(EN)-COUNTERING KNOWLEDGE TRADITIONS THE STORY OF COOK AND TUPAIA

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DAVID TURNBULL 55 (EN)-COUNTERING KNOWLEDGE TRADITIONS THE STORY OF COOK AND TUPAIA Knowledge and society do not merely interact or determine one another. They are constitutive of one another. Society consists in the relations between people and the natural world that produce what we take to be knowledge and vice versa. Seen in this light modern science is not, in essence, distinct from other so-called traditional knowledge systems. All knowledge traditions are in effect socially organized and sustained spaces in which trusted and authoritative knowledge is produced and transmitted. This not only permits an equitable basis for their analysis and comparison, but also provides the possibility of bringing into focus hidden cultural features and assumptions by examining encounters between knowledge traditions. This approach can help to avoid the trap of privileging one tradition's mode of classification and ordering over another. It also helps avoid the trap set by the prevailing overemphasis within western intellectual circles on knowledge as representation. As Stephen Greenblatt observes, `European contact with the New World natives is continually mediated by representations: indeed contact itself, at least where it does not consist entirely of acts of wounding and killing is very often contact between representativeL; bearing representations.' 2 Edward Said makes the related point that, ...the act of representing (and hence of reducing) others almost always involves some violence of some sort to the subject, as well as a contrast between the violence of the act of representing something and the calm exterior of the representation itself. The action or process of representing implies control, it implies accumulation, it implies confinement, it implies a certain kind of estrangement or disorientation on the part of the one repre- senting.. Because, above all, they involve consumption, representations are put to use in the domestic economy of an imperial society 3 In order to give some flesh to the idea that claims about what is to count as knowledge or truth are both representations and performances, with largely invisible or concealed moral and spatial components that make contact between cultures. problematic, I have been exploring encounters between knowledge traditions. 4 Here, I want to look at a particular instance when two knowledge

Transcript of (EN)-COUNTERING KNOWLEDGE TRADITIONS THE STORY OF COOK AND TUPAIA

DAVID TURNBULL 55

(EN)-COUNTERING KNOWLEDGE TRADITIONS

THE STORY OF COOK AND TUPAIA

Knowledge and society do not merelyinteract or determine one another. Theyare constitutive of one another. Societyconsists in the relations between peopleand the natural world that produce whatwe take to be knowledge and vice versa.Seen in this light modern science is not, inessence, distinct from other so-calledtraditional knowledge systems. Allknowledge traditions are in effect sociallyorganized and sustained spaces in whichtrusted and authoritative knowledge isproduced and transmitted. This not onlypermits an equitable basis for theiranalysis and comparison, but also providesthe possibility of bringing into focushidden cultural features and assumptionsby examining encounters betweenknowledge traditions. This approach canhelp to avoid the trap of privileging onetradition's mode of classification andordering over another. It also helps avoidthe trap set by the prevailingoveremphasis within western intellectualcircles on knowledge as representation.

As Stephen Greenblatt observes,`European contact with the New Worldnatives is continually mediated byrepresentations: indeed contact itself, at

least where it does not consist entirely ofacts of wounding and killing is very oftencontact between representativeL; bearingrepresentations.' 2 Edward Said makes therelated point that,

...the act of representing (and hence ofreducing) others almost always involvessome violence of some sort to the subject,as well as a contrast between the violenceof the act of representing something andthe calm exterior of the representationitself. The action or process ofrepresenting implies control, it impliesaccumulation, it implies confinement, itimplies a certain kind of estrangement ordisorientation on the part of the one repre-senting.. Because, above all, they involveconsumption, representations are put touse in the domestic economy of animperial society 3

In order to give some flesh to the idea thatclaims about what is to count asknowledge or truth are bothrepresentations and performances, withlargely invisible or concealed moral andspatial components that make contactbetween cultures. problematic, I have beenexploring encounters between knowledgetraditions.4 Here, I want to look at aparticular instance when two knowledge

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traditions encountered one another, whenCaptain James Cook met Tupaia, aPolynesian priest and navigator.Exploration of such an encounter is, ofcourse, rendered problematic by thefamiliar reflexive difficulties created bythe fact that socio-historical analysts workwithin distinct knowledge traditions. The-difficulties are compounded by my beinglocated within what is currently thedominant tradition. My strategy, forreducing reflexive tension, is to adopt therole of the fool or the trickster and to tell atale which portrays the encounter as acartographic meconnaissance.

Miconnaissance is a term used byBourdieu and Lacan. It is often translatedas mis-recognition, but the English worddoes not carry the same connotation as theFrench which also implies a certainduplicity.5 Bourdieu calls it 'a self-seekingsilence,' by which he means 'a silenceabout the ways in which the arbitrary andsocial are made to appear natural.'" Suchsilences are especially acute in this periodwhen the Europeans were not justengaged in the Enlightenment project ofarchiving knowledge but were alsosearching for examples of 'man in a stateof nature' in order to judge whethercivilization, i.e. the social, was natural.However, I think such silences areinevitable in encounters betweenknowledge traditions and are especiallymarked in the roles of the analyst and thego-between. It has often been noted thatmost of the great passages of discovery andexploration by westerners have been

accomplished with the help of anindigenous translator or go-between.7Their role is in many ways that of thetrickster because encounters with theother are intensely difficult, involvingepistemological and moral denials and thego-between's role is frequently erased.'Hence the analyst has also to be a tricksterin order to reveal the silences, denials anderasures.'9 The trickster is the spirit ofdisorder, the enemy of boundaries; and thefunction of the trickster myth, accordingto Kerenyi, 'is to add disorder to order andso make a whole, to render possible withinthe fixed bounds of what is permitted, anexperience of what is not permitted.'i°

The oppositions of order/disorder,permitted/forbidden reflect the Janus-faced character of the translator, the go-between, the analyst, the critic—indeedanyone who moves between traditions andcultures, between self and other, orbetween accounts of events. There is asense in which all historians, critics or anykind of analyst must deceive in order totell the truth. This contradiction is thesource of the tension which thereflexivists want to dissolve by a constantrevelation of the constructed character ofone's own framework. However, it is thetension upon which all knowledge claimsare built: for there to be truth, there has tobe 'untruth,' that is, a concealment of theprior assumptions and socialconstructions that provide the conditionsfor the possibility of truth; meconn-aissance is inevitable.

