User:Aemilius Adolphin/James Cook

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Botany Bay[edit]

Cook's landing at Botany Bay (Kamay), 1770

Endeavour continued northwards along the coastline, keeping the land in sight with Cook charting and naming landmarks as he went. A little over a week later, they came across an extensive but shallow inlet, and upon entering it moored off a low headland fronted by sand dunes. On 29 April, Cook and crew made their first landfall on the continent at a beach now known as Silver Beach on Botany Bay (Kamay). Two Gweagal men of the Dharawal / Eora nation came down to the boat to fend off what they thought to be spirits of the dead. They shouted 'warra warra wai' meaning 'you are all dead' and gestured with their spears.[1] Cook's party attempted to communicate their desire for water and threw gifts of beads and nails ashore. The two Aboriginal men continued to oppose the landing and Cook fired a warning shot. The men responded by throwing rocks and spears, and Cook ordered his marines to fire on them with small shot, which wounded one of them. The two Aboriginal men retreated and Cook found several children in nearby huts, and left some beads with them.[2][3]

Cook and his crew stayed at Botany Bay for a week, collecting water, timber, fodder and botanical specimens and exploring the surrounding area. Cook's men also took some 50 or sixty Aborignal spears, a shield and other artefacts. The Indigenous inhabitants observed the Europeans closely but generally retreated whenever they approached. Cook's party made several attempts to establish relations with the Indigenous people, but they showed no interest in the food and gifts the Europeans offered, and occasionally threw spears as an apparent warning. [4][b][5]

At first Cook named the inlet "Sting-Ray Harbour" after the many stingrays found there. This was later changed to "Botanist Bay" and finally Botany Bay after the unique specimens retrieved by the botanists Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander.[6]

Captain Cook landing place plaque

This first landing site was later to be promoted (particularly by Joseph Banks) as a suitable candidate for situating a settlement and British colonial outpost.[7]

Port Jackson[edit]

On 6 May 1770, the Endeavour left Botany Bay and sailed north past an inlet "wherein there appeared to be safe anchorage". Cook named it Port Jackson, today generally known as Sydney Harbour.[8] No-one on the ship recorded seeing any of the Harbour's many islands, because their line of sight was blocked by the high promontories of South Head and Bradleys Head that shape its dog-leg entrance. However, these islands were possibly known to Captain Arthur Phillip, the First Fleet commander, before he departed England in 1787.[9]

  1. ^ "Voices heard but not understood". Gujaga Foundation. Retrieved 2022-05-28.
  2. ^ "Cook's Journal: Daily Entries, 29 April 1770". southseas.nla.gov.au. South Seas. Retrieved 25 October 2019.
  3. ^ Blainey (2020). pp. 141-43
  4. ^ FitzSimons, Peter (2019). James Cook : the story behind the man who mapped the world. Sydney, NSW. ISBN 978-0-7336-4127-5. OCLC 1109734011.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  5. ^ Blainey (2020). pp. 146-57
  6. ^ Beaglehole (1974). p. 230
  7. ^ Blainey (2020). p. 287
  8. ^ Beaglehole (1968), pp 312-13
  9. ^ Phillip, Arthur (11 April 1787). Comments on a draft of his instructions. TNA CO 201/2, f.128-131.
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