On this day ...
15 - 18 June 1769
Endeavour Voyage Maps
James Cook's Journal Ms 1, National Library of Australia
Transcript of Cook's Journal
Joseph Banks's Journal
Sydney Parkinson's Journal
Ceremonies of a Funeral and General Observations on that Subject
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Another accident also about this time was, notwithstanding all our caution, very near embroiling us with the Indians. I sent the boat on shore with an officer to get ballast for the ship, and not immediately finding stones convenient for the purpose, he began to pull down some part of an inclosure where they deposited the bones of their dead: this the Indians violently opposed, and a messenger came down to the tents to acquaint the officers that they would not suffer it. Mr. Banks immediately repaired to the place, and an amicable end was soon put to the dispute, by sending the boat’s crew to the river, where stones enough were to be gathered without a possibility of giving offence. It is very remarkable, that these Indians appeared to be much more jealous of what was done to the dead than the living. This was the only measure in which they ventured to oppose us, and the only insult that was offered to any individual among us was upon a similar occasion. Mr. Monkhouse happening one day to pull a flower from a tree which grew in one of their sepulchral inclosures, an Indian, whose jealousy had probably been upon the watch, came suddenly behind him, and struck him: Mr. Monkhouse laid hold of him, but he was instantly rescued by two more, who took hold of Mr. Monkhouse’s hair, and forced him to quit his hold of their companion, and then ran away without offering him any farther violence.
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Voyaging Accounts |  |
© Derived from Vols. II-III of the London 1773 edition: National Library of Australia call no. FERG 7243, pages 150 - 151, 2004
Published by kind permission of the Library
To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/hv23/150.html