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My performance, or story telling, will alsohopefully gain some narrative strength bybeing counter-poised_ with the orthodoxstory of a great divide and the creation ofthe other." It is a tale of (en)counteringand countering. The orthodox story is thatof `discovery' and exploration, whichmakes the `other' a foil against which tosee the 'objectivity', `r'ationality' and`universality' of western scientificrepresentations. This tale hasunderpinned the history of science andserved it well in a historical struggle forauthority which has occluded its ownperformative nature through denying thesocial labor in its own construction, andthe active role of the `others' it enrols. Themeconnaissance involved is not just a mis-recognition and (self) deception as amatter of the personal biographies of Cookand Tupaia, but also as a matter of the kindof historiographical and epistemologicalassumptions that underpin the receivedstory.

In 176 9 James Cook, an English navalcaptain from Yorkshire, arrived at Tahitiwhere he met Tupaia, a Polynesian highpriest and navigator from the island ofRaiatea. Tupaia joined Cook aboard theEndeavour and sailed with him andJoseph Banks on their voyage ofexploration of the Pacific, New Zealandand Eastern Australia. For a brief timethese two cartographers from differentknowledge traditions worked together:2What I want to do is to bring intojuxtaposition two representations/performances that emerged from that

encounter to reveal the meconnaisance.They are Cook's drawing of the Transit ofVenus and Tupaia's chart of the Pacific.Both illuminate the problems of bodiesmeeting: celestial bodies and the otherbodies of knowledge.

The orthodox story is that of`discovery' and exploration, which

makes the 'other' a foil againstwhich to see the 'objectivity',

`rationality' and 'universality' ofwestern scientific representations.This ... has underpinned the history

of science and served it well in ahistorical struggle for authority

which has occluded its ownperformative nature through

denying the social labour in its ownconstruction

However, before examining theserepresentations, I want to perform theorthodox account. Cook was both a geniusand a scientific navigator/cartographer,perhaps the greatest in history accordingto anglophone historians.'3 During threegreat voyages, he systematically explored.the Pacific, accurately charting for the firsttime the position of many new islands,Aotearoa / New Zealand, the East coast ofAustralia, and the outliers of the NorthWest passage. In doing so, he completed inbroad outline the great imperial vision ofscience mapping the entire world. As a by-product of these achievements over three

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voyages of circumnavigation he threw upan intriguing question to which he neverdeveloped a firm answer. Gatheringlinguistic and cultural evidence inconjunction with Joseph Banks, and thefather and son naturalists, JohannReinhold and George Forster, Cook cameto perceive the people on the islands ofwhat would become Polynesia of thePacific, as one nation.' 4 His big questionwas, 'How shall we account for this nationspreading itself so far over this Vastocean?"5

In August 1 769 Cook on his first voyageseemed to have little doubt that thequestion was one that could be answeredin terms of native navigational practices:

In these Proes or Pahees as the[y] call themfrom all the accounts we can learn, thesepeople sail in those seas from Island toIsland for several hundred Leagues, theSun serving them for a compass by day andthe Moon and Stars by night. When thiscomes to be prov'd we Shall be no longer ata loss to know how the Islands lying inthose Seas came to be people'd, for if theinhabitants of Uleitea have been at Islandslaying 2 or 300 Leagues to the westward ofthem it cannot be doubted but that theinhabitants of those western Islands mayhave been at others as far to westward ofthem and so we may trace them fromIsland to Island quite to the East Indias.i6

In April 1777, on his third voyage, Cookcalled at the island of Aitu in the CookIslands, where he met a group of fivesurvivors who had been in party of twentysailing from Tahiti to Ulietea. Caught in a

storm, they had been eventually washedashore on Aitu clinging to their upturnedcanoe'? Cook was moved to comment that`this circumstance very well accounts forthe manner the inhabited islands in thisSea have been at first peopled: especiallythose which lay remote from anycontinent and from each other."'

However, in later reflections on the waythe Society Islanders acquired theirknowledge, Cook concluded that:

The knowledge they have of other distantislands is, no doubt, traditional; and hasbeen communicated to them by thenatives of those islands, drivenaccidentally upon their coasts, who,besides giving them the names, couldeasily inform them of the direction inwhich the places lie from whence theycame, and of the number of days they hadbeen upon the sea... We may thus accountfor that extensive knowledge attributed. .to Tupaia in such matters. And, with alldue deference to his veracity I presumethat it was, by the same means ofinformation, that he was able to direct theship to Oheteroa [Rurutu], without everhaving been there himself, as hepretended, which on many accounts isvery improbable.'9

Cook's views that the Pacific islands werediscovered deliberately on the one hand,and by accident on the other, still informdebates on Polynesian migration andnavigational knowledge. They can bereconciled, but generally one or the otherhas been favoured by authorities on thestrength of what they have made of the

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evidence of two-way voyaging by the earlyPacific inhabitants and how they haveconstrued Pacific and Europeannavigational practice. I have arguedelsewhere for the deliberate discovery andtwo-way voyaging thesis and here wouldnote that the archaeological and linguisticevidence is now very strongly supportiveof the view that there was an extendednetwork of inter-island contacts that hadbegun to decline sometime before theEuropean explorers arrived. Moreover,participatory navigation and replicavoyages from Hawaii to Tahiti and NewZealand and back have demonstrated thepower of Pacific navigationaltechniques.2°

The question of how we should construethe two traditions will emerge through thecourse of this paper. The salient point formy approach to the encounter betweenCook and Tupaia, however, is that despitehis profound interest in the question ofhow the Pacific islands came to beinhabited, Cook appears never to haveasked any of his informants how theynavigated. What is especially interesting isthat he did not ask Tupaia, or at least madeno reference to asking him in any of hiswritings. This was partly because he foundthat 'most of them hated to be asked whatthey probably thought idle questions.' 2j

But the main reason, I think, is not that hethought all their voyaging accidental.Rather, he thought it was a mixture ofaccidental and deliberate?" Nor did Cooksimply dismiss what Tupaia said, thoughclearly he had ambivalent feelings about

his worth as an informant. When he wasspeculating during his first voyage on theother big question is there a 'SouthernContinent', Cook was well aware of a vastexpanse of unexplored Pacific in whichsuch a continent might be found andcommented,

...should it be thought proper to send a shipout upon this service while Tupaia liev. es[sic] and he to come out in her, in that caseshe would have a prodigious advantageover every ship that have been upon dis-coveries in those seas before...23

The question of why Cook did not askTupaia how he navigated becomes evenmore acute on noting that' he did askTupaia to draw a chart of the islands in thePacific. That famous map is one of themost interesting documents representingan encounter between knowledgetraditions; and in order to 'read' it, we needto consider Cook and Tupaia' s separatetrajectories before their encounter inTahiti in 1769.

