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Savage Island
(Niue)
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Not all the peoples of the islands visited
by Cook were friendly and when his ship approached Niue the
local people would not let his crew ashore. Cook wrote:
“The Conduct and aspect of these Islanders occasioned
my giving it the Name of Savage Island, it lies in the Latitude
of 19 degrees 1’ Longitude 169 degrees 37’ West,
is about 11 Leagues in circuit, of a tolerable height and
seemingly covered with wood amongst which were some Cocoa-nutt
trees”
(Cook, Journals II, 435, 22 June 1774.)
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Mallicolo (Malekula)
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En route for New Zealand, Cook sailed west
and explored the islands which he called the New Hebrides,
now known as Vanuatu, arriving on 17 July 1774. The people
were Melanesian, not Polynesian, and spoke different languages
and had different customs. Cook recorded:
“The Men go naked, it can hardly be said they cover
their Natural parts, the Testicles are quite exposed, but
they wrap a piece of cloth or leafe round the yard (nautical
slang for the penis) which they tye up to the belly to a cord
or bandage which they wear round the waist just under the
Short ribs and over the belly and so tight that it was a wonder
to us how they could endure it.”
(Cook, Journals II, 464, 23 July 1774)
Cook sailed past or visited nearly all the islands in the
group, including landfalls at Malekula, Tanna and Erromango.
He later moved on to New Caledonia.
![The Landing at Erramanga [Erromango]](images/erramanga.jpg) |
The Landing
at Erramanga [Erromango]
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Cook’s reception by the New Hebrideans
was generally hostile. At Erromango during the landing on
4th August 1774 the marines had to open fire when the natives
tried to seize the boat and started to fire missiles. Cook
wrote:
“…I was very loath to fire upon such a Multitude
and resolved to make the chief a lone fall a Victim to his
own treachery…happy for many of these poor people not
half our Musquets would go of otherwise many more must have
fallen.”
(Cook, Journals II, 479, 4th August 1774)
Some of Cook’s crew were slightly injured but several
natives were wounded and their leader killed. Back on the
ship Cook had a gun fired to frighten off the islanders and
decided to depart.
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Christmas Sound,
Tierra del Fuego
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Cook left New Zealand to return to Britain
via the Southern Ocean in November 1774 and arrived in Tierra
del Fuego, South America, in December. Cook took on stores
and spent the holiday in what he called Christmas Sound. He
described the area:
“except those little tufts of shrubbery, the whole
country was a barren Tack (or Rock) doomed by Nature to everlasting
sterility”.
(Cook, Ms Journal PRO Adm 55/108)
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Isle of Georgia
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Cook left South America in early January
1775 and set off across the southern Atlantic for Cape Town,
South Africa. On the way he tried to confirm the location
of a number of islands charted by Alexander Dalrymple on an
earlier voyage. On 17 January 1775 Cook arrived at the cold,
bleak, glaciated island he called South Georgia and spent
3 days charting it before sailing on.
Cook headed east and in late January came across the South
Sandwich Islands that he again charted and then sailed on
to Cape Town, arriving in late March 1775. He then headed
across the Atlantic via St. Helena and Ascension Island (May),
the Azores (July) and landed at Portsmouth on 30th July 1775.
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York Courant,
19th September 1775
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On his return Cook became a national hero.
He was presented to the King, made a member of the Royal Society
and received its Copley Medal for achievement. Cook was promoted
to post-captain of Greenwich Hospital and wrote up his account
of the voyage. This did not mean retirement for Cook who went
on his third and final voyage the following year.
The second voyage was one of the greatest journeys of all
time. During the three years the ships’ crews had remained
healthy and only four of the Resolution’s crew had died.
Cook disproved the idea of the Great Southern Continent; had
become the first recorded explorer to cross the Antarctic
Circle; and had charted many Pacific islands for the first
time.
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