Cook: it was only eight days

Activity 1: A long voyage

How did James Cook and the Endeavour crew prepare for their long voyage?  

What was it like to engage in world exploration in the late eighteenth century? 

Activity 2: We saw them coming

Why did Gweagal people and the Endeavour crew see the events of 1770 differently? 

Activity 3: Violence on the shore

What was the nature and consequence of contact between Gweagal people and the Endeavour crew? 

Activity 4: We call them pirates

How do different groups of people think differently about the events of 1770? 

Activity 5: Seeing without understanding

How was the Gweagal people’s knowledge of the plants and animals in Kamay different to the Europeans’ knowledge? 

Activity 6: Botanical sketches

How was the Gweagal people’s knowledge of the plants and animals in Kamay different to the Endeavour scientists’ knowledge? 

Activity 7: A place of plenty

How did the Gweagal people and the Endeavour crew differ in their understandings of food, language and nature? 

Activity 8: Perspective and power

How did prior knowledge influence the behaviour of the British towards the Gweagal people? 

James Cook 

James Cook was 18 when he became an apprentice in the British merchant navy (commercial ships). He joined the Royal Navy in 1755 and by 1758 was master of his own ship and saw service in Canada. In 1762 he married Elizabeth Batts and they had six children. 

Cook studied mathematics, charting, geography and astronomy. His skill and knowledge in the latter led to his appointment by the Royal Navy as the leader of an astronomical expedition that the Royal Society (a prestigious society of scientists) was organising. Before setting sail on the HM Bark Endeavour (Endeavour) with 93 other crew and expedition members, he was promoted to Lieutenant (although he is almost always called Captain Cook, this title came much later.) 

First voyage of the Endeavour  

James Cook’s first Endeavour voyage lasted 1050 days, between 1768 and 1771. Primarily tasked with making astronomical observations in Tahiti, Cook then followed secret orders he had been given by the Royal Navy to conduct further explorations in the south Pacific. He proceeded to New Zealand, where he mapped the coast, and then on to Australia, which was already known as New Holland. 

Cook and the crew of Endeavour were the first known Europeans to sight and chart the east coast of Australia, in 1770. They entered Botany Bay (Kamay), forced their way onto the shore, and spent eight days collecting specimens and exploring before setting sail once more. The Endeavour continued north, through Torres Strait, over the Indian Ocean and around Africa, then returned to England. 

Cook’s navigation  

James Cook used a newly developed method of navigation called lunar distances to guide the Endeavour on its first voyage around the world. There were three key pieces of equipment to this method: 

• the newly published Nautical Almanacs, by Astronomer Royal Nevil Maskelyne, which listed the angular distance of bright stars from the edge of the Moon at various times from Greenwich (in the UK) 
• a sextant 
• Cook’s aptitude for complex mathematics.  

To navigate using lunar distances, Cook would, in simple terms, first measure the height of a star from the horizon, then the height of the moon from the horizon, and finally, using a sextant, the angular distance between the moon and the star. He would then repeat this process with another star. These measurements then had to be put through a series of difficult mathematical calculations. As the first to use this method of navigation, Cook had a better idea of his position than any previous navigator on a major voyage of exploration. On his second and third voyages he had the benefit of newly developed chronometers, but it was due to his skill with lunar distances that he created such excellent charts of Tahiti, New Zealand and the east Coast of Australia. It is worth noting, however, that he gained significant assistance in navigating from Tahiti to New Zealand from Tupaia. Tupaia was a Tahitian Polynesian navigator, whom Banks convinced Cook to take with them when they left Tahiti due to his knowledge of both the geography and people of the south Pacific.  

You can find out more about Tupaia in the Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, here.  

