On this day in 1779 Captain James Cook was Killed

rob_fmttm said:
Cook charted the east coast extremely accurately. He was the first European to do so and by joining the dots felt he had disproved the theory of a great southern continent of the size of North America or Europe - but this didn't satisfy everyone and he was sent out again to try again. His second voyage was basically a voyage to disprove this by travelling everywhere south, north, east and west to show it wasn't there.
Obviously he did not discover East Australia as there had been people there for maybe 65 000 years - and that is one of the major controversies. Cook claimed Australia for Britain and those that followed (including future governor of New South Wales, Bligh) based their rights on Australia being an "empty land." It plainly was not. Did Cook himself ever say this? Did he have the authority to declare this, he wasn't even a captain in the Navy at the time?
Tragically there was an incredible racism and apartheid practised in Australia. I don't think the apartheid in Australia is as widely known in Britain as it is in South Africa. I didn't appreciate it until recently. But it was far reaching and discrimination and debate continues to this day.
And much of the anti-Cook emotion can be rooted in what followed him, especially in Australia. History in Australia and through much of the Pacific as it was later taught started post J.C. only in this case James Cook.
This is a very simplistic post but I feel as a Trustee of Captain Cook Birthplace that we have to recognise this and also educate people here about the people that came before Cook and the Europeans - and their beliefs and cultures. The way they interacted with nature has much to teach us now and it is something James Cook himself recognised and actually wrote about in his voyage accounts.
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Good post. All the recent anti-Cook sentiment is overly simplistic. Those who governed the Australian colonies following Cook’s voyages have far more to answer for than the man himself.
 
We met an Assie couple,age mid sixties when on a touring NZ. As soon as we confirmed we were british she blurted " oh , it must be awful with all those foreigners coming into our country. " I said she should ask the Aboriginals rather than me. They didnt talk to us again after that.😮
 
My O level was on Cook. I bought one of those student paper files in the subject and copied it almost per se, I could have been done for copyright I even pinched the photos.

I failed.
 
Wilf said:
they eat him, didnt they - the chaps who bumped him orf ?
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I don't think so, they weren't cannibals. The remains were ritually defleshed and baked. They did eventually return some remains including hands to the ship for sea burial. On board they were able to identify Cook's hands from scars where a gun had recoiled many years before.
 
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