The Trial of the Cannibal Dog: Or Why Did Captain Cook Die: Captain Cook in the South Seas (Allen Lane History S.)

by Anne Salmond (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2003

  $10.77

  This text provides an account of Cook's South Sea voyages, in which Cook plunged south to discover Antarctica and then veered north to discover Hawaii. In Anne Salmond's narrative, Cook's ships, far from remaining little wooden islands of Englishness in a Polynesian sea, become ever more tangled in the worlds they encounter, leaving Cook's tattooed, dazzled sailors just as altered as the Polynesians themselves.

• Used

  Paperback
  2004

  $3.47

  In this rich and stylish description by New Zealand scholar Salmond, Cook's voyages take on a peculiar, dreamlike quality. Salmond's claim is that Cook was far more affected by his exposure to the Polynesian world than historians have thought. This book is fascinating as an incomparable travelogue filled with amazing stories - the sexual paradise of Tahiti, the 'discovery' of Hawaii, close relations with Maori, and Cook's tragic death on the beach in Hawaii.The 'trial' of the title followed a horrific incident in New Zealand's Queen Charlotte Sound when Maori killed and ate a boatload of Cook's men. Later, sailors caught a dog guzzling a pink remnant, put the dog on trial, then convicted, cooked and ate it.