Cook was instructed by the Admiralty totake the Endeavour to the Pacific for twospecific purposes: to observe a Transit ofVenus and to discover, if possible, theSouthern continent. Just as Cook wasmaking preparations to leave in May 1768Captain Samuel Wallis returned on theDolphin having discovered Tahiti the yearbefore. This was doubly fortuitousbecause Tahiti lay exactly in the centre ofthe area that the Astronomer Royal, DrNevil Maskelyne, had prescribed as mostfavourable south of the equator for the

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observation of the transit of Venus,because its position had been accuratelydetefmined with respect to both latitudeand longitude. John Harrison, theDolphin's purser, had calculated Tahiti'sposition in Wallis' words by `Taking theDistance of the Sun from the Moon andWorking it according to Dr Masculines[sic] Method which we did notunderstand.'24 This was a history-makingobservation using the method of lunars, orlunar distances, for calculating longitudeby observing the distance of the moonfrom the sun. It was for this purpose thatCharles II had in 1675 ordered the buildingof Greenwich observatory, and appointedJohn Flamsteed `astronomical observator'explicitly `to apply himself to therectifying of the tables of the motions ofthe heavens, and the places of the fixedstars, so as to find the so-much-desiredlongitude of places for the perfecting theart of navigation'. In other words, he wasto provide the observational data so thatlunar distances could be predicted.25

Maskelyne had been sent to the Atlanticisland of St Helena in 1761 to observe thetransit of Venus, but was prevented byclouds. Yet his trip was far from valuelesssince it was on this voyage that hedeveloped the method of lunar distancesfor finding longitude at sea using Hadley'squadrant to observe the angular distancebetween the Moon and the Sun or anumber of fixed stars. Maskelynepublished the British Mariners Guide in1763, which gave instruction in the system.In 1765, he became Astronomer Royal and

published the first edition of the NauticalAlmanac, which contained tables andcalculations of the moon's position forevery day of the year at three-hourintervals for the next ten years. Thisenabled even the longest expedition tocalculate their longitude. Even so, it didrequire 4 hours for a skilled navigator toperform the calculations with correctionsfor refraction and parallax.26

Thus, it was with a copy of the NauticalAlmanac and a light and precise sextant (adevelopment of Hadley's quadrant and ineffect a portable observatory), that Cookwas the first navigator in the westerntradition to sail to a Pacific Island as an actof deliberate calculation. 27 Hispredecessors had only found themaccidentally or 'rediscovered' them bysailing along the latitude. 28 This aloneshould cast serious doubt on the contrastbetween the supposedly accidentaldiscoveries of Tupaia and his predecessorsand the deliberate discoveries of theEuropeans. As Alan Villiers observes, Allsea-borne discovery belongs to the sailingship era, and by far the greater part wasdone before seamen knew how to keepaccurate record of where they were orhow far they had sailed.' 29

Cook himself was not initially trained inthe modern calculative tradition ofnavigation. He started by serving anapprenticeship on North Sea collierswhich were sailed by the three Lead,Lookout and Local Knowledge. 3° Coastalsailing like this was essentially pilotage

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done by eye and personal knowledge. AlanVilliers, not only a biographer of Cook buthimself an experienced sailor, contrastspilotage with navigation, which 'was inpart, by careful astronomical observationswith precise instruments...and the mostcareful reckoning.' Even so, he points outthat in Cook's day a captain's ability tonavigate depended on

...good housekeeping, judgements ofleeway, accurate estimation of speed undersail - for there were no adequateinstruments to measure or record it and,the wind being fickle, the sailing ship'sforward speed varied infinitely - and theassured ability to appraise performance ofhis ship in any conditions all came into

Cook went on to acquire a unique set ofskills when he left the commercialshipping world and joined the navy.Through a series of fortunate appoint-ments and fortuitous meetings he becamean accomplished cartographer, marinesurveyor, and master navigator using thelatest in observational and computationaltechniques in, for example, charting the StLawrence for the attack on Quebec.32Though Alexander Dalrymple thought heshould have got the job, there is littledoubt that Cook was the man best suited tolead the first scientific expedition to thePacific (in the sense of being able inprinciple to bring back inscriptions orimmutable mobiles—that is, preciselydetermined and standardized calculationsand observations that would allow theirassemblage at a centre of calculation).33

But, as we shall see, while this may have.been partly true for his geographicaldiscoveries it was not quite true for hisastronomical observations.

THE TRANSIT OF VENUS

In the mid 18th century navigation andastronomy were linked through twointerconnected and basic questions: howto measure solar parallax and how tomeasure longitude. Cook was intimatelyinvolved with attempted solutions to bothquestionS. One of the principal reasonsthe Admiralty sent Cook and theEndeavour to the Pacific was to observethe transit, or passage, of the planet Venusacross the face of the sun. This wasconsidered to be the scientific event of thecentury by learned societies throughoutEurope.34 So much so that on the occasionof the transit in 1761, at least 120 observersaround the world attemptedunsuccessfully to . record the event.33 Thereason that this astronomical eventbrought about 'the first international co-operative scientific expedition in Modernhistory' was that Edmund Halley hadshown in 1 716 that measuring the timingof the transit could provide the means ofcalculating solar parallax. 36 Measuringsolar parallax could then give the distanceof the earth from the sun (the distance ofthe sun remains the astronomical unitproviding the scale for all distances withinthe solar system and the base line fromwhich the distances of the stars aremeasured).37 Until this measurement wasestablished, the Newtonian astronomical

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1

Drawings of the Transit of Venus by Cook and Charles Green.Reproduced by permission of the National Library ofAustralia.

(EN)-COUNTERING KNOWLEDGE TRADITIONS:THE STORY OF COOK AND TUPAIA 63

system remained incomplete. It was theprecondition for fixing 'the frame of theworld' and giving it dimensions.38

Cook was sent to observe the transit ofVenus in the ideally located Tahiti. Hearrived on 13 April 1769 and immediatelyset about, one might say in true Latourianfashion, to extend the laboratory bybuilding a fort to 'protect the observersand the instruments from the natives.'39Within the fort he put up a tent which helda clock with a grid iron pendulumcarefully set in a wood frame fixed in theground. The pendulum was adjusted to thesame length as that at Greenwich. Facingthat was the observatory with anotherjourneyman clock, an astronomicalquadrant of one foot radius mounted on abarrel full of wet sand buried in theground, and three reflecting telescopes.Despite mounting armed guard thequadrant was stolen the night it wasbrought ashore.

