Captain Cook

HIS JOURNEY AND

THE CONTACT WITH INDIGENOUS CULTURES (NOT NECESSARILY WITH
CAPTAIN COOK)
 The HMS Endeavour
Background knowledge
32 meters long
Carried more than 90 crew and passengers (who do you think these other passengers were?)
Tones of supplies (oatmeal, vinegar, beer, rum, sauerkraut, pickled beef and pork, orange and
lemon syrup, and plenty of water, sheep, pigs, chickens, a goat, a cat)
Important personal:
Joseph Banks (botanist)
2 artists (their job was to draw the people,
landscapes and animals they saw)
 Leaving England
His Majestys Bark Endeavour left England on the 26th of August, 1768.
Rio Dejaneiro
13th November 1768
 First stop
Tahiti
Astronomical measurements were taken
The natives were very friendly, observed their pagan
Customs.
This was where Cook opened the secret letter with the
actual reason for the voyage. He was told to travel
Southward to find a continent that Captain Wallis suggested
might be there.

Then they went south

 Land spotted
New Zealand
They spent 6 months exploring the coast
Discovered the island was made of two islands
He noted that these people were known for
cannibalism. They were strong, native people,
clothing woven from plants and decorated
with feathers.
Left on the last day of March 1770
 Australias Indigenous population
The following is not actual confirmed facts
but believed facts of what has happened.

Australia has been inhabited by people

for between 50-70 thousand years

Descended from Asia many thousands of years ago.

In 1788 there were more than 500 tribal

nations of Indigenous people
 Indigenous groups near Botany Bay
Bidjigal, Gweagal, Kameygal

These groups were hunter-gatherer groups which lived off of harvesting the land. These groups had
developed in isolation from the rest of Australia and did not know about anything beyond their land area.

Think about how this isolation may impact on how they see white people.
 First realized they were not alone
The indigenous groups first realized they were not along on the morning of April 29th, 1770 when they saw
the ships come in between the headlands.
Captain Cook originally named Botany Bay Stingray Harbour but changed it later to Botany Bay due to the
variety of plants and flowers discovered on the land.
Think about what these indigenous people must be thinking and feeling, what realistic ideas could have
crossed their minds? Remember their only transport on the seas were canoes.

To the Indigenous people they appeared ghost like because of the colour of their skin.
It was unusual to see people wearing clothing, running back and forth and the ships, pulling down the sails
and shouting at one another.

The ships anchored on the south side, the side of the Gweagal tribe.
Contact between cook and the tribes
Captain cook and his colleagues manned a small boat on to land and this made the
Gweagals very unhappy.
The elder and another man from the tribe approached the Europeans making it clear
they were not wanted there by throwing spears at them. The Europeans fired back by
shooting muskets above their heads but one hit the elder and the Gweagal men
retreated to huts near the shore.
They returned with reinforcements to throw more spears at the intruders but then
retreated further inland.

What are the two different groups thinking and feeling?

Did they approach the situation in the best possible way?
Why did the Gweagal tribe start the disagreement by throwing spears? Think about
traditions rather than answering a comprehension question.
More contact with the Indigenous
Cook only stayed a week at this first location before sailing north
(please note: this is slightly different depending on the resource.
Some sources say he only stayed one day before traveling north
because Cook hated it there so much).
He came across the Great Barrier Reef, which damaged his ship and
they had to start throwing supplies off the ship in order to get the
ship to land before it sunk.
He made it to the area now known as Cooktown, Queensland. This is
where the tribe known as Guugu Yumidhr spotted them and
wondered what this damaged ship was doing. Again they were
concerned of the Europeans coming on land with large amounts of
supplies because they didnt want them there but they did not start
an argument.
Europeans and the Guugu Yumidhr
The Europeans and the local inhabitants lived in peace for two months before the novelty
started to wear off.
The Europeans did not see any good in the Aboriginal society. On the 8th of August the ship was
repaired and sailed off.

