SUSPICIOUS BEHAVIOUR OF THE NATIVES, ON OUR RETURN TO KARAKAKOOA BAY.—THEFT ON BOARD THE DISCOVERY, AND ITS CONSEQUENCES.—THE PINNACE ATTACKED, AND THE CREW OBLIGED TO QUIT HER.—CAPTAIN COOK’S OBSERVATIONS ON THE OCCASION.—ATTEMPT AT THE OBSERVATORY.—THE CUTTER OF THE DISCOVERY STOLEN.—MEASURES TAKEN BY CAPTAIN COOK FOR ITS RECOVERY.—GOES ON SHORE, TO INVITE THE KING ON BOARD.—THE KING, BEING STOPPED BY HIS WIFE AND THE CHIEFS, A CONTEST ARISES.—NEWS ARRIVE OF ONE OF THE CHIEFS BEING KILLED BY ONE OF OUR PEOPLE.—FERMENT ON THIS OCCASION.—ONE OF THE CHIEFS THREATENS CAPTAIN COOK, AND IS SHOT BY HIM.—GENERAL ATTACK BY THE NATIVES.—DEATH OF CAPTAIN COOK.—ACCOUNT OF THE CAPTAIN’S SERVICES, AND A SKETCH OF HIS CHARACTER.

We were employed the whole of the 11th and part of the 12th, in getting out the foremast, and sending it with the carpenters, on shore. Besides the damage which the head of the mast had sustained, we found the heel exceedingly rotten, having a large hole up the middle of it, capable of holding four or five cocoa-nuts. It was not, however, thought necessary to shorten it; and fortunately, the logs of red toa-wood, which had been cut at Eimeo, for anchor-stocks, were found fit to replace the sprung parts of the fishes. As these repairs were likely to take up several days, Mr. Bayly and myself got the astronomical apparatus on shore, and pitched our tents on the Morai; having with us a guard of a corporal and six marines. We renewed our friendly correspondence with the priests, who, for the greater security of the workmen, and their tools, tabooed the place where the mast lay, sticking their wands round it, as before. The sail-makers were also sent on shore, to repair the damages which had taken place in their department during the late gales. They were lodged in a house adjoining to the Morai, that was lent us by the priests. Such were our arrangements on shore. I shall now proceed to the account of those other transactions with the natives, which led, by degrees, to the fatal catastrophe of the 14th.

Upon coming to anchor, we were surprised to find our reception very different from what it had been on our first arrival; no shouts, no bustle, no confusion; but a solitary bay, with only here and there a canoe stealing close along the shore. The impulse of curiosity, which had before operated to so great a degree, might now indeed be supposed to have ceased; but the hospitable treatment we had invariably met with, and the friendly footing on which we parted, gave us some reason to expect, that they would again have flocked about us with great joy, on our return.

We were forming various conjectures upon the occasion of this extraordinary appearance, when our anxiety was at length relieved by the return of a boat, which had been sent on shore, and brought us word, that Terreeoboo was absent, and had left the bay under the taboo. Though this account appeared very satisfactory to most of us; yet others were of opinion, or rather, perhaps, have been led, by subsequent events, to imagine, that there was something at this time very suspicious in the behaviour of the natives; and that the interdiction of all intercourse with us, on pretence of the king’s absence, was only to give him time to consult with his chiefs in what manner it might be proper to treat us. Whether these suspicions were well founded, or the account given by the natives was the truth, we were never able to ascertain. For though it is not improbable that our sudden return, for which they could see no apparent cause, and the necessity of which we afterward found it very difficult to make them comprehend, might occasion some alarm; yet the unsuspicious conduct of Terreeoboo, who, on his supposed arrival, the next morning, came immediately to visit Captain Cook, and the consequent return of the natives to their former friendly intercourse with us, are strong proofs that they neither meant nor apprehended any change of conduct.

