Source 4

ENDEAVOUR: official copy of journal kept by Captain James Cook. Voyage of discovery, South Indian Ocean. 1768 May 27-1771 July 10. Catalogue ref: ADM 55/40.

Transcript

Having prepared the 2 posts with inscriptions [writing] upon them setting forth the ship’s name, month, & year, one of them was set up at the watering place on which was hoisted the Union [British] flag & for the morning I took the other over to the Island which is known by the name of Motuara & is the one that lies nearest to the sea, but before I attempted to set it up the post I went first to the Hippa [fortified village], having along with me Dr Munkhouse & Tupia [Tupaia], we here met with the old man I have before spoke of. The first thing I did was to enquire after the man said to be kill’d by our people & the one that was wounded at the same time, when it did not appear to me that any such accident had happened. I next by means of Tupia [Tupaia] captain’d to the old man & several others that we were come to set up a mark upon the island in order to shew to any ship that might put into this place that we had been here before, they not only gave me their full consent to set it up, but promised never to pull it down. I then gave to everyone presents of one thing or another to the old man I gave a silver thrupenny [threepence] piece dated 1763, and Spike Nails with the King’s Broad Arrow cut deep in them, things that I thought were most likely to remain long among them. After I had thus prepared the way for setting up the post we took it up to the highest part of the island & after fixing it fast in the ground hoisted thereon the Union Flag & I dignified this inlet with the name of Queen Charlotte’s Sound & took formal possession of it & the adjacent lands in the name of the Majesty.

Simplified transcript

Having prepared the two posts with the ship’s name, month, and year, one of the posts was set up at the watering place and on it we hoisted the Union [British] flag. In the morning I took the other post over to the island known by the name of Motuara, the one that lies nearest to the sea, but before I tried to set up the post I first went to the Hippa [fortified village] with Dr Munkhouse and Tupia [Tupaia].

 

We here met with the old man I have spoken of before. The first thing I did was to enquire after the man said to be killed by our people and the one that was wounded at the same time, when it did not appear to me that any such accident had happened. I next, through Tupia [Tupaia], told the old man and several others that we had come to set up a mark on the island to show to any ship that might come after us that we had been here before. They not only gave me their full consent to set it up, but promised never to pull it down. I then gave to everyone presents of one thing or another. To the old man I gave a silver threepence coin dated 1763, and spike nails with the King’s Broad Arrow carved into them, things that I thought were most likely to remain among them for a long time.

 

After I had prepared for setting up the post, we took it up to the highest part of the island and after fixing it fast in the ground we hoisted the Union Flag on it and I named this inlet Queen Charlotte’s Sound and took formal possession of it and the adjacent lands in the name of the Majesty.

 

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Source 4

  1. Why does Cook want to put up the marked posts with the Union [British] flag?
  2. Look again at the second-to-last paragraph of Source 2, then return to Source 4. Why does Cook give the local leader gifts? Why do you think he chooses gifts that will last a long time?
  3. What does Cook tell the local leader that he wants to do and the reason behind it? Do you think this is his real reason?