Volume 5 — INTRODUCTION TO THE VOYAGE TO THE PACIFIC OCEAN. (continued 2)

“The direction and force of currents at sea make also an important object. These voyages will be found to contain much useful information on this head; as well relating to seas nearer home, and which, in consequence, are navigated every day, as to those which are more remote, but where, notwithstanding, the knowledge of these things may be of great service to those who are destined to navigate them hereafter. To this head also we may refer the great number of experiments which have been made for enquiring into the depth of the sea, its temperature, and saltness at different depths, and in a variety of places and climates.

“An extensive foundation has also been laid for improvements in magnetism, for discovering the cause and nature of the polarity of the needle, and a theory of its variations, by the number and variety of the observations and experiments which have been made, both on the variation and dip, in almost all parts of the world. Experiments also have been made, in consequence of the late voyages, on the effects of gravity, in different and very distant 65places, which may serve to increase our stock of natural knowledge. From the same source of information we have learned that the phænomenon, usually called the aurora borealis is not peculiar to high northern latitudes, but belongs equally to all cold climates, whether they be north or south.

“But perhaps no part of knowledge has been so great a gainer by the late voyages, as that of botany. We are told^[62] that, at least twelve hundred new plants have been added to the known system; and that very considerable additions have been made to every other branch of natural history, by the great skill and industry of Sir Joseph Banks, and the other gentlemen^[63] who have accompanied Captain Cook for that purpose.”

To our naval officers in general, or to their learned associates in the expeditions, all the foregoing improvements of knowledge may be traced; but there is one very singular improvement indeed, still behind, for which, as we are solely indebted to Captain Cook, let us state it in his own words: “Whatever may be the public judgment about other matters, it is with real satisfaction, and without claiming any merit but that of attention to my duty, that I can conclude this account with an observation, which facts enable me to make, that our having discovered the possibility of preserving health amongst a numerous ship’s company, for such a length of time, in such varieties of climate, and amidst such continued hardships and fatigues, will make this 66voyage remarkable, in the opinion of every benevolent person, when the disputes about a southern continent shall have ceased to engage the attention, and to divide the judgment of philosophers.”^[64]

5. But while our late voyages have opened so many channels to an increase of knowledge in the several articles already enumerated; while they have extended our acquaintance with the contents of the globe; while they have facilitated old tracks, and have opened new ones for commerce; while they have been the means of improving the skill of the navigator, and the science of the astronomer; while they have procured to us so valuable accessions in the several departments of natural history, and furnished such opportunities of teaching us how to preserve the healths and lives of seamen, let us not forget another very important object of study, for which they have afforded to the speculative philosopher ample materials: I mean the study of human nature in various situations, equally interesting as they are uncommon.

However remote or secluded from frequent intercourse with more polished nations the inhabitants of any parts of the world be, if history or our own observation should make it evident that they have been formerly visited, and that foreign manners and opinions, and languages, have been blended with their own, little use can be made of what is observed amongst such people, toward drawing a real picture of man in his natural uncultivated state. This seems to be the situation of the inhabitants of most of the islands that lie contiguous to the continent of Asia, and of whose manners and institutions the Europeans, who occasionally visit them, have frequently given us accounts. But the islands which our enterprising discoverers visited in the centre of the South Pacific Ocean, and are, indeed, the principal scenes of their 67operations, were untrodden ground. The inhabitants, as far as could be observed, were unmixed with any different tribe, by occasional intercourse, subsequent to their original settlement there; left entirely to their own powers for every art of life; and to their own remote traditions for every political or religious custom or institution; uninformed by science; unimproved by education; in short, a fit soil from whence a careful observer could collect facts for forming a judgment, how far unassisted human nature will be apt to degenerate; and in what respects it can ever be able to excel. Who could have thought, that the brutal ferocity of feeding upon human flesh, and the horrid superstition of offering human sacrifices, should be found to exist amongst the natives lately discovered in the Pacific Ocean, who, in other respects, appear to be no strangers to the fine feelings of humanity, to have arrived at a certain stage of social life, and to be habituated to subordination and government which tend so naturally to repress the ebullitions of wild passion, and expand the latent powers of the understanding?

Or, if we turn from this melancholy picture, which will suggest copious matter for philosophical speculation, can we without astonishment observe to what a degree of perfection the same tribe (and, indeed, we may here join, in some of those instances, the American tribes visited in the course of the present voyage) have carried their favourite amusements; the plaintive songs of their women; their dramatic entertainments; their dances; their Olympian games, as we may call them; the orations of their chiefs; the chants of their priests; the solemnity of their religious processions; their arts and manufactures; their ingenious contrivances to supply the want of proper materials, and of effective tools and machines; and the wonderful productions of their persevering labour under a complication of disadvantages; their cloth and their mats; their weapons; their fishing instruments; 68their ornaments; their utensils; which, in design and execution, may vie with whatever modern Europe, or classical antiquity can exhibit.

