Captain James Cook led three expeditions to the Pacific Ocean from 1768 to 1779 exploring for new lands and navigational routes. He encountered indigenous peoples in Australia, New Zealand, Tonga, Hawaii, Tahiti, British Columbia, Tierra del Fuego, Easter Island, and elsewhere.
In accordance with his instructions, Cook sought to establish friendly relations with indigenous people. He entered into ceremonial friendships with a number of Polynesian chiefs, and many of his crew members formed friendships and consensual sexual relationships with Polynesians. Cook and his crew bartered with indigenous peoples, mostly to replenish his ships with food, water and wood, but also for souvenirs and artefacts.
Cook and his crew shared food, music, song, dance and linguistic and cultural knowledge with various indigenous peoples, particularly in New Zealand, Tahiti, Tonga and Hawaii where they spent considerable time. However, some encounters turned violent, leading to 45 indigenous deaths and 15 deaths of expedition members including Cook himself. His expeditions were also responsible for spreading exotic diseases which eventually resulted in large population losses among some indigenous peoples.
The artworks and the official and unofficial accounts of Cook's voyages were popular in Europe, and raised awareness of the peoples and cultures of the Pacific. However, they also created misconceptions and fostered a particularly European vision of the region.
Cook was treated with respect and even veneration in some places in Polynesia, including Tahiti and Hawaii, where he was sometimes considered to be an ariki (high chief) and a atua (an embodiment of Polynesian gods and ancestor spirits). However, in the 21st century, many indigenous people view Cook as a violent invader and a symbol of the adverse consequences of European contact and colonisation.
Relationships Instructions to Cook
The Admiralty provided Cook with written orders on each of his three missions; the orders primarily instructed him where to go, and what to search for, but they also included some directions for his interactions with indigenous peoples. Excerpts from the orders include: "You are to endeavour by all proper means to cultivate a friendship with the natives"; "[show] them every kind of civility and regard, but taking care nevertheless not to suffer yourself to be surprised by them, but to be always upon your guard against any accidents"; "[if] you find any subjects of any European Prince or State upon any part of the coast you may think proper to visit, you are not to disturb them or give them any just cause of offence, but on the contrary to treat them with civility and friendship"
The orders explicitly required Cook to gain the consent of the indigenous peoples before claiming any (inhabited) land for Britain.
In addition to the official orders that Cook received from the Admiralty on all three voyages, on the first voyage he also received guidance from the Royal Society, which was co-sponsoring the voyage. This relatively enlightened guidance was prepared by the Royal Society's president, the Earl of Morton, and it urged Cook to:
Cook's approach to establishing relations
Interactions with indigenous peoples required Cook to balance competing responsibilities. As a naval commander, he was expected to maintain discipline and authority; yet as a representative of the British Crown, he was required to be diplomatic and accommodating; in his role as an ostensible friend of indigenous leaders, he was expected to show generosity and patience; but as the head of an expedition operating thousands of miles from the nearest resupply points, he needed to safeguard his supplies. Unfortunately, Cook sometimes failed to grasp the nuances of the local culture, and these misunderstandings occasionally led to confusion and even violence.
Cook's failure to fully understand the roles and expectations surrounding his interactions with indigenous people left him vulnerable to both humiliation and danger. When he chose leniency toward Indigenous communities in response to perceived infractions, he was often viewed as weak by both his crew and the local peoples which sometimes led the indigenous leaders to become emboldened. Conversely, when Cook responded with excessive force, he risked fostering resentment among his menat times bordering on mutinyor provoking violent retaliation from indigenous leaders.
Thomas argues that despite Cook's peaceful intentions, violence was always possible when indigenous people resisted contact by the British. Following a violent encounter in 1774, Cook wrote, "we attempt to land in a peaceable manner, if this succeeds its well, if not we land nevertheless and maintain the footing we thus got by the Superiority of our fire arms, in what other light can they than at first look upon us but as invaders of their Country".
Upon initial contact with an indigenous people, Cook usually sought to establish amicable relations by engaging in local friendship rituals such as gift-giving, exchanging names, presenting green boughs and rubbing noses (hongi). He also relied on his Polynesian ship guestsTupaia, Mahine (Hitihiti) and Mai (Omai)to act as interpreters, advisers and cultural ambassadors.
When Cook was confronted by situations that demanded difficult decisions, he relied on a mix of diplomacy and coercion. For example, in June 1769, when some items were stolen from his crew in Tahiti, the crew demanded vengeance, but Cook ordered the crew to refrain from violence; instead he confiscated some canoes and threatened to destroy them unless the stolen items were returned.
Cook's intention was to avoid taking sides in local political disputes, but his failure to understand the complexities of the local cultures sometimes made that difficult.
