventure that lights up tho face, and thero is caught a little of the restless energy on which Sir Walter Besant enlarges: "a man who was never tired, never wanting to sit down and rest, impatient of enforced leisure, careless about luxuries, incessantly at work." Capacity for Kindlipess.

Cook, indeed, was not remarkable for evenness of temper, and when ho found his purpose obstructed by men weak, or foolish, or lazy, ho could blazo in a moment. But ho always held tho confidence of his crew, whoso respectful fear was not their cTnly motivo of obedience; and beneath the austerity that was often accountable to his absorption in his work thero was, as all liavo acknowledged, a kindly, human heart. Ho had some fast friends, not many, perhaps, else there had been discovered letters to them and their personal words about him, but, this silence should not he taken to denote aloofness. Taken by circumstance and resolve from tho ruder company of his earlier days, at 27 bo was claimed by a task that left little room for a pipe and a glass. Yet, deep it\him. never paraded, a capacity for fellowship persisted. Of tho felicities of homo life lio knew littlo, deprived of them as ho was by tho call to go out across tho far spaces of the earth and learn what was hidden there. II" left behind a wife whoso affection and respect wero equally won by him. Even to her latest day, 56 years after his death, slin wore a ring with his hair in it; and so thoroughly had ho established .himself in her esteem that her keenest expression of disapproval of others' conduct was that Mr. Cook—to her he was always Mr. Cook—" would never have done so."

His faculty for winning respect without effort was tacitly acknowledged wherever ho. went. It contributed greatly to tho success he had in establishing friendly relations with untutored neoples. It could not savo him altogether from tho perils of his ventures among them, but it carried him through many a difficulty and left a memory of valuo to thoso who followed in his train. James Cook, with his towering physique, was every inch a man.