In support of this opinion, I may add the account of another accident, precisely of the same kind, which happened to us on our first visit, the day before the arrival of the king. A native had sold a hog on board the Resolution, and taken the price agreed on, when Pareea passing by, advised the man not to part with the hog without an advanced price. For this he was sharply spoken to, and pushed away; and the taboo being soon after laid on the bay, we had at first no doubt, but that it was in consequence of the offence given to the chief. Both these accidents serve to show how very difficult it is to draw any certain conclusion from the actions of people, with whose customs, as well as language, we are so imperfectly acquainted; at the same time, some idea may be formed from them of the difficulties, at the first view, perhaps, not very apparent, which those have to encounter, who, in all their transactions with these strangers, have to steer their course amidst so much uncertainty, where a trifling error may be attended with even the most fatal consequences. However true or false our conjectures may be, things went on in their usual quiet course, till the afternoon of the 13th.

Toward the evening of that day, the officer who commanded the watering-party of the Discovery came to inform me, that several chiefs had assembled at the well near the beach, driving away the natives whom he had hired to assist the sailors in rolling down the casks to the shore. He told me, at the same time, that he thought their behaviour extremely suspicious, and that they meant to give him some farther disturbance. At his request, therefore, I sent a marine along with him, but suffered him to take only his side-arms. In a short time the officer returned, and, on his acquainting me that the islanders had armed themselves with stones and were growing very tumultuous, I went myself to the spot, attended by a marine, with his musket. Seeing us approach, they threw away their stones, and, on my speaking to some of the chiefs, the mob were driven away, and those who chose it, were suffered to assist in filling the casks. Having left things quiet here, I went to meet Captain Cook, whom I saw coming on shore, in the pinnace. I related to him what had just passed; and he ordered me, in case of their beginning to throw stones, or behave insolently, immediately to fire a ball at the offenders. I accordingly gave orders to the corporal, to have the pieces of the sentinels loaded with ball, instead of small shot.

Soon after our return to the tents, we were alarmed by a continued fire of muskets from the Discovery, which we observed to be directed at a canoe, that we saw paddling toward the shore in great haste, pursued by one of our small boats. We immediately concluded, that the firing was in consequence of some theft, and Captain Cook ordered me to follow him with a marine armed, and to endeavour to seize the people as they came on shore. Accordingly we ran toward the place where we supposed the canoe would land, but were too late; the people having quitted it, and made their escape into the country before our arrival.

We were at this time ignorant, that the goods had been already restored; and as we thought it probable, from the circumstances we had at first observed, that they might be of importance, were unwilling to relinquish our hopes of recovering them. Having therefore inquired of the natives, which way the people had fled, we followed them till it was near dark, when judging ourselves to be about three miles from the tents, and suspecting that the natives, who frequently encouraged us in the pursuit, were amusing us with false information, we thought it in vain to continue our search any longer, and returned to the beach.

During our absence, a difference of a more serious and unpleasant nature had happened. The officer, who had been sent in the small boat, and was returning on board with the goods which had been restored, observing Captain Cook and me engaged in the pursuit of the offenders, thought it his duty to seize the canoe, which was left drawn up on the shore. Unfortunately, this canoe belonged to Pareea, who arriving, at the same moment, from on board the Discovery, claimed his property, with many protestations of his innocence. The officer refusing to give it up, and being joined by the crew of the pinnace, which was waiting for Captain Cook, a scuffle ensued, in which Pareea was knocked down by a violent blow on the head with an oar. The natives, who were collected about the spot, and had hitherto been peaceable spectators, immediately attacked our people with such a shower of stones as forced them to retreat with great precipitation, and swim off to a rock, at some distance from the shore. The pinnace was immediately ransacked by the islanders; and, but for the timely interposition of Pareea, who seemed to have recovered from the blow, and forgot it at the same instant, would soon have been entirely demolished. Having driven away the crowd, he made signs to our people, that they might come and take possession of the pinnace, and that he would endeavour to get back the things which had been taken out of it. After their departure, he followed them in his canoe, with a midshipman’s cap, and some other trifling articles of the plunder, and, with much apparent concern at what had happened, asked, if the Orono would kill him, and whether he would permit him to come on board the next day? On being assured that he should be well received, he joined noses (as their custom is) with the officers, in token of friendship, and paddled over to the village of Kowrowa.

