Tom's Challenge #2 results

The results are in. First of all, I want to thank so many of you for participating or at very least, heckling the Challenge. We got responses from around the globe this time and so the Challenge circle grew a new ring. I visited lots of blogs and actually invited people who I thought might be interested and this led to our all out winner: A man I had run across a few times in the blogoshpere who seemed to have good things to say. I went to his blog and in his profile saw that he was a marine science professional with many similar interests and thought he might enjoy a crack at the Challenge. As it turned out, he was almost too good of a match for the subject as he was not only an ocean science researcher but had spent time in New Zealand and knew exactly who wrote the entry, of whom it was about and when it was written. With that introduction, here are the correct answers and winners:

Correct answers (cut and pasted from O Ceallaigh’s e-mail):

1. Commander (later Captain) James Cook
2. New Zealand Maori (I am unable to discover which iwi [tribe], if in fact it was recorded)
3. 1773, during the second voyage to New Zealand.

1st place honors go to O Ceallaigh
2nd Place goes to Brooke, who got Capt. Cook, wasn’t too close on who the people were (suggested native Americans), but did get very close on the year (she put 1775)
3rd place goes to Bazza who got Capt. Cook, Australia/New Zealand but had a date of 1778 (both got 2 out of 3 but Brooke’s answer came in well ahead of Bazza—probably not a fair contest with the time zones the way they are) so I gave him third place.

Honorable mention goes to Jackie’s Garden, who put down Captain James Hook, Europeans and 1778. Now, Captain Hook was a delightful character in the classic, Peter Pan, but don’t think he made it into the history books. Also doubt he was talking about Europeans having a bad experience dealing with Europeans (though there is probably some truth to that). However, the fact that she put James in front of Hook leads me to believe that this was an unfortunate keystroke or phonetical slip up. Anyway, she deserves some mention.

So, Congratulations to all and thank you so much for playing!

Pursuant to our discussion of Columbus after Challenge number one, the ethical question of the deeds of Captain Cook is still hotly debated and much more enigmatic than that of Columbus. To add insight to the progressive thinking of this amazing mariner, here’s an observation he made of the people of New Holland (Eastern Australia) as he made his way up the coastline for the first time:

“…From what I have said of the Natives of New-Holland they may appear to some to be the most wretched people upon the Earth, but in reality they are far more happier than we Europeans; being wholly unacquainted not only with the superfluous but the necessary conveniences so much sought after in Europe, they are happy in not knowing the use of them. They live in a Tranquility of which is not disturb’d by the Inequality of Condition: The Earth and sea of their own accord furnishes them with all things necessary for life, they covet not Magnificent Houses, Household-stuff & c, they live in a warm and fine Climate and enjoy very wholesome Air, so that they have very little need of Clothing and this they seem to be fully sencible of, for many whome we gave cloth &c to, left it carelessly upon the Sea beach and in the woods as thing they had no manner of use for. In short they seem’d to set no value upon any thing we gave them.”

There are many passages that show a very fair and balanced, almost modern, assessment of the people Cook encountered and though firm with the natives if they attacked his men or stole from them he was equally firm with his own men if they committed crimes against the natives—which included lashes at the post for stealing from them (some serious, corporal punishment).

I have only read the “Explorations of Captain James Cook in the Pacific as Told by Selections of his Own Journals 1768-1779” Edited by Grenfell Price, published on Dover (my copy c. 1971, don’t know if it is still in print) which is a great synopsis that gives great insight into the man and his journeys, mostly from the horses mouth. I own “Blue Latitudes” by Tony Horowitz, the New York Times bestseller that retraces Cook’s voyages and gives a modern perspective of Cook from the cultures he impacted. I have not read the book but my father has and I have also done some reading on-line about the book. Herein lies the rub: he is not much of a hero to people he “discovered,” today. His prophetic statement that was in the Challenge #2 quote that commerce with Europeans does not benefit these cultures held true with his own explorations and contact with indigenous peoples and hence he was, however unwittingly, the deliverer of the poison seed of colonization and empire building that decimated the once pristine life of these people.

Now, I really like this guy. He is the original Captain Kirk—philosophical, always trying to do the right thing and one hell of a navigator. But he planted the flag (a bronze plaque really, if I remember right) that claimed the lands he “discovered” for England. Apparently, he wasn’t so philosophical about this act of discovery to allow the people he found to remain sovereign, at least in every case.

I’m not an expert on Cook, so I am inviting others, especially and hopefully O Ceallaigh, to chime in here and tell me what they think about Cook and his deeds. He’s certainly a better man than Columbus, morally speaking --- though I would argue a much better navigator and mariner as well. But was he also responsible for bringing about the end of days for the people he came into contact with? And if so, should he have known this or how could he have acted differently?