Eventually the quadrant was retrieved andrepaired and the transit observed on 3June 1769 by Cook, Daniel Solander theSwedish scientist and Charles Green theastronomer. As Cook recalled,

This day proved as favourable to ourpurpose as we could wish. Not a cloud wasto be seen the whole day, and the Air wasperfectly clear, so that we had everyadvantage we could desire in observingthe whole passage of the planet Venus overthe suns disk. We very distinctly saw anatmosphere or Dusky shade around thebody of the planet which very muchdisturbed the times of the contact par-

ticularly the two internal ones. DrSolander observed as Mr Green and myselfand we differed from one another inobserving the times of the contact muchmore than could be expected.4°

Despite the apparently ideal observationalconditions the timing proved problematicbecause Venus seemed to form a 'blackblob' as it neared the edge of the sun's disc.Nonetheless Cook dutifully reported theresults to the Royal Society, as did 151 otherobservers at 77 stations in around 600papers to societies around the world.4'Cook's nose was put considerably out ofjoint when Maskelyne was critical of hisresults, attributing them to want of careand address in the observer. In mitigation,Cook argued that Maskelyne knew thequadrant had been stolen and damagedand that,

Mr M should have considered, before hetook upon himself to censure theseobservations, that he had put into hishands the very original book in which theywere written in pencil, only, the verymoment they were taken and I appeal toMr M himself, if it is not highly probablethat some of them might from variouscauses, be so doubtful to the observer, aseither to be wholy [sic] rejected or to bemarked as dubious and which might havebeen done had Mr Green taken the troubleto enter them in the proper book. Mr Mshould also have considered, that this was,perhaps the only true original paper of thekind ever put into his hands; does Mr Mpublish to the world all the observationshe makes good and bad or did never makea bad observation in his life? 42

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Apart from trying to offload the blameonto the unfortunate Green—a Maskelyneprotege who succumbed to the bottle andthe flux after leaving Batavia !3 Cook'sdefence is interesting because it displaysthe essential ambiguity and instability ofraw data typified, for example, by theconflicting views of Millikan's oil dropexperiments to measure the charge on theelectron. 44 In Cook's view, the raw datawere somehow both natural and capableof `speaking for themselves' and yet at thesame time some basic massaging shouldhave either have been performed by Greenor been self-evident to Maskelyne.Nonetheless, actually performing theobservations was fraught with difficultiesconcerning personal variation of theobserver, flaws in telescopes andconditions of vision, much of which Cookand his contemporaries were unawareof.45 But most serious were the problemsof the `black blob effect' and the difficultyof determining longitude.46

In 1762, Joseph-JerOme de Lalande,astronomer at the Royal Observatory inParis wrote to Maskelyne about thedifficulty for astronomers caused by lackof a precise means of determininglongitude. `You may deduce the differenceof the meridians of these two cities, whichwe may be ashamed to say we areuncertain of to 20 seconds.' 47 In otherwords, no-one could tell with precisionhow far apart their observatories were.Calculations based on assembling astro-nomical observations from differentobservatories could not be performed.

What was needed was a network in whichtheir two observatories were physicallylinked by the invisible bonds oftriangulated national surveys.

Ironically then, Cook could sail to Tahitiand back with relative ease; but he couldnot transform his observational data intothe kind of immutable mobiles that Latourhas led us to expect is Nor could hecalculate his own position with precision.Somewhat to his chagrin he was 4 degreesout by the time he sighted New Zealand.49

TUPAIA: PRIEST, NAVIGATOR, AND

GO-BETWEEN

While Joseph Banks was in Tahiti heformed a strong relationship, with Tupaia,a priest and skilled navigator. Tupaiabecame Banks' constant companionduring their three months in Tahitiguiding and advising him on nativecustoms and rituals.

In July 1769, Banks managed to persuadeCook against his better judgement to letTupaia accompany them on the Endeavour.Banks was to give a frank and revealingaccount of this in his journal:

This morn Tupia came on board, he hadrenewd his resolves of going with us toEngland, a circumstance which gives memuch satisfaction. He is certainly a mostproper man, well born, cheif [sic] Tahowaor preist [sic] of this Island, consequentlyskilld in the mysteries of their religion; butwhat makes him more than anything elsedesirable is his experience in thenavigation of these people and knowledge

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of the Islands in these seas; he has told usthe names of above 7o, the most of whichhe has himself been at. The Captn refusesto take him on his own account, in myopinion sensibly enough, the governmentwill never in all human probability takeany notice of him; I therefore haveresolved to take him. Thank heaven I havea sufficiency and I do not know why I maynot keep him as a curiosity, as well as someof my neighbours do lions and tygers at alarger expence than he will probably everput me to; the amusement I shall have inhis future conversation and the benefit hewill be of to this ship, as well as what hemay be if another should be sent into theseseas, will I think fully repay me.5°

Cook gives a slightly different version ofevents:

This man had been with us the most partof the time we had been on the Islandwhich gave us an opportunity [sic] toknow some thing of him: we found him tobe a very intelligent person and to knowmore of the Geography of the Islandssituated in these seas, their produce andthe religion laws and customs of theinhabitants then [sic] anyone we had metwith and was the likeliest person to answerour purpose; for these reasons and at therequest of Mr Banks I received him onboard together with a you[n]g boy hisservants'

Of Tupaia himself we know relatively little,but enough perhaps to get some idea of hisside of the encounter with Cook.. He wasnot from Tahiti but from Raiatea, 40leagues (340 miles) to the Northwest. Hewas born around 1725. 52 Cook was born in

1728, thus he and Tupaia werecontemporaries in their mid-forties whenthey met. Tupaia was a high priest of thecult of the war god Oro and a member of afamily highly skilled in navigation. He wasdriven from Raiatea by the invasion fromthe neighbouring island of . Bolabola(Borabora) and arrived in Tahiti around176o with the establishment of the Orocult on the island. When Samuel Wallis`discovered' Tahiti in 176 7, he was the

Tupaia was a highpriest of the cult of the

war god Oro and amember of a family

highly skilled innavigation

consort of Purea, mother of a high rankingchief. However, within two years, Pureahad lost much of her power and Tupaiahad likewise fallen from favor. Tupaia' sfate may might had something to do withhis keenness to join Cook and hiswillingness to impart knowledge thatmight have been in part secret.