When Captain Cook was informed of what had passed, he expressed much uneasiness at it, and as we were returning on board, “I am afraid,” said he, “that these people will oblige me to use some violent measures; for,” he added, “they must not be left to imagine that they have gained an advantage over us.” However, as it was too late to take any steps this evening, he contented himself with giving orders, that every man and woman on board should be immediately turned out of the ship. As soon as this order was executed I returned on shore; and our former confidence in the natives being now much abated, by the events of the day, I posted a double guard on the Morai, with orders to call me, if they saw any men lurking about the beach. At about eleven o’clock, five islanders were observed creeping round the bottom of the Morai; they seemed very cautious in approaching us, and, at last, finding themselves discovered, retired out of sight. About midnight, one of them venturing up close to the observatory, the sentinel fired over him; on which the men fled, and we passed the remainder of the night without farther disturbance.

Next morning, at day-light, I went on board the Resolution for the time-keeper, and, in my way, was hailed by the Discovery, and informed that their cutter had been stolen during the night from the buoy where it was moored.

When I arrived on board, I found the marines arming, and Captain Cook loading his double-barrelled gun. Whilst I was relating to him what had happened to us in the night, he interrupted me with some eagerness, and acquainted me with the loss of the Discovery’s cutter, and with the preparations he was making for its recovery. It had been his usual practice, whenever any thing of consequence was lost at any of the islands in this ocean, to get the king, or some of the principal Erees, on board, and to keep them as hostages till it was restored. This method, which had been always attended with success, he meant to pursue on the present occasion; and, at the same time, had given orders to stop all the canoes that should attempt to leave the bay, with an intention of seizing and destroying them, if he could not recover the cutter by peaceable means.

Accordingly the boats of both ships, well manned and armed, were stationed across the bay; and, before I left the ship, some great guns had been fired at two large canoes, that were attempting to make their escape.

It was between seven and eight o’clock when we quitted the ship together; Captain Cook in the pinnace, having Mr. Phillips and nine marines with him; and myself in the small boat. The last orders I received from him were, to quiet the minds of the natives, on our side of the bay, by assuring them they should not be hurt; to keep my people together; and to be on my guard. We then parted; the captain went toward Kowrowa, where the king resided; and I proceeded to the beach. My first care, on going ashore, was to give strict orders to the marines to remain within their tent, to load their pieces with ball, and not to quit their arms. Afterward I took a walk to the huts of old Kaoo, and the priests, and explained to them, as well as I could, the object of the hostile preparations, which had exceedingly alarmed them. I found, that they had already heard of the cutter’s being stolen, and I assured them, that though Captain Cook was resolved to recover it, and to punish the authors of the theft, yet that they, and the people of the village on our side, need not be under the smallest apprehension of suffering any evil from us. I desired the priests to explain this to the people, and to tell them not to be alarmed, but to continue peaceable and quiet. Kaoo asked me, with great earnestness, if Terreeoboo was to be hurt? I assured him, he was not; and both he and the rest of his brethren seemed much satisfied with this assurance.

In the mean time, Captain Cook having called off the launch, which was stationed at the north point of the bay, and taken it along with him, proceeded to Kowrowa, and landed with the lieutenant and nine marines. He immediately marched into the village, where he was received with the usual marks of respect; the people prostrating themselves before him, and bringing their accustomed offerings of small hogs. Finding that there was no suspicion of his design, his next step was to inquire for Terreeoboo and the two boys, his sons, who had been his constant guests on board the Resolution. In a short time, the boys returned along with the natives, who had been sent in search of them, and immediately led Captain Cook to the house where the king had slept. They found the old man just awoke from sleep; and after a short conversation about the loss of the cutter, from which Captain Cook was convinced that he was in no wise privy to it, he invited him to return in the boat, and spend the day on board the Resolution. To this proposal the king readily consented, and immediately got up to accompany him.

