JAMES COOK AND NEW ZEALAND

Te Ao Hou, 1971, Page 59

JAMES COOK AND NEW ZEALAND by A. Charles Begg and Neil C. Begg Government Printer, $4.50 On all counts — magnificent. This is the only possible verdict on this book, produced to mark the bi-centenary of Captain James Cook's first voyage of discovery in Endeavour. The authors pay tribute to the support and encouragement of the late Mr C. H. Williams, Director of the Government Publicity Division, his staff, that of the Government Printer, the National Archivist, the Assistant Surveyor-General, libraries and museums, and all who helped them take their journey following in the footsteps of Captain Cook. They acknowledge their indebtedness for much of the book's material to Dr J. C. Beaglehole, editor of the Journals of Captain James Cook and Joseph Banks, and world authority on the subject. In his foreword, Dr Beaglehole commends the authors… ‘they have worked hard on the material in the ordinary way. They have done more than that — and this I find admirable: they have put sweat and acuteness into their field work, have followed their own example in Dusky Sound, have gone out to sea and looked at the coastline as Cook looked, have climbed his hills and taken his charts to the top of them. There is no substitute for this sort of field work in the history of discovery. You can go so far with paper, you may write with vividness and point, but in the end, to be safe, you have to go and look.’ The book covers Captain Cook's three voyages to New Zealand, the first in Endeavour in 1768, the second in Resolution accompanied by Captain Tobias Furneaux in Adventure in 1772, and the third, again in Resolution and accompanied by Captain

Charles Clerke in Discovery in 1776. It concludes with a short biography of Cook. Extracts from Cook's Journals and from those who travelled with him are included throughout the text, whetting the appetite for the full account. Comments from many sources indicate that in his time Cook was recognised internationally as a navigator and cartographer, a careful observer, a leader of men and one with a humane and respectful approach to people whom we would now describe as ‘of undeveloped nations’. Cook's crewmen certainly had reason to be grateful to him for his determination that they should all follow his example, and eat daily of ‘antiscorbutic’ foods, no matter how unpalatable they might be. As this book says, ‘It is hard for us today to understand what a tremendous contribution Cook had made to the defeat of scurvy. He, himself, was amazed and delighted that only one man had symptoms of scurvy though they had been over four months at sea.’ This was in marked contrast to earlier expeditions, when three quarters of the men had succumbed to the disease. In 1753, James Lind, a Scottish surgeon wrote a treatise on the disease, its cure and prevention by means of orange juice. Cook had the intelligence to see the importance of Lind's work and had the driving force to ensure that this knowledge was applied. The defeat of scurvy gave him greater satisfaction than his geographical discoveries, and among the many honours given him was a Fellowship by the Royal Society who awarded him the Coply Medal for his work on sea scurvy. Cook's maps were extraordinarily accurate, in spite of the comparatively primitive instruments and methods used, and he is remembered for the speed as well as the accuracy of his running survey of the New Zealand coast. Many of his charts remained in use until recently, and that of Pickersgill Harbour, Dusky Sound, made in 1773, is still the current Admiralty Chart. To record that there are 183 illustrations in 155 pages indicates that the book is well illustrated, but it is the quality and variation in the plates, drawings, photographs and maps that make the book so outstanding. Reproduced here for the first time are many panoramic coastline ‘views’ drawn with great accuracy by Herman Sporing, Banks' secretary during the first voyage, and preserved in the Banks Collection of the British Museum. Sporing seems to have made sketches from Endeavour whenever the ship anchored, and his attention to detail and careful annotation of compass bearings make the places easily recognisable. On many pages they are contrasted with colour photographs taken by the authors, which often point up the changes which have occurred in the past 200 years. Sporing and Sydney Parkinson also made detailed drawings of canoes, carvings, facial tattoos, implements and weapons. There are examples of Sydney Parkinson's beautiful coloured drawings of native plants and some completed or painted by F. P. Nodder and James Miller from sketches left by Parkinson, who died before Endeavour returned to England. From the second voyage, there are paintings of birds and plants by George Forster, who travelled with his scientist father Johann, and land and seascapes painted by William Hodges. There are screens by John Webber, artist on the third voyage. Comprehensive, fascinating and colourful, this book could not be bettered as an account of a great man and his tremendous achievements. An excellent index further enhances its value as a reference book. A copy should be in every home.