Sometime after coming aboard theEndeavour Tupaia drew . a map of all theislands he knew. Cook gives the names ofthe islands that Tupaia identified in hisJournal in March 177o, by which timeTupaia had been on board for nine monthsand they were about to leave New Zealandfor the journey home via Batavia. The

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actual drawing of the chart is likely to havebeen done many months before. Also, theoriginal chart has been lost. 53 All we haveare the re-drawings of the original by Cookand Johann Forster who, with his sonGeorge, accompanied Cook on the secondvoyage in place of Bank_s.54

-What Cook says is that the names he wrotedown were,

...taken from a Chart of the Islands Drawnby Tupia's own hands, he at one time gaveus an Account of near 13o Islands but in hischart he laid down only 74 and this aboutthe Number that some others of theNatives of Otaheite gave us a account of,but the Accounts taken by and fromdifferent people differ sencibly [sic] onefrom another in both in names andNumber. The first is owing to want ofrightly knowing how to pronounce thenames of the Islands after them, but be thisas it may it is very certain that there arethese Number of Islands and very probablya great many more laying some where inthe great South Sea, the greatest part ofwhich have never been seen byEuropeans.55

There are problems in trying to 'read' thischart as evidence of the knowledgetradition of the Tahitians. A sense of thedifficulties can be gained from its firstcritically and linguistically informedreader, the young Horatio Hale on theUnited States Exploring Expeditionseventy years later. He begins by pointingout that 'when Tupaia's map was drawnmore than half the islands it containedwere unknown to Europeans.' But Cook

and his officers,knowing that toerau in Tahitian signifiesthe north (or northwest) wind, and toa thesouth, they concluded naturally thatopatoerau and opatoa were names appliedto the corresponding points of thecompass, whereas opatoerau signifies, infact, the point towards which the northwind blows je the south and opatoa, for thesame reason, the north. By notunderstanding this they have so far asthese two points are concerned reversedthe chart completely and it is in factprinted upside down. But not content withthis, it is in fact, apparent that thesegentlemen (Capt Cook, Banks, and LtPickersgill whom FOrster mentioned ashaving been shown the chart) overlookedTupaia while he was drawing andsuggested corrections which his idea oftheir superior knowledge induced him toreceive against his own convictions. Thisis clear from the fact that all the groupsand islands with which the English werenot familiar are laid down rightlyaccording to the real meaning ofapotoerau and apotoa but wrongaccording to the meaning these gentlemenascribed to the words; while the islandswhose position they knew (the Marquesasand Paumotos) are placed exactly as theyshould be, according to this mistakenmeaning but altogether out of the proper'bearings when these are rightlyunderstood.56

In unravelling the directional problem,Hale believed that Tupaia had himselfmade mistakes Hale, like manycontemporary European commentators,was skeptical of the value of names and

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locations recalled `merely from tradition'.He was also concerned that the spelling ofnames varied greatly, quoting Forster'sobservation that `some of the names werestrangely spelt as there were never twopersons in the last and former voyageswho spell the same name in the samemanner'. In addition, some islands weregiven twice. Nonetheless, Hale concludedthat the chart proved `beyond doubt theextensive knowledge possessed by theTahitians of the Polynesian groups.' 57 Itwas indeed extensive: though it omittedHawaii, Easter Island and New Zealand,Tupaia's chart covered an area theequivalent of the United States.

Cook's view of Tupaia's geographicalknowledge was often slightly muted, ascan be seen in his qualifying remarksabout the list of islands:

Those marked ++ Tupia himself has been atas he tells us and we have no reason todoubt his veracity in this, by which it willappear that his Geographical knowlidge[sic] of those Seas is pretty extensive andyet I must observe that before he camewith us he hardly [had] an Idea of any landlarger than Otaheite.58

A similar ambivalence can be discerned inCook's attitude to Tupaia's value to thevoyage generally. Though he occasionallymakes remarks like Tupaia alwaysaccompanies us in every excursion wemake and proves of infinite service,' 59 hewas less than charitable about Tupaia afterhis death from an unspecified fever, givingno recognition of his services despite thefact that he had in effect been the

expedition leader throughout the voyagefrom Tahiti around New Zealand and upthe Australian coast. 6° Commenting on hisexpedition's losses in Batavia Cook noteson December 26th 177o,

But notwithstanding this general sickness_we lost but Seven Men in the whole: theSurgeon, three Seamen, Mr Green'sservant and Tupia and his servant, both ofwhich fell a sacrifice to this unwholsom[sic] climate before they had reached theObject of their wishes. Tupia[`s] deathcannot be said to be owing wholy [sic] tothe unwholsom air of Batavia, the longwant of a Vegetable diat [sic] which he hadall his life before been use'd to had broughtupon him all the disorders attending a sealife. He was a Shrewd Sensible, IngeniousMan but proud and obstinate which oftenmade his situation on board bothdisagreeable to himself and those abouthim, and tended much to promote thedeceases [sic] which put a period to hislife.6'

Cook seems to have valued Tupaia'sspecific local knowledge in piloting theship as opposed to navigating it and tohave found him useful in dealing with thepeople they encountered. This wasespecially true in New Zealand where hecould speak the language, though muchless so in Australia where he could not.Cook also found relating to Tupaiadifficult, and his reflections on thoseIslanders. with whom he interacted mostclosely are ambivalent and patronisinglyeurocentric. For example, Cook's efforts toresettle Mai, the Raiatean, in 1777, led himto reflect that 'he like the rest of his nation

68

DAVID TURNBULL

was indifferent to things they learnt orsaw. Europeans have visited them at timesfor these ten years past. Yet we find neithernew arts nor improvements in the old, norhave have they copied us in any onething.'62

However, Tupaia was equally a teller oftales, a trickster. That he had agendas ofown seems apparent in his dealings withMaori. Banks frequently noted Tupaia'sclaiming that Maori were liars. To him itwas 'a specimen of Indian reasoning'. ForAnne Salmond, in her work on encountersbetween Europeans and Maori, it was anexample of Tupaia's Polynesianchauvinism. 63 For me it is the kind ofbalancing act that a 'Go-Between' has tosustain. He or she must remain anauthoritative and superior source ofknowledge. Hence their informants mustbe represented as inferior anduntrustworthy Equally, the Go-Betweenhas to sustain goOd relations with thosefrom whom they derive knowledge.Maori, for example, thought highly ofTupaia. They inquired earnestly after himwhen Cook returned and were distressedto hear of his death, unlike the indifferentresponse of his compatriots. They namedtheir children after him, and undoubtedlypresumed he was in charge since theyreferred to the Endeavour as Tupaia'sboat."4

However, to return to the chart andnavigation. James Morrison, boatswain'smate on the infamous Bounty, commentedthat

It may seem strange to Europeannavigators how these people find their wayto such a distance without the help orknowledge of letters, figures, orinstruments of any kind but theirJudgement of the Motion of the Heavenlybodys [sic], at which they are more expertand can give better account of the Starswhich rise and set in their Horison [sic]then an European Astronomer would bewilling to believe, which is nevertheless aFact and they can with amazing sagacityfore tell by the Appearance of the Heavenswith great precision when a change of theweather will take place and prepare for itaccordingly. When they go to sea they steerby the Sun Moon and Stars and shape theircourse with some degree of exactness. G5 •

Such a gulf of strangeness, to some extent,explains why Tupaia's chart is such a mess.Equally, as the French Pacific historianAdam points out,

Tupaia's chart and what it meant to Cook,illustrates perfectly the incomprehensionof the Europeans when faced with thenautical culture of the Polynesians.Tupaia's knowledge could only beinteresting and useful when set in thecartographic grid that allowed for an entryon marine charts used on European ships.The bearing of islands or theestablishment of their direction by starpOsitions was occasionally mentioned as acuriosity of no great importance.European knowledge alone was scientific.Other knowledge could not have acomparable value (my translation)."

