imaginative pilfering was a mischievous game, and - unlike captains 

 of an earlier age ~ Cook understood their attitude. Where other men 

 would have hanged, shot, or flogged a captured culprit. Cook 

 applied psychology. He decreed that any Tahitian convicted of 

 theft would have his head shaved - thus becoming an object of 

 ridicule. Not that James Cook was a soft man. He could be a severe 

 disciplinarian. When two marines tried to desert before the ship 

 sailed, Cook had them flogged, realizing that if he turned a blind eye 

 to such behavior he might risk losing the entire crew. 



The long-awaited passage of Venus came at last and all the 

 necessary observations were made. On July 31, 1769, the Endeavour 

 set sail from Tahiti, carrying a local chief named Tupia to act as 

 pilot and interpreter. West of Tahiti Cook found and charted a new 

 group of islands, which he named the Society Islands in honor of 

 the Royal Society. Then he headed southward into unknown seas 

 in search of the Great Southern Continent. After reaching lat. 

 40° S., 1500 miles from Tahiti, without "the least visible signs of 

 land," he altered course to the west, sighting land October 7. 



Had he at last reached the great unknown continent? Cook 

 could not be sure ; the fact was that he had reached New Zealand, 

 which had first been touched by the Dutch navigator Abel Tasman 

 in 1642. Could this land be part of a larger land mass? Tasman had 

 failed to annex the territory for his home country and no other 

 Europeans had set foot on it since his time. It was generally assumed 

 that Tasman's discovery must form part of the Great Southern 

 Continent, so when the Endeavour reached the east coast, which 

 Tasman had never seen. Cook decided to explore northward along 

 the coast line and settle the problem for good. 



Northward sailed the Endeavour, slowly so that Cook could 

 chart the coast line. The ship sailed completely around North 

 Island until it came to the great opening between the two islands 

 that comprise New Zealand. Tasman had charted this opening as a 

 bay, but Cook proved it to be a strait — a strait that bears his name 

 to this day. By March 1770, the Endeavour had also circumnavigated 

 South Island. Cook now knew that New Zealand was not the land 

 he had been searching for. 



He had circumnavigated a coast line of some 7400 miles in a 

 little over six months, and the charts he made still remain a monu- 

 ment to his accuracy and powers of observation. A French explorer 

 who made his own chart of part of the coast line a year later said : 

 "I carefully compared [my] chart . . . with Captain Cook's. I found 

 it of an exactitude and thoroughness of detail that astonished me 

 beyond all power of expression. I doubt whether our own coasts of 

 France have been delineated with more precision." 



By now Cook had carried out the Admiralty's instructions to 

 the letter and could justifiably have made straight for England. 

 Not the man to overlook a chance for further discoveries. Cook 

 next seta course for Australia— New Holland, as it was then known— 

 on the chance that he could find a fair-weather route through to 

 the Indian Ocean. Dutch explorers had already made rough charts 

 of three sides of this vast island, and Tasman had also discovered 

 Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania). But it was not yet clear 

 whether Tasman's discovery formed part of Australia or was a 

 separate island. The east coast of Australia was quite unknown, 

 and it was thought that New Guinea and Australia were joined. 



While collecting botanical specimens for 

 Joseph Banks in Australia, Cook and his 

 men had their first view of a kangaroo. They 

 shot one that weighed eighty-four pounds, 

 prepared it for dinner, but were disappointed 

 with the flavor of the meat. 



39 



