"no trouble either to oblige or persuade them to drink it, knowing there was no danger of scurvy so long as we had plenty of other vegetables, but that I might not be disappointed in my views, I gave orders that no grog should be served in either ship." He then goes on to say: "Every innovation whatever, tho' ever so much to their advantage, is sure to meet with the highest disapprobation from seaman. Portable soup and sour kraut were at first both condemned by them as stuff not fit for human beings to eat. Few men have introduced into their ships more novelties in the way of victuals and drink than I have done; indeed, few men have had the same opportunity or been driven to the same necessity. It has, however, in a great measure been owing to such little innovations that I have always kept my people, generally speaking, free from that dreadful distemper, the Scurvy."
This extract shows how bitterly Cook felt the stupid ingratitude of his men for the constant care he took of them, and is one of the very few passages in his Journals in which he speaks in their disfavour. This, curiously, was erased by some unknown hand; King asserts it must have been done by Gore, as he is certain it was not by either Cook or Clerke, who took command after Cook's death.
FAULTY SAILS.
In trying to weather the south-east end of Mowee in heavy weather, the leach ropes of the main topsail and two topgallant sails gave way, and the sails were blown to pieces. Cook says, "neither the cordage, canvas, nor indeed hardly any other stores used in the Navy, are equal in quality to those in general use in the merchant service"; and he relates how such failures have constantly resulted in "infinite trouble, vexation, and loss." He illustrates his complaint by the fact that rigging, blocks, and sails that were purchased with his ship, although they had been fourteen months in use, wore longer than any of the things of the same kind put on board new from the king's stores.
On 24th December they succeeded in getting to windward of the island, but the signal to the Discovery to tack having been omitted she stood on, and it was some days before she rejoined company. January 1779 was ushered in with heavy rain, but clearing away before noon they were able to approach to about five miles from the shore, where they lay to and traded with the natives. The next three days were spent working slowly down the coast and keeping a good look-out for their consort, occasionally stopping to do a little trading with the islanders, some of whom came as much as fifteen miles out to them. The chief article of commerce was salt, which was of very good quality. On the 5th January the southern point of Owhyhee was rounded, and they lay off a large village, where they were quickly surrounded by canoes laden "with hogs and women": the latter are not held up as patterns of all the virtues. Vegetables seemed to be scarce, and Cook concluded that either the land could not produce them, or the crops had been destroyed by volcanic action, very recent traces of which were to be seen.
"Wednesday 6th January 1779. The next morning the people visited us again, bringing with them the same articles as before. Being near the shore I sent Mr. Bligh, the Master, in a boat to sound the coast, with orders to land and look for fresh water. On his return he reported that at two cable lengths from the shore he had no soundings with a 160 fathoms of line; that when he landed he found no fresh water, but rain water lying in holes in the rocks, and that brackish with the spray of the sea, and that the surface of the country was wholly composed of large slags and ashes, here and there partly covered with plants. Between 10 and 11 o'clock we saw the Discovery coming round the south point of the Island and at 1 P.M. she joined us, when Captain Clerke came on board and informed me that he had cruised four or five days where we were separated and then plyed round the last part of the Island, but meeting with unfavourable winds, was carried some distance from the coast. He had one of the islanders on board all the time; it was his own choice, nor did not leave them the first opportunity that offered."
This is the last entry made by Cook in the Journal he was preparing for publication, and is a fair sample of the manner in which the entire Journal was written, and certainly does not justify the sneers that have been uttered about bad grammar and spelling, the double negative notwithstanding. In handwriting, spelling, and grammar he can compare well with his press either in the Navy or civil life; and many of the examples of bad spelling given have been abbreviations common in the Navy, which his critics did not understand.
KARAKAKOA BAY.
On 17th January they anchored in Karakakoa Bay, where large numbers of canoes laden with provisions for sale came out; Cook estimates that at one time there were no less than a thousand round the ship, their occupants entirely unarmed. They soon proved to be adepts at thieving; one man stole the rudder of a boat, so Cook ordered a shot or two to be fired over the escaping thief, but "as it was not intended that any of the shot should take effect, the Indians seemed rather more surprised than frightened," and the man got away. The lids of the Resolution's coppers were stolen, and the discovery had her rigging much cut about for the sake of the iron. The decks were so crowded with the natives that Burney says it kept a quarter of the crew hard at work to make room for the working of the ship.