Ka Hana Kapa, Vol. 3 : The Making of Bark-Cloth in Hawaii (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Ka Hana Kapa, Vol. 3: The Making of Bark-Cloth in Hawaii

In the light of our present knowledge of things Polynesian we cannot read again the fascinating pages of Cook's observations without wonder at the general accuracy of his accounts of what he saw, and we must acknowledge the debt we owe to him and the scientific men who were with him on his three voyages. The Forsters, Banks, Sparrman, Solander and others, and we must not forget his Bernese artist (with him on his last voyage)' whose pictures were far more accurate than was usual at that time. I shall quote here in full what these discoverers have to tell us, and we can later compare all this with the Hawaiian manufacture which was doubt less the most complete technically and artistically.

The first of Cook's voyages was edited by the Reverend Dr. Hawkesworth, who had the great advantage of the journal of Mr. Banks, but the disadvantage of feeling obliged to correct and modify to suit his own clerical taste the rough but definite statements of the Commander (then Lieutenant) James Cook. He also saw fit (with the full permission of Mr. Banks) to Shape his narrative as issuing from Cook. Fortunately the journals of both these distinguished men have in late years been published, the one verbatim, ' the other edited by Sir Joseph D. Hooker.3 I shall take my extracts from these later published journals as of course more authentic. And first comes that of Cook, crisp and sailor-like, nor is all the odd spelling to be laid to the gallant Captain's door, for his journal was written by a clerk in an age when orthography was even less grounded than at present.

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