While it seems to me that strangeness,scientocentricism and Quinianindeterminancy of translation are all

(EN)-COUNTERING KNOWLEDGE TRADITIONS 69

elements in the mix, Tupaia's chart is bestunderstood by setting it alongside Cook'sattempts to observe the transit of Venus.Could not Tupaia have written a letter ofcomplaint to Cook along the lines ofCook's to Maskelyne? Simple substitutionof the appropriate terms and names showsthe possibilities:

Mr C should have considered, before hetook upon himself to censure theseknowledge claims, that he had put into his.hands the very original chart on whichthey were written in pencil, only, the verymoment they were taken and I appeal toMr C himself, if it is not highly probablethat some of them might from variouscauses, be so doubtful to the cartographer,as either to be wholly rejected or to bemarked as dubious and which might havebeen done had Mr. Banks, and LtPickersgill taken the trouble to enter themin the proper book. Mr C should also haveconsidered, that this was, perhaps the onlytrue original chart of the kind ever put intohis hands; does Mr C publish to the worldall the observations he makes good andhad or did never make a had observation inhis life?

In Cook's drawing of the transit, he showsa seemingly unavoidable blurring whentwo bodies encounter one another. InTupaia's chart, two knowledge traditionsencounter one another and becomeblurred in the representation. The blackblob effect applies in both cases. And inboth cases, the problem is partly one ofrepresentation. Neither observationalastronomy nor navigation is simply amatter of observation and calculation.

They are both essentially performative aswell. One of the problems ofstandardisation that Cook and his fellowobservers of the Venusian transit wereunaware of was the individual variation ofeach observer in such things as timing.67This is now subsumed under error theoryand each astronomer has her or his ownpersonal error rating, rather like a golfhandicap, which puts them all on a par.Cook, by virtue of his training in

The Polynesian navigationalsystem was essentiallystrategic, that is, it was

concerned not with accuratecalculation of position but

with what to do in particularcircumstances

surveying, hydrography and instru-mentally based observations usingsextants and the famous Harrison watches,seems to have restricted his performativeunderstanding to pilotage. For Tupaiahowever navigation was very largelyperformative. Though it too hadcomponents such as etak and the starcompass, these were abstract andcognitive.

The Polynesian navigational system wasessentially strategic, that is, it wasconcerned not with accurate calculation ofposition but with what to do in particularcircumstances. Together, etak and the starcompass provided a framework that

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enabled a Polynesian navigator to beconstantly aware of his position andorientation. A basic necessity fornavigating in addition to establishingposition was to be able to estimate thedistance travelled having compensated forthe effects of current, drift, wind andspeed. The Polynesian solution, etak, wasperformative rather than calculative. Thenavigator conceived of his canoe asstationary and imagined a reference islandas moving backwards against the backdropof the rising and setting points of the starsthus dividing the voyage into segments:'Etak provides a framework into which thenavigator's knowledge of rate, time,geography and astronomy can beintegrated to provide a convenientlyexpressed and comprehended statementof distance traveled.' It is a tool 'forbringing together raw information andconverting it into the solution of anessential navigational question, "How faraway is our destination?"68

The system is also essentially strategic.One strategy employed is the technique of'expanding the target'. Low islands can beeasily missed so the target is expanded bylooking for patterns of ocean swells, flightsof birds, cloud formations, and reflectionson the undersides of clouds. The islandsare also in chains as a result of theirformation at the edge of crustal plates, sothe navigator can orient himself byintersecting the chain at any point.Another strategy is that outlined byGeoffrey Irwin. According to his model ofthe way the islands were colonised, it was

essential to minimise wastage ofresources, time and human life. He arguesthat this was best achieved by sailingagainst the wind and up the latitude on theoutward journey, since it ensured an easyreturn journey. 69 Irwin makes a good casefor believing that the 'first exploration ofthe Pacific was navigationallysystematic'. s9 But most importantly Irwinenables us to see Pacific island navigationas performative. It is a set of open-endedpractices or strategies for handlinguncertainty rather than a set of fixedtechniques, rules, charts or calculations.

•When Cook' s representationalism andTupaia's performativity met in Tupaia'schart they formed an unreadable blackblob. Perhaps the question to ask is not,'why did Cook never ask Tupaia how henavigated?' since this would, in alllikelihood, have produced moremisrecognition. A better question is 'whydid not Cook or any other investigator, tillThomas Gladwin in the late twentiethcentury, sail with the islanders to see theirnavigation in action?' 7° One mightspeculate that this requires theanthropologically reflexive stance of thetrickster to question the interrogator'sown capacities.

Just as the trickster or the jester givesvoice to the silences and highlights themeconnaissance underlying the king'spower by performing the part of the king,in this performance I have sought to breaksome of the boundaries betweenknowledge traditions by suggesting waysin which Tupaia could have acted like

72 DAVID TURNBULL

Cook and by asking what it was thatprevented Cook from acting like Tupaia.This type of performance, I would suggestby way of conclusion, is a way of enablingknowledge traditions to work together, bycreating a space in which they can beperformed together.

DAVID TURNBULL

David Turnbull is a Senior Lecturer in theSchool of Social Inquiry at Deakin

University. He is the author of Masons,Tricksters and Cartographers:

Comparative Studies in the Sociology ofScientific and Indigenous Knowledge

(2000), and is internationally known forhis research on the impact of science and

technology on culture, comparativeknowledge traditions and cartography.

NOTESThis article is a more contextualized

version of arguments pursued in 'Cookand Tupaia, a Tale of CartographicMeconnaissance?' in Margarette Lincoln(ed.), Science and Exploration in thePacific: European Voyages to the SouthernOceans in the Eighteenth Century (London:Boydell Press and National MaritimeMuseum, 199 8), pp. 117-132.

2 Stephen Greenblatt, Marvellous Poss-essions: The Wonder of the New World(Chicago: University of Chicago Press,1991), p.119.

3 Edward Said cited in Juliana Engberg (ed.)Colonial Post Colonial (Bullen, Vic: Mus-eum of Modern Art at Heide, 1996), p. 9.

4 See David Turnbull, 'ConstructingKnowledge Spaces and Locating Sites ofResistance in the Second CartographicRevolution', in Rolland G. Paulston (ed.),

Social Cartography: Mapping Ways ofSeeing Social and Educational Change(New York Garland Publishing, 1 99 6); alsoDavid Turnbull, 'Cartography and Science:Mapping the Construction of KnowledgeSpaces', Imago Mundi 48 (1996), pp. 5-24.

