Forster'^s Account oj Cook'^s II Voyage. 19 



It is curious to note that in Fiji and elsewhere the name of the plant was iden- 

 tical with that of the manufactured articles, not uncommon among the Polynesians, 

 as in Tahiti the fig and the dj^e that its berry produced both bore the same name, 

 mafi ; vialo or masi were names in Fiji of the paper mulberry and the cloth made 

 from the mulberry' bark. 



The books begotten b}- Cook's vo\'ages were man^', although most of them 

 were soon forgotten, or became the spoils of the bibliophile. It was most unfortunate 

 that the attempts of the Admiralty to meddle with the publication of the results led to 

 much scandal, publication of unauthorized accounts and often untrue accounts of the 

 voyages. We have seen how the Journal of Sir Joseph Banks was made to furnish 

 Cook with interesting matter that great Navigator had neither time nor perhaps 

 knowledge to gather for himself, but as this was with the full consent of the natural- 

 ist, and was well iinderstood at the time, it matters little. On the second vo3'age in 

 the Resolution and Adventtire Dr. John Reinhold Forster and his son George were 

 the naturalists and it is onlj' necessary to read the introduction to the two portl}^ quarto 

 volumes in which the son narrates the genesis of this story of the vo3'age to see that 

 there were shadows on the conduct of the V03'age, and the arrangements for publish- 

 ing the official Account most regrettable.'' Because the elder Forster would not con- 

 fine his account narrowl}' to scientific matters, nor allow his journal to be absorbed as 

 that of Banks had been, the moiety of the ^^2000 or more which had been allotted to 

 him for illustration of his story, was turned wholly to Cook's account and the natural- 

 ist left to publish at his own expense, which the son did without the illustrations. 

 The previous year the senior had issued his account of the plants observed or col- 

 ledled,'^ and this, probabh' as bej'ond the governmental comprehension, was approved. 

 The treatment of scientific men b}^ the less educated persons in command of govern- 

 ment expeditions has long been a matter of history, and even in our own countr}' we 

 have not forgotten the treatment of James Dwight Dana b_v the commander of the first 

 American Exploring Expedition. This will perhaps account for much that we lose 

 from the stores of knowledge these men doubtless colle6led. I shall qiiote from this 

 Voyage of Forster: — (He is at Tahiti in August, 1773.) 



"We had not walked far, when we heard a loud noise in the wood, which 

 resembled the stroke of a carpenter's hammer. We followed the sound, and at last 

 came to a small shed, where five or six women were sitting on both sides of a long 

 square piece of timber, and beat the fibrous bark of the mulberry-tree here, in order 

 to manufacture it into cloth. The instrument they used for this purpose was a square 



"A Voyajje rounil the Worlil in Ilis I'.ribmnic Jlajesty's Sloop, RL-solulioii, coiniiiaiiiU il liy Ca]il. Jaiiic-s Cook, 

 .during the Years 1772, 3, 4 and 5. By George Forster, F.R.,S. London, 1777. 



"Characteres Generum Planlaruni <iuas in Insulis maris auslralis collej,;, &c. Joannes Reinoldus Forster, 

 L.Iv.D., and Gcorgius Forster. 4I0. Ijomlon, 1776. 



