Celebrated Travels and Travellers Vol 2 First part chapter IV - Captain Cook’s second voyage part 1b

Jules Verne (0:01)

Section 16 of Celebrated Travels and Travellers, Volume 2

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Celebrated Travels and Travellers, Volume 2 Great Navigators of the Eighteenth Century, by Jules Verne. First part, Chapter 4, Part 1, CAPTAIN COOK'S SECOND VOYAGE, 1B When Cook had completed the hydrographical survey of Dusky Bay, he started for Queen Charlotte Sound, the rendezvous assigned to Captain Furnow.

On the seventeenth of May, the crew witnessed a magnificent spectacle. Six waterspouts, one of them sixty feet wide at its base, were visible a hundred feet from the ship in succession, drawing the clouds and sea into communication by their powerful suction. This phenomenon lasted three quarters of an hour, and the first feeling of fear which had awakened in the breasts of the crew was soon merged into one of admiration. The greater, as at this time, such marvels were little known. Next day, just as the resolution entered Queen Charlotte Sound, the adventure was seen, and proved to have been waiting for six weeks. Fernot, after reaching Van Diemen's land on the 1st of March, had coasted it for 17 days, but he was forced to desist before ascertaining whether it was, as he supposed, a part of New Holland. The refutation of this error was reserved for the surgeon Bass. On the 9th of April, after reaching Queen Charlotte Sound, the captain of the adventure had profited by his leisure to lay out a garden and to open relations with the natives, who had furnished him with irresistible proofs of their cannibalism.

Before he continued his voyage of discovery, Cook followed the same line of conduct as at Dusky Bay. He landed a ram and a sheep, a goat and a she-goat, a pig and a sow. He also planted potatoes, which only existed upon the more southerly of the two islands which formed New Zealand. The natives resembled those of Dusky Bay, but they appeared more thoughtless, ran from room to room during supper, and devoured everything that was offered to them. It was impossible to induce them to taste wine or brandy, but they were very partial to sugar and water. Cook says, They laid hands on all they saw, but they gave up anything so soon as we made them understand by signs that we could not or would not give it to them. They particularly admired glass bottles, which they called taha, but when the durability and use of iron was explained to them, they preferred it to glassware, ribbons, or white paper.

Amongst them were several women, whose lips were covered with little holes painted a bluish-black, whilst vivid red formed of chalk and oil covered their cheeks. Like the natives of Dusky Bay, they had small legs and bodies, but thick knees, which proves that they take little exercise and sit cross-legged. The almost perpetual squatting in their pierogues no doubt also adds to these peculiarities. The colour of their skin is clear brown, their hair is very black, their faces are round, their nose and lips are somewhat thick but not flat, their eyes are black and bright enough and tolerably expressive.

Placed in a row, the natives took off their outer garments and one of them sang a rough sort of song, the others accompanying him with gestures. They stretched out their hands and alternately struck their feet against the ground with frantic contortions. The last words they repeated in chorus and we easily distinguished a sort of meter, but I am not sure that there was any rhyme. The music was wild and monotonous. Some of the New Zealanders begged for news of Tupia and when they heard of his death they expressed their grief by a kind of lamentation, plainly artificial.

Cook did not recognize the single native whom he had met on his first voyage. He naturally concluded that the natives, who in 1770 inhabited the sand, had been chased out or had gone elsewhere of their free will.

The number of inhabitants, too, was reduced by a third. The paw was deserted, as well as the number of cabins along the coast. The two ships being ready to return to sea, Cook gave instructions to Captain Fernot. He wished to advance southward between 41 degrees to 46 degrees south latitude up to 140 degrees west longitude, and if he found no land, to steer towards Tahiti, which was appointed as the place of rendezvous. He then proposed to return to New Zealand and survey all the unknown parts of the sea between that island and Cape Horn. Towards the end of July, after a few days' hot weather, Scurvy again broke out on board the adventure. The resolution escaped the scourge, owing to the precautions from which Cook had never departed for a single day, and the example which he himself set of constantly eating celery and scurvy grass. On the 1st of July, the two vessels were in south latitude 25 degrees 1 minute and 134 degrees 6 minutes was longitude, the situation which Carteret attributed to Pitcairn Island.