5 IWconnaissance also means non-appreciation, misreading, ungratefulness,ingratitude. likconnaitre means not torecognise, to disown, to disregard, toslight, to ignore, to misjudge.

6 Richard Harker, Cheleen Mahar, and ChrisWilkes (eds.), An Introduction to the Workof Pierre Bourdieu: the practice of theory(Basingstoke, Hampshire: Macmillan,1990), pp. 150-1; Jonathan Scott Lee,Jacques Lacan (Boston: TwaynePublishers, 1990), pp . 23-5.

7 David Murray, Forked Tongues: Speech,Writing and Representation in NorthAmerican Indian Texts (Indiana UniversityPress: Bloomington, 19 91), p. I; HaroldGatty Nature is Y our Guide: How to Findyour Way on Land and Sea by ObservingNature. (London: Collins, 1958), p. 43:'Nearly every explorer found residentnavigators, chart makers and explorersbefore him who helped them in theirdiscoveries.'

8 Urs Bitterli, Cultures in Conflict: En-counters Between European and Non-European Cultures, 1492-1800 (Cambridge:Polity Press, 1989), p. 4.

9 This erasure is analagous to that of thetechnician in laboratory work see StevenShapin, 'The Invisible Technician',American Scientist, 77 (1989), 554-63.

to Karl Kerenyi, 'The Trickster in Relation toGreek Mythology, in Paul Radin (ed.), TheTrickster: a Study in American IndianMythology (New York Schocken Books,1972), p.185; see also Donna Haraway,Symians, Cyborgs and Women: The

(EN)-COUNTERING KNOWLEDGE TRADITIONS 73

Reinvention of Nature (New YorkRoutledge, 1991).

On performance see Greg Dening,Performances (Carlton, Vic: MelbourneUniversity Press, 1996); on performativitysee Andrew Pickering, The Mangle ofPractice: Time, Agency, and Science(Chicago: University of Chicago Press,1 99 5). On the 'great divide and the other',see Bruno Latour, 'Visualisation andCognition: Thinking With Eyes andHands', Knowledge and Society, 6 (19 86), 1-

40.12 Richard Pearson Gillespie, Science and

Indigenous Knowledge Systems: ResearchEssay for the Carlton Gardens Project,Museum of Victoria, 1996, p. 1o; DavidTurnbull, 'Local Knowledge andComparative Scientific Traditions',Knowledge and Policy, 6, (1993), 29-54; and'Comparing Knowledge Systems: PacificNavigation and Western Science', in JohnMorrison, Paul Geraghty and Linda Crowl(eds.), Science of Pacific Island Peoples:Vol.' Ocean and Coastal Studies (Suva:Institute of Pacific Studies, 1994), pp. 129-144.

I3Geoffrey Malcolm Badger, 'Cook theScientist', in Geoffrey Malcolm Badger(ed.), Captain Cook: Navigator andScientist (Canberra: Australian NationalUniversity Press, 1970), pp. 3o-49.

14 Ben Finney, et. al., Voyage of Rediscovery:a Cultural Odyssey through Polynesia(Berkeley: University of California Press,1 994) , P. 7•

15 John Cavvte Beaglehole (ed.), The Voyageof the Resolution and Discovery 1776-178o(Cambridge: Hakluyt Society 196 7), p.cxviii.

16 John Cawte Beaglehole (ed.), The Voyageof the Endeavour 1768-1771 (Cambridge:Hakluyt Society 1955), p. 154. Beaglehole

notes that in his journal, Cook first wrotethat he had 'not the least doubt' that theTahitians were experienced inundertaking lengthy sea -voyages, but thenchose to be more circumspect on thispoint

17 Frederick William Beechey, Narrative of aVoyage to the Pacific and Beering's Strait,1825-28 (2 vols; London: Richard Bentley,1831), vol. I, pp. 235-6, reported a similarincident. Tuwarri a native of Anaa, orChain Island, 30o nautical miles east ofTahiti was picked up by Beechey on anisland some 420 nautical miles to the southeast - a total drift of 600 nm, as Beecheyhad already sailed ioo nm towards Maiteato the south west of Chain. Interestingly,Tuwarri drew a chart of the archipelagoand,' like Tupaia, assigned each a name`though he could never recognise them.'

i8 Beaglehole (ed.), Voyage of the Resolutionand Discovery 1776-1780, p. 87.

19 Cook, as cited by Douglas Oliver, AncientTahitian Society (3 vols; Honolulu:University Press of Hawaii, 1 974), vol. 1, p.212.

zo David Turnbull, Mapping The World inthe Mind. An Investigation of the UnwrittenKnowledge of the Micronesian Navigators(Geelong: Deakin University Press, 1991).For comprehensive appraisals of theevidence, see Geoffrey Irwin, ThePrehistoric Exploration and Colonisationof the Pacific (Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press, 1 992), and Ben Finney, et.al., Voyage of Rediscovery.

21 Cook and King, as cited by Gordon L.Lewthwaite, `Tupaia's Map: The Horizonsof a Polynesian Geographer, Y earbook ofthe Association of Pacific CoastGeographers, 28 (1966), 41.

22 Brian Durrans, 'Ancient Pacific Voyaging:Cook's Views and the Development of

74 DAVID TURNBULL

Interpretation', in T. C. Mitchell (ed.),Captain Cook and the South Pacific(London: British Museum, 19 79), pp. 137--66.

23 Voyage of the Endeavour, p. 291.

24 John Cawte Beaglehole, The Life ofCaptain James Cook (London: A. and C.Black, 1974), p. 133.

25 Derek Howse, Greenwich Time and theDiscovery of the Longitude (Oxford:Oxford University Press, 1 9 80), p. 28.

26 Beaglehole, 'Cook the Navigator', in JohnVincent Stanley Megaw (ed.) Employ'd as aDiscoverer: Papers presented at the CookBi-Centenary Symposium, SutherlandShire, 1-3 May 1970 (Sydney: A. SutherlandCouncil, 1 971), p. 123. Maskelyne's nauticalalmanac was based on the Greenwichmeridian and became commonly usedfrom 1767 - hence the meridian waseventually adopted as internationalstandard; see Derek Howse, GreenwichTime, p.66.

27 Raleigh Ashlin Skelton, 'Cook's Cont-ribution to Marine Surveying', Endeavour,27 (1968) , 32.

28 Beaglehole, 'Cook the Navigator', p. 124.This haphazard state of affairs is noted byGlynn Williams, 'Seamen andPhilosophers in the South Seas in the Ageof Captain Cook', Mariner's terror, 65(19 7 9), 3-22.

