Omai by Eric H. McCormick

Author:Eric H. McCormick [McCormick, E. H.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Pacific, History
Publisher: Auckland University Press
Published: 1977-01-14T16:00:00+00:00

Omiah is very hearty and I do not doubt but he will live to see his own Country again, he is not such a stupid fellow as he is generally look’d upon in England, ‘tis true he learn’d nothing there but how to play at cards, at which he is very expert but I take it to be owing more to his want of Instruction than his want of Capacity to take it. he talks English so bad that a person who does not understand something of his language can hardly understand him or make himself understood by him they have made him more of the fine Gentleman than anything else, he is a good natur’d fellow enough, and like all ignorant People very superstitious, Seeing on our Passage here a very bright Meteor pointing to the Northward, he said it was God going to England & was very Angry that anyone should offer to contradict him, looking upon it as no less than Blasphemy.

He himself was now on shore, Samwell explained, living in a tent near the town which was without exception the most beautiful he had ever seen. ‘Today’, he proudly announced, ‘Capt. Cook din’d with the Governor at the Garrison — 3 royal Salutes of 21 Guns each were given with the Toasts at Dinner.’ The governor and everyone else, Samwell added, paid the captain extraordinary respect; he was as famous here as in England and perhaps even more noted.7

While he discharged official and social obligations, Cook also attended to his pressing duties as leader of the expedition. At first the site chosen for an encampment was occupied by local militiamen, but he set the caulkers to work on the leaky Resolution and with the aid of his old friend Mr. Brand ordered supplies from various purveyors. By the 23rd he had set up tents for sailmakers and coopers, brought the animals ashore to graze, and begun taking astronomical measurements in his observatory. That day he addressed to Sandwich a short letter which he sent off by a French Indiaman leaving for Europe. ‘My Lord’, he began, ‘Before I sailed from England your Lordship was pleased to allow me the Honour of Writing at all oppertunities.’ He now embraced this one, he wrote, to inform his lordship of his safe arrival with Omai and the animals, all ‘in a fair way of living to arrive at their destined spot’. The Discovery had not yet joined them, he reported, but that very moment a ship had been signalled and was probably their consort. ‘Omai’, he concluded, ‘desires his most dutifull respects to your Lordship, and I am well assured it is from the sincerity of his heart, for no man can have a more juster sence of your Lordships favours except Your Lordships most Obedient & faithfull Humble Servant Jams Cook’. A postscript followed: ‘I am just told that the ship in the offing is too large for the Discovery.’8

Clerke did not in fact reach Cape Town until 10 November.

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