It is a favourite study with the scholar to trace the remains of Grecian or Roman workmanship: he turns over his Montfaucon with learned satisfaction; and he gazes with rapture on the noble collection of Sir William Hamilton. The amusement is rational and instructive. But will not his curiosity be more awakened, will he not find even more real matter for important reflection, by passing an hour in surveying the numerous specimens of the ingenuity our newly-discovered friends brought from the utmost recesses of the globe to enrich the British Museum, and the valuable repository of Sir Ashton Lever? If the curiosities of Sir Ashton’s Sandwich-room alone, were the only acquisition gained by our visits to the Pacific Ocean, who that has taste to admire, or even eyes to behold, could hesitate to pronounce, that Captain Cook had not sailed in vain? The expence of his three voyages did not perhaps far exceed that of digging out the buried contents of Herculaneum. And we may add, that the novelties of the Society or Sandwich islands, seem better calculated to engage the attention of the studious in our times than the antiquities, which exhibit proofs of Roman magnificence.

The grounds for making this remark cannot be better explained, than in the words of a very ingenious writer; “In an age (says Mr. Warton^[65]), advanced to the highest degree of refinement, that species of curiosity commences, which is busied in contemplating the progress of social life, in displaying the gradations of society, and in tracing the gradations from barbarism to civility. That these speculations should become the favourite topics of such a period is extremely natural. We look back on the savage condition of our ancestors 69with the triumph of superiority; and are pleased to mark the steps by which we have been raised from rudeness to elegance; and our reflections on this subject are accompanied with a conscious pride, arising, in a great measure, from a tacit comparison of the infinite disproportion between the feeble efforts of remote ages, and our present improvements in knowledge. In the mean time, the manners, monuments, customs, practices, and opinions of antiquity, by forming so strong a contrast with those of our own times, and by exhibiting human nature and human inventions in new lights, in unexpected appearances, and in various forms, are objects which forcibly strike a feeling imagination. Nor does this spectacle afford nothing more than a fruitless gratification to the fancy. It teaches us to set a just estimation on our own acquisitions, and encourages us to cherish that cultivation which is so closely connected with the existence and the exercise of every social virtue.” We need not here observe, that the manners, monuments, customs, practices, and opinions of the present inhabitants of the Pacific Ocean, or of the West side of North America, form the strongest contrast with those of our own time in enlightened Europe; and that a feeling imagination will probably be more struck with the narration of the ceremonies of a Naiche at Tongataboo, than of a Gothic tournament at London; with the contemplation of the colossuses of Easter Island, than of the mysterious remains of Stonehenge.

Many singularities respecting what may be called the natural history of the human species, in different climates, will, on the authority of our late navigators, open abundant sources for philosophical discussion. One question of this sort, in particular, which had formerly divided the opinions of the inquisitive, as to the existence, if not of “giants on the earth,” at least of a race (inhabiting a district bordering on the north side of the strait of Magalhaens), whose stature 70considerably exceeds that of the bulk of mankind, will no longer be doubted or disbelieved. And the ingenious objections of the sceptical author of Recherches sur les Américains^[66], will weigh nothing in the balance against the concurrent and accurate testimony of Byron, Wallis and Carteret.

