How does Captain James Cook describe the inhabitants of New Holland?
The accounts of early explorers had described the native inhabitants of the fabled 'Great Southern Land' in predominantly derogatory terms. In 1606, the Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon—touted as the first European to chance upon this mythical land—described the natives as ‘savage, cruel, black barbarians’ after they allegedly slew some sailors. In a similar vein, William Dampier—the first Englishman to explore the continent in the late 1600s—offered an even more scathing description of the natives, calling them ‘the miserablest people in the world.' The Enlightenment saw a gradual shift away from these early disparaging descriptions of the native inhabitants, however, and a move towards a more objective, reasoned and scientific analysis of their way of life. The journal of Captain James Cook embodies this latter approach.
In 1768, Cook was chosen to lead a great Pacific voyage to observe the transit of Venus (a rare astronomical event) and, secretly, to locate the mysterious Terra Australis and gather extensive information on the native inhabitants (among other matters). In his journal, Cook described the physical appearance of the inhabitants as ‘of a middle Stature straight bodied and slender-limbd [sic], their skins the Colour of Wood soot or of a dark Chocolate, their hair mostly black, some lank and others curled, they all wear it crop’d short, their Beards which are generally black they likewise crop short or singe off.’ Cook then proceeded to describe the natives’ values, customs and beliefs in great detail, and in the process rebuffed some of the conclusions made by Janszoon and Dampier.
In one instance, Cook rejected Janszoon’s view that the natives were a cruel and barbaric race: ‘I do not look upon them to be a Warlike People, on the Contrary I think them a timorous and inoffensive race, no ways inclinable to cruelty...’ In another, he positioned himself against Dampier and his view that the natives were the ‘miserablest people in the world’; rather, Cook took a utilitarian approach and evoked European ideas of the exotic 'noble savage' by claiming that ‘in reality they are far more happier than we Europeans ... they think themselves provided with all the necessarys of Life and they have no superfluities...' Indeed, it is abundantly clear that Cook was a product of Enlightenment thinking. Rather than adhering to notions of European superiority like Janszoon and Dampier, he took an objective and scientific approach to the complex societal and cultural issues he and his crew were faced with in New Holland.
Portrait of Captain James Cook, the first European to locate and map the eastern coast of Australia in 1770. (Source: National Museum of Australia)
The accounts of early explorers had described the native inhabitants of the fabled 'Great Southern Land' in predominantly derogatory terms. In 1606, the Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon—touted as the first European to chance upon this mythical land—described the natives as ‘savage, cruel, black barbarians’ after they allegedly slew some sailors. In a similar vein, William Dampier—the first Englishman to explore the continent in the late 1600s—offered an even more scathing description of the natives, calling them ‘the miserablest people in the world.' The Enlightenment saw a gradual shift away from these early disparaging descriptions of the native inhabitants, however, and a move towards a more objective, reasoned and scientific analysis of their way of life. The journal of Captain James Cook embodies this latter approach.
In 1768, Cook was chosen to lead a great Pacific voyage to observe the transit of Venus (a rare astronomical event) and, secretly, to locate the mysterious Terra Australis and gather extensive information on the native inhabitants (among other matters). In his journal, Cook described the physical appearance of the inhabitants as ‘of a middle Stature straight bodied and slender-limbd [sic], their skins the Colour of Wood soot or of a dark Chocolate, their hair mostly black, some lank and others curled, they all wear it crop’d short, their Beards which are generally black they likewise crop short or singe off.’ Cook then proceeded to describe the natives’ values, customs and beliefs in great detail, and in the process rebuffed some of the conclusions made by Janszoon and Dampier.
In one instance, Cook rejected Janszoon’s view that the natives were a cruel and barbaric race: ‘I do not look upon them to be a Warlike People, on the Contrary I think them a timorous and inoffensive race, no ways inclinable to cruelty...’ In another, he positioned himself against Dampier and his view that the natives were the ‘miserablest people in the world’; rather, Cook took a utilitarian approach and evoked European ideas of the exotic 'noble savage' by claiming that ‘in reality they are far more happier than we Europeans ... they think themselves provided with all the necessarys of Life and they have no superfluities...' Indeed, it is abundantly clear that Cook was a product of Enlightenment thinking. Rather than adhering to notions of European superiority like Janszoon and Dampier, he took an objective and scientific approach to the complex societal and cultural issues he and his crew were faced with in New Holland.
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