Things were in this prosperous train, the two boys being already in the pinnace, and the rest of the party having advanced near the water-side, when an elderly woman called Kaneekabareea, the mother of the boys, and one of the king’s favourite wives, came after him, and with many tears and entreaties, besought him not to go on board. At the same time, two chiefs who came along with her, laid hold of him, and insisting that he should go no farther, forced him to sit down. The natives, who were collecting in prodigious numbers along the shore, and had probably been alarmed by the firing of the great guns, and the appearances of hostility in the bay, began to throng round Captain Cook and their king. In this situation, the lieutenant of marines observing that his men were huddled close together in the crowd, and thus incapable of using their arms, if any occasion should require it, proposed to the captain to draw them up along the rocks, close to the water’s edge; and the crowd readily making way for them to pass, they were drawn up in a line, at the distance of about thirty yards from the place where the king was sitting.

All this time the old king remained on the ground, with the strongest marks of terror and dejection in his countenance. Captain Cook, not willing to abandon the object for which he had come on shore, continuing to urge him, in the most pressing manner, to proceed; whilst, on the other hand, whenever the king appeared inclined to follow him, the chiefs, who stood round him, interposed at first with prayers and entreaties, but afterward, having recourse to force and violence, insisted on his staying where he was. Captain Cook, therefore, finding that the alarm had spread too generally, and that it was in vain to think any longer of getting him off without bloodshed, at last gave up the point; observing to Mr. Phillips, that it would be impossible to compel him to go on board, without the risk of killing a great number of the inhabitants.

Though the enterprise which had carried Captain Cook on shore had now failed, and was abandoned, yet his person did not appear to have been in the least danger, till an accident happened, which gave a fatal turn to the affair. The boats which had been stationed across the bay, having fired at some canoes that were attempting to get out, unfortunately had killed a chief of the first rank. The news of his death arrived at the village where Captain Cook was, just as he had left the king, and was walking slowly toward the shore. The ferment it occasioned was very conspicuous; the women and children were immediately sent off; and the men put on their war-mats, and armed themselves with spears and stones. One of the natives, having in his hands a stone, and a long iron spike (which they call a pahooa), came up to the Captain, flourishing his weapon, by way of defiance, and threatening to throw the stone. The Captain desired him to desist; but the man persisting in his insolence, he was at length provoked to fire a load of small-shot. The man having his mat on, which the shot were not able to penetrate, this had no other effect than to irritate and encourage them. Several stones were thrown at the marines; and one of the Erees attempted to stab Mr. Phillips with his pahooa, but failed in the attempt, and received from him a blow with the butt end of his musket. Captain Cook now fired his second barrel, loaded with ball, and killed one of the foremost of the natives. A general attack with stones immediately followed, which was answered by a discharge of musketry from the marines, and the people in the boats. The islanders, contrary to the expectations of every one, stood the fire with great firmness; and before the marines had time to re-load, they broke in upon them with dreadful shouts and yells. What followed was a scene of the utmost horror and confusion.

Four of the marines were cut off amongst the rocks in their retreat, and fell a sacrifice to the fury of the enemy; three more were dangerously wounded; and the Lieutenant, who had received a stab between the shoulders with a pahooa, having fortunately reserved his fire, shot the man who had wounded him just as he was going to repeat his blow. Our unfortunate Commander, the last time he was seen distinctly, was standing at the water’s edge, and calling out to the boats to cease firing, and to pull in. If it be true, as some of those who were present have imagined, that the marines and boat-men had fired without his orders, and that he was desirous of preventing any further bloodshed, it is not improbable that his humanity, on this occasion, proved fatal to him. For it was remarked, that whilst he faced the natives, none of them had offered him any violence, but that having turned about, to give his orders to the boats, he was stabbed in the back, and fell with his face into the water. On seeing him fall, the islanders set up a great shout, and his body was immediately dragged on shore, and surrounded by the enemy, who snatching the daggers out of each other’s hands, shewed a savage eagerness to have a share in his destruction.