Perhaps there cannot be a more interesting inquiry than to trace the migrations of the various families or tribes that have peopled the globe; and in no respect have our late voyages been more fertile in curious discoveries. It was known in general (and I shall use the words of Kæmpfer^[67]), that the Asiatic nation called Malayans, “in former times had by much the greatest trade in the Indies, and frequented with their merchant ships, not only all the coasts of Asia, but ventured even over to the coasts of Africa, particularly to the great island of Madagascar.^[68] The title which the king of the Malayans assumed to himself, of Lord of the Winds and Seas to the East and to the West, is an evident proof of this; but much more the Malayan language, which spread most all over the east, much after the same manner as formerly the Latin, and of late the French, did all over Europe.” Thus far, I say, was known. But that from Madagascar to the Marqueses and Easter Island, that is, nearly from the east side of Africa, till we approach towards the west side of America, a space including above half the circumference 71of the globe, the same tribe or nation, the Phœnicians, as we may call them, of the Oriental World, should have made their settlements, and founded colonies throughout almost every intermediate stage of this immense tract, in islands at amazing distances from the mother continent, and ignorant of each others’ existence; this is an historical fact, which could be but very imperfectly known before Captain Cook’s two first voyages discovered so many new inhabited spots of land lurking in the bosom of the South Pacific Ocean; and it is a fact which does not rest solely on similarity of customs and institutions, but has been established by the most satisfactory of all proofs, that drawn from affinity of language. Mr. Marsden, who seems to have considered this curious subject with much attention, says, that the links of the latitudinal chain remain yet to be traced.^[69] The discovery of the Sandwich islands in this last voyage has added some links to the chain. But Captain Cook had not an opportunity of carrying his researches into the more westerly parts of the North Pacific. The reader, therefore, of the following work will not, perhaps, think that the Editor was idly employed when he subjoined some notes, which contain abundant proof that the inhabitants of the Ladrones, or Marianne islands, and those of the 72Carolines, are to be traced to the same common source, with those of the islands visited by our ships. With the like view, of exhibiting a striking picture of the amazing extent of this oriental language, which marks, if not a common original, at least an intimate intercourse between the inhabitants of places so very remote from each other, he has inserted a comparative table of their numerals, upon a more enlarged plan than any that has hitherto been executed.^[70]

Our British discoverers have not only thrown a blaze of light on the migrations of the tribe which has so wonderfully spread itself throughout the islands in the Eastern Ocean; but they have also favoured us with much curious information concerning another of the families of the earth whose lot has fallen in less hospitable climates. We speak of the Esquimaux, hitherto only found seated on the coasts of Labradore and Hudson’s Bay, and who differ in several characteristic marks from the inland inhabitants of North America. That the Greenlanders and they agree in every circumstance of customs, and manners, and language, which are demonstrations of an original identity of nation, had been discovered about twenty years ago.^[71] Mr. Hearne, in 1772, traced this unhappy race farther back, toward that part of the globe from whence they had originally coasted along in their skin boats, having met with some of them at the mouth of the Coppermine River, in the latitude of 72°, and near five hundred leagues farther W. than Pickersgill’s 73most westerly station in Davis’s Strait. Their being the same tribe who now actually inhabit the islands and coasts on the west side of North America, opposite Kamtschatka, was a discovery, the completion of which was reserved for Captain Cook. The reader of the following work will find them at Norton Sound, and at Oonalashka, and Prince William’s Sound; that is, near 1500 leagues distant from their stations in Greenland, and on the Labradore coast. And lest similitude of manners should be thought to deceive us, a table exhibiting proofs of affinity of language, which was drawn up by Captain Cook, and is inserted in this work^[72], will remove every doubt from the mind of the most scrupulous inquirer after truth.

There are other doubts of a more important kind, which it may be hoped will now no longer perplex the ignorant, or furnish matter of cavil to the ill-intentioned. After the great discovery, or at least the full confirmation of the great discovery of the vicinity of the two continents of Asia and America, we trust that we shall not be any more ridiculed, for believing that the former could easily furnish its inhabitants to the latter. And thus, to all the various good purposes already enumerated, as answered by our late voyages, we may add this last, though not the least important, that they have done service to religion, by robbing infidelity of a favourite objection to the credibility of the Mosaic account of the peopling of the earth.^[73]

746. Hitherto we have considered our voyages as having benefited the discoverers. But it will be asked, have they conveyed, or are they likely ever to convey any benefit to the discovered? It would afford exquisite satisfaction to every benevolent mind to be instructed in facts which might enable us, without hesitation, to answer this question in the affirmative. And yet, perhaps, we may indulge the pleasing hope, that, even in this respect, our ships have not sailed in vain. Other discoveries of new countries have, in effect, been wars, or rather massacres; nations have been no sooner found out, than they have been extirpated; and the horrid cruelties of the conquerors of Mexico and Peru can never be remembered, without blushing for religion and human nature; but when the recesses of the globe are investigated, not to enlarge private dominion, but to promote general knowledge; when we visit new tribes of our fellow-creatures as friends, and wish only to learn that they exist, in order to bring them within the pale of the offices of humanity, and to relieve the wants of their imperfect state of society, by communicating to them our superior attainments; voyages of discovery, planned with such benevolent views by George the Third, and executed by Cook, have not, we trust, totally failed in this respect. Our repeated visits, and long continued intercourse with the natives of the Friendly, Society, and Sandwich Islands, cannot but have darted some rays of light on the infant minds of those poor people. The uncommon objects they have thus had opportunities of observing and admiring, will naturally tend to enlarge 75their stock of ideas, and to furnish new materials for the exercise of their reason. Comparing themselves with their visitors, they cannot but be struck with the deepest conviction of their own inferiority, and be impelled, by the strongest motives, to strive to emerge from it, and to rise nearer to a level with those children of the sun who deigned to look upon them, and left behind so many specimens of their generous and humane attention. The very introduction of our useful animals and vegetables, by adding fresh means of subsistence, will have added to their comforts of life and immediate enjoyments; and if this be the only benefit they are ever to receive, who will pronounce that much has not been gained? But may we not carry our wishes and our hopes still farther? Great Britain itself, when first visited by the Phœnicians, was inhabited by painted savages, not perhaps blessed with higher attainments than are possessed by the present natives of New Zealand; certainly less civilized than those of Tongataboo or Otaheite. Our having opened an intercourse with them is the first step toward their improvement. Who knows, but that our late voyages may be the means appointed by Providence, of spreading, in due time, the blessings of civilization, amongst the numerous tribes of the South Pacific Ocean; of abolishing their horrid repasts and their horrid rites; and of laying the foundation for future and more effectual plans, to prepare them for holding an honourable station amongst the nations of the earth? This, at least is certain that our having, as it were, brought them into existence by our extensive researches, will suggest to us fresh motives of devout gratitude to the Supreme Being, for having blessed us with advantages hitherto withheld from so great a proportion of the human race; and will operate powerfully to incite us to persevere in every feasible attempt, to be his instruments in rescuing millions of fellow-creatures from their present state of humiliation.