Cross-cultural exchanges Cook's expeditions resulted in considerable cultural exchanges with the indigenous peoples of the Pacific region. Several member of his crew learnt to speak Polynesian languages and Polynesian words such as taboo (tabu, tapu or kapu) and tattoo entered the English language. Crew members called Cook's fits of anger "heivas" after the Tahitian word for a public performance, and they called Cook "Toote" after the Tahitian name for him. Many Polynesians also learnt some English, Tupaia and Mai becoming fairly proficient. "Cookees" became a Tahitian word for Europeans.
Polynesians adopted some European foods and Cook's crew also developed a taste for local foods. Dog was a common food in Polynesia and Cook's crew came to eat it with enjoyment. The Māori enjoyed the ship's salted meat and Mai tried to produce wine on his island. Cook brought European livestock and crops to the Pacific and brought exotic plants back to England.
Cook's crew adopted tattoos (tatau) and this became a tradition for British sailors. Tahitians extended the meaning of their own word to also cover European writing. Polynesians admired the work of the crew's artists and Tupaia learnt to draw and paint in the European style. Tahitians, Tongans and Hawaiians staged boxing and wrestling matches in which the British sometimes participated and they often exchanged musical performances and dancing.
Several Polynesians joined Cook's expeditions as ship guests. Tupaia advised Bank on Polynesian culture and explained Polynesian navigational methods to Cook, helping him make a chart of South Pacific islands. Mai, in his two years in England, became a celebrity and an unofficial cultural ambassador for his homeland. On his return to the Tahitian islands he attempted to spread knowledge of England.
Cook and his officers attended Polynesian ceremonies and sacred rituals while Polynesians in their turn sometimes observed and participated in British religious services and burials. When one crew member died in Hawaii, the Hawaiian priests agreed that he should be buried in their local shrine and they turned the funeral into as cross-cultural ritual. After Cook's death, his memory and physical remains were incorporated into Hawaiian rituals for decades.
Many Polynesians became friends and lovers with their British visitors, and some crew members attempted desertion to be with their Polynesian lovers. Cook entered into ceremonial friendships with Polynesian chiefs for practical reasons but also developed emotional attachments to some of them.
European knowledge of the indigenous cultures of the Pacific region increased with the publication of the official and unofficial accounts of the voyages. These accounts were popular but spread some misconceptions about indigenous peoples. The art of the voyages also proved popular, many works being reproduced in cheap editions and as book illustrations. The artists strove for scientific accuracy but sometimes distorted actual events and fostered a particularly European vision of the Pacific and its cultures.
Cross-cultural incidents and misunderstandings
Efforts by Cook to establish amicable relations during initial encounters did not always proceed as intended, often due to language barriers and vast cultural differences. When he first made contact with the Māori in October 1769, he came ashore with the aim of establishing friendly relations. The Māori performed a haka and attempted to exchange weapons; Cook's crew misinterpreted the Māori's attempts to grab the crew's weapons, and a crewman shot and killed a Māori individual. In an attempt to mend relations, Cook captured three Māori and brought them board his ship, where he offered them gifts and food as a gesture of goodwill.
Another type of cultural misunderstanding arose when Cook's crew gathered supplies or food without compensating the local indigenous peoples, or received gifts without appropriate reciprocation. In Tahiti on the first voyage, Cook's crew failed to ask permission to take fish, trees, and fruit. The failure of Cook's crew to understand local customs and culture led to Tahitians becoming offended when some of the crew took rocks – to use as ship's ballast – from a sacred marae without permission. In Hawaii, the crew took some carved images from a shrine, but returned them when requested by a local priest. During the first voyage, on the east coast of Australia, Cook's crew captured turtles for their own consumption, which was contrary to local Guugu Yimidhirr totemic relations with animals, as well as customs surrounding sharing food. In Tahiti, Cook confiscated some canoes to force the return of stolen items, without regard for the fresh fish that was in the canoes at the timewhich became spoiled while the canoes were held as ransom. In British Columbia on the third voyage, while replenishing the ship, the local peoples requested payment for grass, lumber, and fresh water collected by the crew.
Perception of Cook by indigenous peoples
Cook was considered by some indigenous peoples to be an ariki (high chief), and therefore an atua (the embodiment of a Polynesian god or ancestor spirit). In New Zealand, some of the indigenous people considered Cook's ship itself, the Endeavour, to be an atua.
Cook's status as a ariki in much of Polynesia was partially due to the way he carried himself during the initial landfall: he was always the first to step ashore, and made gestures of friendship. One of the midshipmen described Cook's process as "[he] would land alone unarm'd, or lay aside his Arms, and sit down, when they threaten'd with theirs, throwing them Beads, Knives, and other little presents, then by degrees advancing nearer, till by Patience, and forbearance, he gain'd their friendship."