Joseph Banks – The Voyage of the EndeavourThe naturalists shared with Cook the Endeavour’s great cabin and Banks describes
how they worked:
Seldom was a gale so strong that it interrupted our usual time of study, which lasted from
approximately 8 o’clock in the morning, until 2 o’clock in the afternoon, and from 4 or 5
o’clock, when the smell of cooking had vanished. We sat together until it got dark at a big
table in the cabin with our draftsman directly opposite us and showed him the manner in
which the drawing should be done and also hastily made descriptions of the all the natural
history subjects while they were still fresh.After ten weeks of calm Pacific sailing the Endeavour reached Tahiti and set anchor
within Matavai Bay. Volcanic peaks rose above them and the lush green tropical
vegetation of the island descended all the way down to its shores. Around them the
blue waters of its tropical lagoon were alive with native craft full of curious Tahitians.
The Endeavour was only the third foreign ship to reach the shores of Tahiti, but the
charms of its womenfolk were already legendary. The Endeavour was here to observe
the transit of Venus but it seems that Venus, the Goddess of Love, had already reached
these islands and Banks described what he believed to be the islanders’ favourite
occupation:
Love is the Chief Occupation, the favourite, nay almost the Sole Luxury of the inhabitants;
both the bodies and souls of the women are modelled into the utmost perfection for that
soft science idleness the father of Love reigns here in almost unmolested ease, while we
inhabitants of a changeable climate are oblige to Plow, Sow, Harrow, Reap, Thrash, Grind,
Knead and Bake our daily bread and each revolving year again to Plow, Sow etc. etc. the
Tahitian has but to climb the breadfruit tree and this Leisure is given up to Love.The crew of the Endeavour would also be visited by the Goddess of Love and
Cook’s first concern on arrival in Tahiti was to draw up a set of rules forbidding all
private bartering with the natives by the ship’s crew. The price of love could be an iron
nail and he drew up a list of rules of conduct, the fifth and last rule being: ‘No sort of
Iron or anything made of Iron, or any sort of Cloth or other useful or necessary articles
are to be given in exchange for anything but provisions’.
Cook knew that bartering for food and supplies must be controlled by one person
and it is a measure of the respect he had already formed for Joseph Banks that he put
him in charge of all contact with the Tahitians. In a short time Banks learned enough
of their language to make himself understood and he was soon in daily contact with
the Tahitians to arrange for the resupply of the Endeavour. According to Cook:
Our traffick here was carried on with so much order as the best regulated market in Europe.27