Extract from The Death of James Cook, 1789. The National Library of Australia.
This play was performed in Covent Garden just ten years after Cook’s death, and was an English version of a 1788 French pantomime by Jean-François Arnould-Mussot. It became very popular in London and toured throughout Britain.
The play focuses on a young Hawaiian couple, Pareea and Emai, and the Hawaiian villain Koah. Captain Cook intervenes against Koah on behalf of the couple and then protects King Kalaniʻōpuʻu from Koah and his warriors. Cook is killed by Koah and is mourned by everyone on the island.
You can read the script in its entirely on the National Library of Australia’s website.
Transcript
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A ship then appears with English Colours. Captain Cook (in uniform) on the forecastle with a spying-glass, with which he seems discovering the country. He then takes a white flag in his hand, which he waves repeatedly towards the shore.
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Captain Cook appears: incensed at the violence offered to Emai, he orders Koah to release her, who refuses to obey, and threatens to stab her instantly; but the Captain seizes his arm, and lays hold of Emai. Koah, in a rage, attacks the Captain with his axe; the Captain makes Emai quickly pass his left fide, draws his sword, parries off the strokes of his adversary, and disarms him, who falls at the Captain’s feet.
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An Islander hastily enters, to announce to the King, that Koah, at the head of a considerable party, were advancing to attack him. The Captain tells the King he has nothing to fear, and that he will protect him from his enemies. ... The King orders his warriors to prepare for battle, and follows.
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… Koah, at this moment, treacherously steals behind the Captain, and with the poinard [knife] (he wrested from the king’s hand in the preceding encounter) stabs him in the back, and flies. The Captain (though mortally wounded) fires his pistol at Koah and kills him, then reels and falls against a tree. One of Koah’s party takes advantage of this situation, and stabs him in the side, and this is repeated by each warrior with a savage eagerness, snatching the dagger from each other and shouting and exulting in his fall.
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- How do each of these sources compare to the eyewitness accounts that you read? What are the differences, and what are the similarities?
- How do you think Europeans who saw these depictions might have viewed Captain Cook? How might they have remembered him?
- Look at the newer depictions of Cook listed below – how do they differ from the depictions you have looked at so far? How do they affect Cook’s legacy?
- Captain James Crook (2013) by Jason Wing
- James Cook – with the Declaration(2014) by Vincent Namatjira
- Cook’s Folly (2017) by Lisa Reihana. This is a still image from a longer video work, in Pursuit of Venus [infected] (2015-17). You can read a description of the scene in which Cook dies here (Track 4, ‘Disruption’).