First Alien Sighting
Sunday, December 18, 1778, Captain Cook’s crew spotted in the distance an island – O`ahu. Then another land not connected to the first – Kaua`i. The next day, a third island is seen – Ni`ihau.
The British officer liked that they were high islands. A hopeful sign that on them there might be abundant and large plants (for firewood at least) and animals (for food) and fresh drinking water.
Cook’s uncertainty about humans living on the islands disappears after he sees canoes “coming off.” Three or four indians in each.
The English crew was amazed that the canoe men spoke a familiar language – sounding words the explorers had learned from other island natives on their two previous sails into the Pacific. Then, when the Brits asked for hogs (pua`a), breadfruit (`ulu) and yams (uhi), in the dialect they’d learned in Tahiti, New Zealand and Tonga, they were understood. Wow! they thought. How did these aborigines, of the kind we’d met in the far elsewhere, successfully sail to these islands tucked away in the most remote part of the Pacific Ocean?
Any comments or questions about Cook’s first encounter with those Polynesians, later to be called Hawaiians?
THE JOURNALS OF CAPTAIN JAMES COOK: THE VOYAGE OF THE RESOLUTION AND DISCOVERY, 1776-1780, PART ONE, Edited by J.C. Beaglehole, 1967, pages 263-64
Tags: Hawaiian Stories
October 1st, 2009 at 8:45 am
What I love about this is how point of view--seeing the scene from the English officer and crew's point of view--gives life and excitement to the telling of the story. Establishing point of view is one of the biggest decisions, and jobs, for a storyteller. It follows the decision of what story to tell.
For writers, and readers, how the storyteller handles point of view is a make-or-break deal. And it shows it itself right away, on the opening page. "Call me Ishmael" wasn't a bad start for a novel. Or "You don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain't no matter."
October 6th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
Thanks for your "point of view" observation. Each week I'll blog about Cook's first encounters with Hawaiians-- on a Friday. And, it'll be from Cook's/the Brits' "point of view". However, I'll include the Hawaiians' take on some of those encounters, when appropriate. That whole, first encounter fascinates me -- I'll try my best to relate that feeling in my blogs.