Review of Captain Cook, "Obsession and Discovery"
Feminist film-maker is obsessed with the fact that Captain Cook was obsessed — that he was driven to irrational activities that included (1) Circling the Islands of Hawaii before landing there the second time (well, maybe he was mapping them. That's what Captain Cook did, he made maps.) (2) Taking a very long time proceeding slowly up the west coast of North America (Well, maybe he was mapping this too. That's what Captain Cook did!!!) (3) Having passed through the Bering Straits, he spent a lot of time up there in the ice. It made people uncomfortable. (Well, maybe Captain Cook was searching for the North West Passage. That's what he was sent from England for.)
Since going to New Zealand, I've read three books about Captain Cook. None of them mentioned anything about his irrational behaviour. Where did this authoress get her new information from, that all previous writers had missed?
She interviewed natives at or near Nootka. These natives said that life was much better before Captain Cook came. Now this was 260 years ago, about 20 generations back. These natives before Captain Cook came were illiterate stone age primitives with no written language.
How did these natives being interviewed know what life was like before Captain Cook came? When they were saying that life was better before Captain Cook came, they were standing in front of house made with sawed timber ... timber sawed in sawmills run with the white man's steel saws. They weren't standing in front of leaky drafty "long-houses" made with rough hewn lumber painstakingly drawn out with stone adzes. They were wearing clothing made on the white man's looms and cotton mills, not hand sewn clothing made from pine needles or the bast fibres from yellow cedar. If life was better before Captain Cook came, why aren't they building houses the same way and wearing clothes made in the traditional style.
The interviewer under heavy questioning forced the native woman to admit that the natives suffered as a result of Captain Cook's visit, indeed, the women were raped. The native woman being interviewed had great insight into what happened twenty generations ago. The Cooks ship's surgeon described the faces of the native people as "plentifully daubed over with read oaker, Soot, and other dirt, which rendered them perfectly disgusting to us."
Feminist film-maker is obsessed with the fact that Captain Cook was obsessed — that he was driven to irrational activities that included (1) Circling the Islands of Hawaii before landing there the second time (well, maybe he was mapping them. That's what Captain Cook did, he made maps.) (2) Taking a very long time proceeding slowly up the west coast of North America (Well, maybe he was mapping this too. That's what Captain Cook did!!!) (3) Having passed through the Bering Straits, he spent a lot of time up there in the ice. It made people uncomfortable. (Well, maybe Captain Cook was searching for the North West Passage. That's what he was sent from England for.)
Since going to New Zealand, I've read three books about Captain Cook. None of them mentioned anything about his irrational behaviour. Where did this authoress get her new information from, that all previous writers had missed?
She interviewed natives at or near Nootka. These natives said that life was much better before Captain Cook came. Now this was 260 years ago, about 20 generations back. These natives before Captain Cook came were illiterate stone age primitives with no written language.
How did these natives being interviewed know what life was like before Captain Cook came? When they were saying that life was better before Captain Cook came, they were standing in front of house made with sawed timber ... timber sawed in sawmills run with the white man's steel saws. They weren't standing in front of leaky drafty "long-houses" made with rough hewn lumber painstakingly drawn out with stone adzes. They were wearing clothing made on the white man's looms and cotton mills, not hand sewn clothing made from pine needles or the bast fibres from yellow cedar. If life was better before Captain Cook came, why aren't they building houses the same way and wearing clothes made in the traditional style.
The interviewer under heavy questioning forced the native woman to admit that the natives suffered as a result of Captain Cook's visit, indeed, the women were raped. The native woman being interviewed had great insight into what happened twenty generations ago. The Cooks ship's surgeon described the faces of the native people as "plentifully daubed over with read oaker, Soot, and other dirt, which rendered them perfectly disgusting to us."