76The several topics which occurred, as suitable to this general Introduction, being now discussed, nothing remains but to state a few particulars, about which the reader of these volumes has a right to expect some information.

Captain Cook, knowing, before he sailed upon this last expedition, that it was expected from him to relate, as well as to execute, its operations, had taken care to prepare such a journal as might be made use of for publication. This journal, which exists in his own hand-writing, has been faithfully adhered to. It is not a bare extract from his log-books, but contains many remarks which it appears had not been inserted by him in the nautical register; and it is also enriched with considerable communications from Mr. Anderson, surgeon of the Resolution. The confessed abilities and great assiduity of Mr. Anderson, in observing every thing that related either to natural history, or to manners and language; and the desire which, it is well known, Captain Cook, on all occasions, showed to have the assistance of that gentleman, stamped a great value on his collections. That nothing, therefore, might be wanting to convey to the public the best possible account of the transactions of the voyage, his journal, by the order of Lord Sandwich, was also put into the hands of the editor, who was authorized and directed to avail himself of the information it might be found to contain, about matters imperfectly touched, or altogether omitted, in Captain Cook’s manuscript. This task has been executed in such a manner, that the reader will scarcely ever be at a loss to distinguish in what instances recourse has been had to Mr. Anderson. To preclude, if possible, any mistake, the copy of the first and second volumes, before it went to the printer, was submitted to Captain King; and after it had been read over and corrected by one so well qualified to point out any inaccuracies, the Earl of Sandwich had the goodness to give it a perusal. As to the third volume, 77nothing more need be said than that it was completely prepared for the press by Captain King himself. All that the editor of the work has to answer for, are the notes occasionally introduced in the course of the two volumes, contributed by Captain Cook; and this introduction, which was intended as a kind of epilogue to our voyages of discovery. He must be permitted, however, to say, that he considers himself as intitled to no inconsiderable share of candid indulgence from the public; having engaged in a very tedious and troublesome undertaking upon the most disinterested motives; his only reward being the satisfaction he feels, in having been able to do an essential service to the family of our great navigator, who had honoured him in the journal of this voyage, with the appellation of friend.

They who have repeatedly asked why this publication has been so long delayed, need only look at the volumes, and their attendant illustrations and ornaments, to be satisfied that it might, with at least equal reason, be wondered at, that it has not been delayed longer. The journal of Captain Cook, from the first moment that it came into the hands of the editor had been ready for the press; and Captain King had left with him his part of the narrative, so long ago as his departure for the West Indies, when he commanded the Resistance man-of-war. But much besides remained to be done. The charts, particularly the general one, were to be prepared by Mr. Roberts, who gives an account of his work in the note^[74]; the very numerous and elegant drawings 78of Mr. Webber were to be reduced by him to the proper size; artists were next to be found out who 79would undertake to engrave them; the prior engagements of those artists were to be fulfilled before they 80could begin; the labour and skill to be exerted in 81finishing many of them, rendered this a tedious operation; paper fit for printing them upon was to be procured from abroad; and after all these various and unavoidable difficulties were surmounted, much time was necessarily required for executing a numerous impression of the long list of plates, with so much care as might do justice both to Mr. Webber and to his several engravers. When all these circumstances are taken into consideration, we trust that we shall hear no more of the delay; and only be grateful to that munificent Patron of Science, who not only directed the history of the voyage to be published, but to be published with such a splendid train of ornaments, at the public expense, as will still add to the merit of having ordered the voyage itself to be undertaken.

