Mark's Pages

"As the third voyage proceeded to the island of Moorea, off Tahiti, natives stole a goat, and then another. In earlier such instances, Cook had taken a chief hostage, itself a harsh reprisal. This time, he ordered his men to burn houses and smash canoes. Even his admiring officers were stunned. Later, enraged at another Polynesian thief, Cook ordered his ship's barber to shave the man's head and cut off his ears. 'I punished him with greater severity than I had ever done anyone before,' Cook acknowledged in his journal, though he expressed no regret. Instances of sudden fury toward natives would recur [on the third voyage], ultimately at the cost of Cook's life." — Tony Horwitz, Blue Latitudes