And now for something completely different. This is a book I purchased probably 20 or 30 years ago, intended to read, and now finally have. It was first published in 1966, while the edition I’ve got, with wonderful illustrations, was published in 1987.
When I was in high school, I was really into cars. In my late 20s, I got back into cars in a big way and that’s been my main hobby, BMWs in particular, ever since. But in between the two car phases, I was really into sailing. And when I get into something, I typically get fully committed. I had a sailboat, went cruising, crewed on a racing sailboat and read everything about sailing including the great age of sail, before the coming of steamships.
Via my sailing period, I developed a great respect for the Captain James Cook, perhaps the greatest navigator of the Age of Sail and the discoverer of much of the lands in and around the Pacific Ocean. I’m not into hero worship at all, but Cook has been one of my heroes. Cook is the biggest figure in this book by Alan Moorehead, but there are few if any heroes in this book. The subtitle sort of warns one of that: The Invasion of the South Pacific, 1767—1840. The author doesn’t approach this as the great age of European discovery, but rather a period of serial genocides.
There are three parts to the book, the first and longest dealing with Tahiti. Cook wasn’t the first European to visit Tahiti but he wasn’t far behind. The Tahitians lived simple, beautiful lives in paradise. Yes, they had the occasional tribal war, but reading the description of their culture, it sounds pretty wonderful. Would I trade the life I’ve lived in modern America for life in Tahiti prior to European influence? Hell, yes. Even Cook wrote that the Tahitians would be better off if the European sailors never came.
While Cook’s crews brought venereal and other diseases, the damage done by the sailors was relatively minor to what the missionaries would bring a few years later. In fact, the Tahitians loved Cook and his sailors, even crying when they left.
The English missionaries, from the strictest fundamentalist of Christian dominations, came to Tahiti with the stated goal of destroying the Tahitian culture. It took them 40 years, but they accomplished their mission.
Of course, the whole European approach was appalling looking at this from the 21st century. Any inhabited land not claimed by a European power was fair game; to be seized on behalf of a king or queen half a world away. The arrogance was astonishing.
The second part of the book deals with Australia, but also includes New Zealand. The Aborigines of Australia were completely different from the Tahitians. The Aborigines were pre-agriculture, lived in a very harsh environment and mostly ignored the Europeans. Cook’s crews had a hard time figuring out how to subsist in the dry, barren Australian wild lands and mostly treated the Aborigines as animals, right down to hunting them like game. The harshness of the place led to Australia becoming a penal colony, which just added to the charm.
By contrast, in New Zealand, Cook was faced with the Maoris, who were hostile, fierce and practiced cannibalism. Mostly, they gave the Maoris a wide berth. Maybe I’ve got some new heroes.
After claiming and subduing most of the people of the islands of the Pacific, what was left? Antarctica. Cook wanted to sail to the South Pole, which he finally proved was impossible. There were no people in Antarctica to subdue, but they did discover the richest fishery in the world.
News of Cook’s three voyages of discovery were widely publicized in Europe and America. As a result, the fishing and whaling ships of Europe and New England descended on the Southern Ocean and killed the seals, whales and fish by the millions. There was no concern of preserving the resource. The approach was simply to kill the creatures until they went extinct, or their numbers were too few to be profitably exploited. The final chapter of the book is fittingly called, The bloodstained ice.
During his third voyage, Cook died on the west coast of the Big Island in Hawaii, during an altercation with the natives. Despite his amazing seamanship and leadership qualities, he brought the killing on himself.
This may sound like a depressing read but it really isn’t. The book is well balanced, historically very interesting and provides the story that few Americans learn in school. I recommend the book, but you’re not going to come away from it proud of what your ancestors did. Unless you’re Maoris.
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