Captain Cook's SecondVoyage 1772-1775
Cook revisited New Zealand during his second voyage. The Resolution, under his command, and the Adventure, commanded by Captain Tobias Furneaux, had separated at one point in the expedition, and they had planned to meet up there. Instead, Furneaux found that symbol of voyages that has survived as romantic legend: a message in a bottle. "We saw nothing of the Resolution, and began to doubt her safety, but on going shore, we discerned the place where she had erected her tents; and, on an old stump of a tree in the garden, observed these words cut out Look Underneath. There we dug, and soon found a bottle corked and waxed down, with a letter in it from Captain Cook, signifying their arrival on the 3d instant and departure on the 24th…"	"Specimens of New Zealand Workmanship. 1 and 2. Different views of an adze. 3. A saw. – 4. A shell." from James Cook's A Voyage towards the South Pole and Round the World, Performed in His Majesty's Ships the Resolution and Adventure..
The people of New Zealand remembered Cook’s first visit. "It was evident these people had not forgot the Endeavor being on their coast; for the first words they spoke to us were, Mataou no te pow pow (we are afraid of the guns)." They were no strangers to weapons, however; a strong military tradition was part of the culture on the islands.
Cook: Page 13 of 16. The second voyage.	back   next