What do you think about this comment made by Europeans? Is this a good way of looking at
another persons culture? Should we judge or accept other peoples views and ways of living? How
do you think this has shaped the way they treated Indigenous cultural groups after the initial
discovery?
Cook returns to England
12th June 1771
 Cooks second voyage
13th July 1772, leaves England
17th January 1773, crosses Antarctic circle
21st December 1773, crosses Antarctic circle for a second time
26th January 1774, crosses Antarctic circle for a third time

30th July 1775, Cook returns home

 Cooks third voyage
12th July 1776 Cook leaves England
Visits the cost of Van Diemens Land in January 1771, where a group of Aborigines visited his camp.
This is what Cook wrote:
They approached us from the woods without betraying any mark of fear, or rather with
the greatest confidence imaginable; for none of them had any weapons, except one,
who held in his hand a stick almost two feet long, and pointed at one end. They were
quite naked, and wore no ornaments. They were of the common stature, but rather
slender. They skin was black, and also their hair, which was as woolly as that of any
native of Guinea their features were far from being disagreeable Most of them had
their hair and beads smeared with a red ointment, and some had their faces also
painted.
 Cooks third voyage
1777 visits New Zealand, Tonga, Tahiti, and Christmas Island
18th January 1778 Discover's the Sandwich Islands, now called the Hawaiian Islands.
8th August 1778 Cook sails into the Bering Straits but foiled by ice, returns due south to Hawaii where he
arrives in January 1779 to prepare for another attempt at the North West Passage the next season.
4th February 1779 Cook leaves Kealakekua Bay but is forced to return because of a damaged foremast of
'Resolution.
14th February The theft of a ship's cutter leads Captain Cook to put ashore to demand the return of the
boat. The shore party is suddenly attacked by armed warriors and Cook is clubbed and stabbed to
death. Two Royal Marines are also killed. After negotiations with the Hawaiians, Captain Clerke, now in
command, is able to have parts of Cook's body returned. All have been scraped clean of flesh and
burned in a fire, except some flesh from Cook's thigh, the scalp, and the hands. The hands are preserved
with salt, and there are enough identifying marks that they are able to determine that it is Cook's body.
The remains are put into a coffin, and with great ceremony are buried at sea in Kealakekua Bay on 21
February.
Discussion on the impact to indigenous
peoples lives

The following slides discuss the impact of Europeans on the

Indigenous communities local to Botany Bay but can be
generalized to all cultural groups in terms of the feelings
towards the unknown visitors and the health degradation of
the Indigenous people.

Not related to Captain Cook and his time in Australia.

 European law overruling Indigenous
culture
According the European law at the time (in the 1700s), Australia was deemed empty or without
inhabitants because of a lack of defined territories and because the Indigenous peoples did not appear to
work the land.
This then meant that they could colonize Australia without the need to negotiate with organized local
inhabitants.

Is this a fair assessment of Australias first people? What

do you know about Indigenous cultural groups and the
way the chose to live that would suggest the Europeans
were wrong?
Colonizing Australia
England sent the First Fleet (carried convicts from their overcrowded
prisons) to colonize Australia and it arrived on the 18th of January 1788.
It carried 290 marines, women and children; 717 convicts; and supplies
of pork and rum, equipment and livestock
The HMS Supply was the first to arrive at Botany Bay, followed by three
more the next days.
The Indigenous groups did not know what to do, they shook their
weapons and shouted at the ships. The captain of the first ship (Captain
Phillip) did not want conflict and went ashore to try and resolve the
situation before it escalated. He went on to the north side of the shore
to the Kameygal people.
Both sides were fascinated by their different traditions (weapons,
clothing) and it seemed that they were able to put aside their
differences. However, when the convicts came ashore and started
clearing trees, they were not happy.
Why do you think the group was not happy? What rules and customs do
they have with the land that might make them feel upset and worried
about the situation?
Colonizing Australia continued
The land at Botany Bay was not suitable for farming and, so the first fleet
packed up back aboard the ships. Instead they sailed up to Port Jackson and
created a colony there as there was a freshwater creek near by.