The transit of Venus and journey to Tahiti 

The primary impetus for James Cook’s first Endeavour voyage was to observe the transit of Venus from Tahiti, expected to take place in June 1769. England’s Royal Academy sponsored the voyage, as scientists hoped that observing the transit from various places around the world would solve one of the chief mysteries of eighteenth century science - the size of the solar system. At the time, European astronomers were only aware of the inner six planets that orbited the Sun. They knew the relative spacing between these planets, but not what those distances meant in a quantifiable way (i.e. in miles or kilometres). In 1716, Edmund Halley (of Halley’s comet fame) realised Venus was the key. As seen from Earth, Venus occasionally crossed the face of the Sun. These were called transits of Venus and were very rare. They came in pairs, eight years apart, and then not for around 120 years. Halley himself would never have the opportunity to observe a transit of Venus. Although astronomers tried to time the transit of Venus in 1761, they were thwarted by weather conditions. Fortunately, they were to have a second opportunity eight years later. However, if Cook and the others who were sent around the Earth to observe the event failed in 1769, every astronomer on Earth would be dead before the next opportunity to observe the phenomenon and unlock the mystery. The theory was, that by noting the times the black disk of Venus started to glide across the surface of the Sun and the time the disc completed its journey across the face of the Sun, from widely spaced locations on Earth, astronomers would be able to calculate the distance from Earth to Venus and thus could work out the size of the rest of the known solar system. 

To be in Tahiti with plenty of time to set themselves up before this important event, Cook and his crew of 93 set off from England on 12 August 1768. Joseph Banks, the young botanist onboard, wrote of their departure: ‘We took our leave of Europe for heaven alone knows how long, perhaps for Ever.’ Their destination in the South Pacific was so far flung, in a part of the Earth so poorly explored, that most couldn’t even agree if there was a giant continent in the area or not.  

Arriving in Tahiti eight months later, Cook had lost five crewmen during the rounding of Cape Horn, and another one, who threw himself overboard during the following 10-week passage across the Pacific. Cook wrote on their arrival, on 13 April 1769, that they had very few men on the sick list and attributed a general lack of scurvy to the sauerkraut that had been specially prepared for the journey. 

On the day of the transit of Venus, Cook wrote in his journal that the air was ‘perfectly clear’. 

After observing the transit of Venus, Cook turned to his next mission. Prior to his departure from England he had been issued with secret orders. In these, the Royal Navy instructed him: 

there is reason to imagine that a Continent or Land of great extent, may be found to the Southward…You are therefore in Pursuance of His Majesty’s Pleasure hereby requir’d and directed to put to Sea with the Bark you Command so soon as the Observation of the Transit of the Planet Venus shall be finished and observe the following Instructions. You are to proceed to the Southward in order to make discovery of the Continent abovementioned… 

And so, they set sail once more. 

Kamay 

James Cook, Joseph Banks and the crew of the Endeavour were in Kamay (Botany Bay) for eight days out of a 1050-day journey. Although this was a short time in the history of the Aboriginal people of Australia, who have inhabited this land for more than 65 000 years, the ramifications of these eight days were to be enormous for both the Aboriginal people of Australia and all those who have since moved to her shores. 

The exhibition, Eight Days in Kamay, explores the visit of James Cook, Joseph Banks and the crew of the Endeavour to the shores of Kamay, telling the story from a largely Indigenous perspective. You can visit this exhibition online, here.

Indigenous cultural systems 

Country 

When used by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, the term Country encompasses the lands, waterways, skies and seas. However, it is much more complex than just a collective term for physical land formations. Country speaks to complex ideas about every aspect of life. Not only is Country a place to call home, but it informs laws, customs, responsibilities, spiritual beliefs, cultural practices, family, identity and language. Compounding the complexity of the term further, is the idea that Country also informs physical and emotional relationships with the ancestral beings that inhabit places within Country and as such; Country is animate (alive) for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. 

Ancestors play a significant role in the way in which Country has come to exist, and the relationship of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to Country. The ancestors’ legacy in Country informs the complex social rules and kinship relationships that guide how people live, the names of places in Country, the language people speak and the songs and ceremonies required to keep the Country and its people healthy. 

Despite popular assumptions, Aboriginal people were not opportunistic in the use of resources, but managed Country via highly complex systems, developed over thousands of years, that dictated patterns of hunting, fishing and agriculture. With extensive ecological knowledge, Aboriginal peoples lived a highly sustainable life. 

Language 

Approximately 250 distinct languages, and many hundreds of dialects, were spoken across Australia. Maps of language groups provide only an approximation of ‘boundaries’ as mapping traditional territories is very complex, requiring an understanding of the travels of ancestors through the land. 

Kinship 

Kinship locates all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in networks of belonging and webs of relationships that include not just people, but places, plants, animals and ancestors. Whilst the exact nature of kinship varies from place to place, it generally works to group together certain relatives, allocate specific roles and responsibilities, and dictate rules about marriage and contact between people. The principles of kinship remain very important for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.