Thus fell our great and excellent Commander! After a life of so much distinguished and successful enterprise, his death, as far as regards himself, cannot be reckoned premature; since he lived to finish the great work for which he seems to have been designed; and was rather removed from the enjoyment, than cut off from the acquisition of glory. How sincerely his loss was felt and lamented by those who had so long found their general security in his skill and conduct, and every consolation, under their hardships, in his tenderness and humanity, it is neither necessary nor possible for me to describe; much less shall I attempt to paint the horror with which we were struck, and the universal dejection and dismay which followed so dreadful and unexpected a calamity. The reader will not be displeased to turn from so sad a scene, to the contemplation of his character and virtues, whilst I am paying my last tribute to the memory of a dear and honoured friend, in a short history of his life, and public services.

Captain James Cook was born near Whitby, in Yorkshire, in the year 1727; and, at an early age, was put apprentice to a shopkeeper in a neighbouring village. His natural inclination not having been consulted on this occasion, he soon quitted the counter from disgust, and bound himself, for nine years, to the master of a vessel in the coal trade. At the breaking out of the war in 1755, he entered into the king’s service on board the Eagle, at that time commanded by Captain Hamer, and afterward by Sir Hugh Palliser, who soon discovered his merit, and introduced him on the quarter-deck.

In the year 1758, we find him master of the Northumberland, the flag-ship of Lord Colville, who had then the command of the squadron stationed on the coast of America. It was here, as I have often heard him say, that, during a hard winter, he first read Euclid, and applied himself to the study of mathematics and astronomy, without any other assistance, than what a few books and his own industry afforded him. At the same time that he thus found means to cultivate and improve his mind and to supply the deficiencies of an early education, he was engaged in most of the busy and active scenes of the war in America. At the siege of Quebec, Sir Charles Saunders committed to his charge the execution of services of the first importance in the naval department. He piloted the boats to the attack of Montmorency; conducted the embarkation to the Heights of Abraham; examined the passage, and laid buoys for the security of the large ships in proceeding up the river. The courage and address with which he acquitted himself in these services, gained him the warm friendship of Sir Charles Saunders and Lord Colville, who continued to patronize him during the rest of their lives with the greatest zeal and affection. At the conclusion of the war, he was appointed, through the recommendation of Lord Colville and Sir Hugh Palliser, to survey the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and the coasts of Newfoundland. In this employment he continued till the year 1767, when he was fixed on by Sir Edward Hawke, to command an expedition to the South Seas; for the purpose of observing the transit of Venus, and prosecuting discoveries in that part of the globe.

From this period, as his services are too well known to require a recital here, so his reputation has proportionably advanced to a height too great to be affected by my panegyric. Indeed, he appears to have been most eminently and peculiarly qualified for this species of enterprize. The earliest habits of his life, the course of his services, and the constant application of his mind, all conspired to fit him for it, and gave him a degree of professional knowledge, which can fall to the lot of very few.

The constitution of his body was robust, inured to labour, and capable of undergoing the severest hardships. His stomach bore, without difficulty, the coarsest and most ungrateful food. Indeed, temperance in him was scarcely a virtue; so great was the indifference with which he submitted to every kind of self-denial. The qualities of his mind were of the same hardy, vigorous kind with those of his body. His understanding was strong and perspicacious. His judgment, in whatever related to the services he was engaged in, quick and sure. His designs were bold and manly; and both in the conception, and in the mode of execution, bore evident marks of a great original genius. His courage was cool and determined, and accompanied with an admirable presence of mind in the moment of danger. His manners were plain and unaffected. His temper might perhaps have been justly blamed as subject to hastiness and passion had not these been disarmed by a disposition the most benevolent and humane.

Such were the outlines of Captain Cook’s character; but its most distinguishing feature was that unremitting perseverance in the pursuit of his object, which was not only superior to the opposition of dangers, and the pressure of hardships, but even exempt from the want of ordinary relaxation. During the long and tedious voyages in which he was engaged, his eagerness and activity were never in the least abated. No incidental temptation could detain him for a moment; even those intervals of recreation, which sometimes unavoidably occurred, and were looked for by us with a longing, that persons who have experienced the fatigues of service will readily excuse, were submitted to by him with a certain impatience, whenever they could not be employed in making further provision for the more effectual prosecution of his designs.

