Cook, James, 1728-1779.

A voyage towards the South Pole and round the world. : Performed in His Majesty's ships the Resolution and Adventure, in the years 1772, 1773, 1774, and 1775 / written by James Cook ... In which is included, Captain Furneaux's narrative of his proceedings in the adventure during the separation of the ships. 4th ed. (London : printed for W. Strahan; and T. Cadell, 1784) 2 v.

Cook’s orders for his second voyage were to sail further south in order to investigate the existence of the southern continent. He sailed on 13th July 1772 with two ships, the Resolution and the Adventure. After rounding the Cape of Good Hope he steered southwards, becoming the first person to cross the Antarctic Circle. He sailed to New Zealand, then to Tahiti, the Society Islands and Tonga. On his return voyage he sailed south again, crossed the Antarctic Circle for the second time but returned northwards to Tahiti, Easter Island, the New Hebrides and New Caledonia. He returned home on 29th July 1775.

The accounts of the sailors’ experiences in the islands of the South Seas created great interest in Europe, and according to popular belief, the Pacific was a paradise made more attractive by the easy morals of the native women. Cook tried to correct this view, writing,

Great injustice has been done the women of Otaheite, and the Society Isles, by those who have represented them, without exception, as ready to grant the last favour to any man who will come up to their price. But this is by no means the case; the favours of married women, and also the unmarried of the better sort, are as difficult to be obtained here as in any other country whatever. Neither can the charge be understood indiscriminately of the unmarried of the lower class, for many of these admit of no such familiarities. That there are prostitutes here, as well as in other countries, is very true, perhaps more in proportion, and such were those who came on board the ships to our people, and frequented the post we had on shore. By seeing these mix indiscriminately with those of a different turn, even of the first rank, one is, at first, inclined to think that the only difference is in the price. But the truth is, the woman who becomes a prostitute, does not seem, in their opinion, to have committed a crime of so deep a dye as to exclude her from the general esteem and society of the community in general. On the whole, a stranger who visits England might, with equal justice, draw the characters of the women there, from those which he might meet with on board the ships in one of the naval ports, or in the purlieus of Covent-Garden and Drury-Lane. I must, however, allow, that they are all completely versed in the art of coquetry, and that very few of them fix any bounds to their conversation. It is therefore no wonder that they have obtained the character of libertines. (p. v. 1, 187-188)

Cook found that many of the natives welcomed him and his men, but on some occasions when he went ashore for food and water the locals were belligerent. The illustration shows one such incident at Tanna in the New Hebrides. Even firing the ships guns and the muskets seemed to have little effect,

In short every thing conspired to make us believe they meant to attack us as soon as we should be on shore; the consequence of which was easily supposed; many of them must have been killed and wounded, and we should hardly have escaped unhurt; two things I equally wished to prevent. Since therefore, they would not give us the room required, I thought it was better to frighten them into it, than to oblige them by the deadly effect of our fire-arms. I accordingly ordered a musquet to be fired over the party on our right, which was by far the strongest body; but the alarm it gave them was momentary. In an instant they recovered themselves, and began to display their weapons. One fellow shewed us his backside, in a manner which plainly conveyed his meaning. (v. 2, p. 55)

Eventually, by giving gifts, Cook was able to land and re-provision. It was in this type of confrontation that Cook was eventually to meet his death in Hawaii.

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