And here it seems to be incumbent upon us to add, as another instance of munificent attention, that care has been taken to mark, in the most significant manner, the just sense entertained of the humane and liberal relief afforded to our ships in Kamtschatka. Colonel Behm, the commandant of that province, has not been rewarded merely by the pleasure which a benevolent mind feels in reflecting upon the blessings it confers; but has been thanked in a manner equally consistent with the dignity of his own sovereign and of ours, to whose subjects he extended protection. A magnificent piece of plate was presented to him with an inscription, worthy of a place in the same book where the history of his humanity to our countrymen is recorded, and which, while it does honour to our national gratitude, deserves also to be preserved as a monument of our national taste for elegant composition. It is as follows:

Viro egregio magno de Behm; qui, Imperatricis Augustissimæ Catherinæ auspiciis, summâque animi benignitate, sæva, quibus præerat, Kamtschatkæ littora, navibus nautisque Britannicis, hospita præbuit; eosque, in terminis, si qui essent Imperio Russico, frustrà explorandis, mala multa perpessos, iteratâ vice excepit, refecit, recreavit, & commeatû 82omni cumulatè auctos dimisit; Rei navalis Britannicæ Septemviri in aliquam benevolentiæ tam insignis memoriam, amicissimo, gratissimoque animo, suo, patriæque nomine, D.D.D.

MDCCLXXXI.

This public testimony of gratitude reminds the editor, that there are similar calls upon himself. He owes much to Captain King for his advice and direction, in a variety of instances, where Captain Cook’s Journal required explanation; for filling up several blanks with the proper longitude and latitude; of and for supplying deficiencies in the tables of astronomical observations.

Lieutenant Roberts was also frequently consulted, and was always found to be a ready and effectual assistant, when any nautical difficulties were to be cleared up.

But particular obligations are due to Mr. Wales, who besides the valuable communications which have been adopted in this Introduction, seconded most liberally the editor’s views of serving Mrs. Cook, by cheerfully taking upon himself the whole trouble of digesting, from the log-books, the tables of the route of the ships, which add so greatly to the intrinsic merit of this publication.

Mr. Wegg, besides sharing in the thanks so justly due to the committee of the Hudson’s Bay Company, for their unreserved communications, was particularly obliging to the editor, by giving him repeated opportunities of conversing with Governor Hearne, and Captain Christopher.

The honourable Mr. Daines Barrington had the goodness to interest himself, with his usual zeal for every work of public utility, in procuring some necessary information, and suggesting some valuable hints which were adopted.

It would be great injustice not to express our acknowledgments to Mr. Pennant, who, besides enriching 83the third volume with references to his Arctic Zoology, the publication of which will be an important accession to Natural History, also communicated some very authentic and satisfactory manuscript accounts of the Russian discoveries.

The vocabularies of the Friendly and Sandwich Islands, and of the natives of Nootka, had been furnished to Captain Cook, by his most useful associate in the voyage, Mr. Anderson; and a fourth, in which the language of the Esquimaux is compared with that of the Americans on the opposite side of the continent, had been prepared by the Captain himself. But the comparative Table of Numerals, which is marked No. 2 in the Appendix, was very obligingly drawn up, at the request of the editor, by Mr. Bryant, who, in his study, has followed Captain Cook, and, indeed, every traveller and historian, of every age, into every part of the globe. The public will consider this table as a very striking illustration of the wonderful migrations of a nation, about whom so much additional information has been gained by our voyages, and be ready to acknowledge it as a very useful communication.

One more communication remains to be not only acknowledged, but to be inserted at the close of this Introduction. The testimonies of learned contemporaries, in commendation of a deceased author, are frequently displayed in the front of his book. It is with the greatest propriety, therefore, that we prefix to this posthumous work of Captain Cook the testimony of one of his own profession, not more distinguished by the elevation of rank, than by the dignity of private virtues. As he wishes to remain concealed, perhaps this allusion, for which we intreat his indulgence, may have given too exact direction to the eyes of the public where to look for such a character. Let us, however, rest satisfied with the intrinsic merit of a composition, conveyed under the injunction of secrecy; and conclude our long preliminary 84dissertation with expressing a wish, or rather a well-grounded hope, that this volume may not be the only place where posterity can meet with a monumental inscription, commemorative of a man, in recounting and applauding whose services, the whole of enlightened Europe will equally concur with Great Britain.

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