It is not necessary, here, to enumerate the instances in which these qualities were displayed, during the great and important enterprizes in which he was engaged. I shall content myself with stating the result of those services, under the two principal heads to which they may be referred, those of geography and navigation, placing each in a separate and distinct point of view.

Perhaps no science ever received greater additions from the labour of a single man, than geography has done from those of Captain Cook. In his first voyage to the South Seas, he discovered the Society Islands; determined the insularity of New Zealand; discovered the straits which separate the two islands, and are called after his name; and made a complete survey of both. He afterward explored the eastern coast of New Holland, hitherto unknown; an extent of twenty-seven degrees of latitude, or upward of two thousand miles.

In his second expedition, he resolved the great problem of a southern continent; having traversed that hemisphere between the latitudes of 40° and 70°, in such a manner as not to leave a possibility of its existence, unless near the pole, and out of the reach of navigation. During this voyage he discovered New Caledonia, the largest island in the Southern Pacific, except New Zealand; the island of Georgia; and an unknown coast, which he named Sandwich Land, the thule of the Southern hemisphere; and having twice visited the tropical seas, he settled the situations of the old, and made several new discoveries.

But the voyage we are now relating is distinguished above all the rest by the extent and importance of its discoveries. Besides several smaller islands in the Southern Pacific, he discovered, to the north of the equinoctial line, the group called the Sandwich Islands; which, from their situation and productions, bid fairer for becoming an object of consequence, in the system of European navigation, than any other discovery in the South Sea. He afterward explored what had hitherto remained unknown of the western coast of America, from the latitude of 43° to 70° north, containing an extent of three thousand five hundred miles; ascertained the proximity of the two great continents of Asia and America; passed the straits between them, and surveyed the coast, on each side, to such a height of northern latitude, as to demonstrate the impracticability of a passage in that hemisphere, from the Atlantic into the Pacific Ocean, either by an eastern or a western course. In short, if we except the sea of Amur, and the Japanese Archipelago, which still remain imperfectly known to Europeans, he has completed the hydrography of the habitable globe.

As a navigator, his services were not perhaps less splendid; certainly not less important and meritorious. The method which he discovered, and so successfully pursued of preserving the health of seamen, forms a new Æra in navigation, and will transmit his name to future ages amongst the friends and benefactors of mankind.

Those who are conversant in naval history need not be told at how dear a rate the advantages which have been sought through the medium of long voyages at sea have always been purchased. That dreadful disorder which is peculiar to this service, and whose ravages have marked the tracks of discoverers with circumstances almost too shocking to relate, must, without exercising an unwarrantable tyranny over the lives of our seamen, have proved an insuperable obstacle to the prosecution of such enterprizes. It was reserved for Captain Cook to show the world, by repeated trials, that voyages might be protracted to the unusual length of three or even four years, in unknown regions, and under every change and rigour of climate, not only without affecting the health, but even without diminishing the probability of life in the smallest degree. The method he pursued has been fully explained by himself in a paper which was read before the Royal Society, in the year 1776^[8]; and whatever improvements the experience of the present voyage has suggested, are mentioned in their proper places.

With respect to his professional abilities, I shall leave them to the judgment of those who are best acquainted with the nature of the services in which he was engaged. They will readily acknowledge, that to have conducted three expeditions of so much danger and difficulty, of so unusual a length, and in such a variety of situation, with uniform and invariable success, must have required not only a thorough and accurate knowledge of his business, but a powerful and comprehensive genius, fruitful in resources, and equally ready in the application of whatever the higher and inferior calls of the service required.

Having given the most faithful account I have been able to collect, both from my own observation, and the relations of others, of the death of my ever-honoured friend, and also of his character and services; I shall now leave his memory to the gratitude and admiration of posterity; accepting, with a melancholy satisfaction, the honour, which the loss of him hath procured me, of seeing my name joined with his; and of testifying that affection and respect for his memory, which, whilst he lived, it was no less my inclination, than my constant study, to show him.