Upon coming up to Port Jackson, the Europeans could see the smoke rising
from the bush which showed there was a local Indigenous group (Cadigal)
living near by. The Indigenous people came out and watched the Europeans
come to shore thinking that they would only stay a short while as Cook had.
They watched as they raised a cloth on a pole (the flag) and saluted it.
As convicts began chopping down trees again in this new place, the local
Indigenous group became worried that they were not leaving soon and they
ceased contact with the Europeans returning to their own camps.

What was this saluting a cloth (flag) event?

Again they retreated when trees were cut down, what do you think the
Indigenous people are thinking when this happens as they must be linking the
action with something in their own traditions.
Conflict between the Europeans and the
Eora
The British really did think they were helping the savage people who inhabited Australia but
found it hard in the beginning to survive in Australia on limited rations. They noticed the good
health and nourishment of the Eora people but did nothing to change their lifestyle to match
that of Australias first inhabitants.

In 1788, Phillip became frustrated and was ordered to establish communication with the
Indigenous people. On the last day of 1788 the Europeans noticed a group of Cameraygal men
on the shore and made friendly gestures at them. When close enough they grabbed two of the
men but one fought free and escaped.

Why were the Indigenous people called savages?

Conflict between the Europeans and the
Eora continued
The man they kept hold of was called Arabanoo, and although his tribe
tried to fight to get him back by throwing spears the Europeans
managed to secure him and took him back to Phillip. The intention was
to teach him the English language to bridge the communication between
the cultures but they kept him locked up in chains.

Arabanoo eventually resigned to the fact that he was with the

Europeans and was bathed, given haircuts, clothes and invited to the
Governors house (Phillip). Little headway was made between bridging
the communication.
In May 1789, he got smallpox and died.

What do you think it did to Arabanoo and the other Indigenous people
who saw him, to be locked up in chains in a cage like at the zoo?
More kidnapping
In November, 1789 Bennelong and Colbee were kidnapped
and taken to the Governors house. Colbee escaped but
Bennelong stayed and adapted to European ways of living
without the difficulty faced by Arabanoo.
Bennelong did escape 6 months later but found it difficult to
go back to living his traditional life and returned to Phillip.

Why did Bennelong find this difficult?

How do you think his people and the people in the other two
tribes approached Bennelong?
Peace did not last long
In 1790, when resistance fighter Pemulwuy speared a frontier man for
killing blacks, Phillip retaliated by ordering his staff to kill ten natives and
capture two in order to scare the locals into conforming. Fifty soldiers and
two surgeons headed into the bush where their inept bush skills gave
early warning of their presence, and not a single Aboriginal person was
captured.

Pemulwuy: was a courageous resistance fighter who led a guerrilla war

against the British settlement at Sydney Cove from 1788 through to 1802
Indigenous tribes working together
Aboriginal people soon became drawn to Sydney from areas as far afield as the Five Islands area
near Port Kembla. They came partly to aid their brothers and sisters in their fight against
invaders and to protect their rights to land and partly because of the attractions of the
settlement. Arranged marriages also brought Aboriginal people from other areas to Sydney. The
cultural connections between people of different language groups has been maintained but it is
not often experienced publicly and remains hidden or invisible within the dominant culture of
the Sydney area
 A change
Governor Arthur Phillip left the colony in 1792, and was followed by Governor John Hunter.

The impact of colonization led to a change in the health and well-being of Aboriginal people in
much the same way as to any group who have been forcibly removed from their land and
traditional lifestyle. These impacts remain evident in urban Koori society and culture today.
 Bibliography
Essay: First Contact Written by Anita Heiss, can be accessed at
http://www.sydneybarani.com.au/sites/first-contact/

Captain Cook Timeline

http://www.captaincook.org.uk/timeline.php

Strangers In the Land by Joseph Harding (in the classroom on the window)

The Australian History Collection by Geoff Hocking

Australia and illustrated history by A.K. Macdougall