29 Alan Villiers, Captain Cook, The Seamen'sSeaman: a Study of a Great Discoverer(London: Penguin, 1969), p.47.

3o Villiers, Cook, p. i 8.

31 Villiers, Cook, pp. 25-6.

32 Beaglehole, The Life of Captain JamesCook, p. 40.

33 On this point generally, see Bruno Latour,Science in Action: how to follow Scientistsand Engineers through Society (Camb-

ridge, Mass: Harvard University Press,1987); more specifically, Eva GermaineRimington Taylor, 'Navigation in the Daysof Captain Cook', The Journal of theInstitute of Navigation, 21 (1 9 68), 256-76.

34 Richard Woolley, 'The Significance of theTransit of Venus', in Geoffrey MalcolmBadger (ed.), Captain Cook: Navigator andScientist, p.119.

35 Harry Woolf, The Transits of Venus: aStudy of Eighteenth-Century Science(Princeton: Princeton University Press,1 959), p.148.

36 Woolf, The Transits, pp. 4, 15.

37. W. H. Robertson, 'James Cook and theTransit of Venus', Proceedings of the RoyalSociety of New South Wales, 103 (1970), 5-9.

38 Woolf, the Transits, pp. viii, 197.

39 Geoffrey Malcolm Badger, 'Cook theScientist', in Badger (ed.), Captain Cook:Navigator and Scientist, pp. 37-8. OnLatour's concept of the laboratory, see hisPasteurization of France (Cambridge,Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1988).

4o Cook, as cited by W.H. Robertson, 'JamesCook and the Transit of Venus', n. 20.

41 Woolf, The Transits, p.189.

42 Cited in Beaglehole, Endeavour Voyage, p.cxlv.

43 Endeavour Voyage, p. 448: 'he [Green] hadlong been in a bad state of hilth [sic], whichhe took no care to repair but on thecontrary lived in such a manner as greatlypromoted the disorders he had had longupon him, this brought on the Flux whichput a period to his life.'

44 See Gerald James Holton, The ScientificImagination: Case Studies (Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, 1978).

45 Woolf, The Transits, p. 194.

46 The Transits, p.148.

(EN)-COUNTERING KNOWLEDGE TRADITIONS

75

47 The Transits, p.149.

48.B. Latour, 'Visualisation and Cognition...',

pp. 1-40.49 Skelton, 'Cook's Contribution to Marine

Surveying' p. 29.

5o John Cawte Beaglehole (ed.), The Endea-vour Journal of Joseph Banks: 1768-1771 (2vols.; Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1962),

pp. 312-3. Banks' ambitions were ofcourse thwarted in Tupaia' s case but wereeventually fulfilled by Mai, who wasbrought to London by Tobias Furneaux,captain of the Adventure sister ship onCook' s second voyage. See Eric HallMcCormick, Omai: Pacific Envoy (Auck-land: Auckland University Press, 1977).

51 Voyage of the Endeavour, p. 117.

52 Oliver, Ancient Tahitian Society, vol. 3, p.1202.

53 Some commentators have doubtedwhether Tupaia ever drew a map. See G.S.Parsonson, review of R.R.D. Milligan's 'TheMap drawn by the Chief Tuki-Tahua in1793', in Journal of the Polynesian Society,74(1 965), 128.

54 Gordon L. Lewthwaite, 'The Puzzle ofTupaia's Map', New Zealand Geographer; 26(19 7o), p.

55 Voyage of the Endeavour, pp. 293-4.

56 Horatio Hale, United States ExploringExpedition during the Y ears 1838-42(Philadelphia: Shenan, 1846), p. 122.

57 Hale, United States Exploring Expedition,p. 122.

58 Voyage of the Endeavour, p. 291.

59 Voyage of the Endeavour, p. 24o.

6o William James Lloyd Wharton (ed.),Captain Cook's Journal during His FirstVoyage round the World Made in H.M.Bark 'Endeavour", 1768-71 (London: ElliotStock, 18 93), p. 363. Wharton writes, 'there

is no doubt his presence on board whenthe ship was in New Zealand was thegreatest advantage, affording a means ofcommunicating with the natives, whichprevented the usual grossmisunderstandings which arise as to theobject of the visit of an exploring ship.Without him, even with Cook's humaneintention and good management, friendlyrelations would have been much moredifficult to establish.'

61 Voyage of the Endeavour, pp. 441-42.

62 Voyage of the Resolution and Discovery,p. 241.

63 Ann Salmond, Two Worlds: First MeetingsBetween Maori and Europeans, 1642-1772(Auckland: Viking, 1990, p. 238.

64 Gordon L. Lewthwaite, 'The Puzzle ofTupaia's Map', pp. 1-19.

65 James Morrison, The Journal of JamesMorrison, Boatswain's Mate of theBouttOr...(London: Golden Cockerel Press,1 935), p. 201.

66 P. Adam, 'La Culture Polynesienne et laNavigation', Journal de la Societe desOceanistes, 38 (1982), 140.

67 Woolf, Transits of Venus, p.194.

68 David Lewis, We, the Navigators: theAncient Art of Landfinding in the Pacific(Canberra: Australian National UniversityPress, 1 972), 138; Thomas Gladwin, East is aBig Bird: Navigation and Logic on PuluwatA toll (Cambridge, Mass.: HarvardUniversity Press, 197o), p. 186; EdwinHutchins, 'Understanding MicronesianNavigation', in Dedre Gentner and AlbertL. Stevens (eds.), Mental Models (Hillsdale,New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1983),p.191-226.

69 Geoffrey Irwin, 'Against, Across andDown the Wind: a Case for the SystematicExploration of the Remote Pacific Islands',

DAVID TURNBULL

The Journal of the Polynesian Society, 98(1989), 175.

70 Thomas Gladwin, East is a Big Bird;David Lewis, We the Navigators; StephenD. Thomas, The Last Navigator (New York:Ballantine Books, 1988); Richard Feinberg,Polynesian Seafaring and Navigation:Ocean Travel in Anutan Culture andSociety (Kent: Kent State UniversityPress,1988); Ben R. Finney, Hokule'a: theWay to Tahiti (New York: Dood, Mead andCo., 1979); Ben R. Finney, 'Myth,

Experiment and the Re-Invention ofPolynesian Voyaging', AmericanAnthropologist, 92(1991): 383-404; Ben R.Finney, Paul Frost, Richard Rhodes, andNainoa Thompson, 'Wait for the West .Wind', The Journal of the PolynesianSociety, 98(1989): 261-302; Ben R. Finney,Bernhard J. Kilonsky, Stephen Somsen,and Edward D. Stroup, 'Re-Learning aVanishing Art', Journal of the PolynesianSociety, 95(1986): 41-90.