The Life and Achievements of Captain James Cook: Explorer, Navigator, Surveyor and Physician by Surgeon Rear-Admiral John R. Muir, and: Life of Captain Cook by Hugh Carrington (review)

REVIEWS OF BOOKS 325 this accountbookand diary. It too shouldfind publicationin full. It wasat the beautifulestateof Mr. W. M. Birksonthe landsof the oldseigneury of Montarville that the membersof the Canadian Historical Associationwere so pleasantly entertainedin May, 1939,andthat they met the genialauthorof thisessay. In hisstudyof theJewsin CanadianhistoryM. de Malchelosse embarksupon a theme worthy of fuller developmentto which the author might well devote a monograph. Sucha study would fit in admirably with the excellentwork which Professor Kirkconnellisdoingonthe racialand nationalgroupsin the West. The story of the re-development of contactbetweenFrench Canadaand France is an importantonefor Canada. We may hopethat M. Audetwill goon to an elaboration of that story in moregeneralterms nowthat he hasbrokengroundwith this accountofFrenchrepresentatives in Canadain thenineteenthcentury. M. Massicottegivesusthe pictureof the early settlementof oneof the bestknownsections ofMontreal,theCgtedesNeiges, whileMgr Mauraultpaintsaninteresting picture of Sorelin the century followingthe conquest. M. P.-G. Roy draws up a fascinatinglist of early customsand traditions in French Canadawhich he makesthe basisof a plea to the presentinhabitants of that area not to forget the cherishedpracticesof the past. He finds the soul of FrenchCanadaembodied in thehabitant,andheasksyoungpeopleto stopregarding him asan inferiorbeing. M.V. Morin laysdownthe principlesfor the choice of a nationalflagfor Canadain hisarticle, and M./E. Fauteuxremindsthe United Statesof its debt to French missionaries, coureurs de bols,explorers,and settlers. Finally, M. Beaugrand Champagne continues hisadmirablestudies of the Iroquois in an articleon the socialorganization of thesetribes. All in all thisis a worthy collectionof studiesand essays. R. M. SAUNDERS The University of Toronto. TheLife andAchievements of CaptainJamesCook:Explorer,Navigator,Surveyor andPhysician. By SurgeonRear-AdmiralJoan R. MuiR. London:Blackie and Son. 1939. Pp. 310. Life of CaptainCook. By Huaa CARR•NaTON.London:Sidgwickand Jackson. 1939. Pp. x, 324. (16s.) CAeTa•NCOOK'S life and work have beencompletelycoveredby Kippis (1788), Besant(1890), Kitson (1907),Professor Laughtonin the Dictionaryof National Biography, Sir Joseph Carruthers (1930),andAdmiralGordonCampbell(1936). Nevertheless nowcomethesetwovolumes. Theyareveryreadable, easy-flowing narratives of the main incidentsin Captain Cook's life. But more than that is necessary to justify theirexistence: somenewangleof approach mustbepresented. The last word in Admiral Muir's sub-title givesthe key to his treatment of CaptainCook'slifeandachievements.Viewingthat lifewith theeyeof a medical manhefindsCook'sgreatest achievement not in additionsto geographical knowledgebut in the enlightened treatmentof his crew,the meticulous careof their health, and a supervision of their diet and living conditionssostrict that a sailor is flogged for refusing to eat freshmeat(p. 100). Underthisregimen, scurvy,the baneof the sea,disappears: in 1740Ansonlost by scurvyduringthe first year of his voyage626 out of a complementof 961 men; thirty yearslater Cook in the Endearouron a three-yearvoyage,with about 100 persons on board, did not losea man by the dreaddisease. Kitson's Cookwas plainly, thoughnot admittedly, at Admiral Muir's elbowashewrote. Sometimes hereproduces Kitson'sidentical 326 T}IE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW words. Many of the letters(excepting that on page167, whichappearedin The Mariner's Mirror, VIII) and the quotationsand statementson pages146-82are fromKitson,pp. 207-62(New York, ed., 1917). He evenfollowsKitsonin at least oneerror in introducingat the end of the secondvoyagea discussion of Cook's personalappearance. On page 142 Admiral Muir mentionsBurney'sjournal, written in a microscopic hand on thin Chinesepaper to aid in its preservationin the eventof capture,asonemethodofevadingtheAdmiraltyorders fordelivering up of all documentsrelating to the voyages;but Marra, Rickman, Ellis, and Zimmermanevidently found simplerand lesslaboriousways. No attempt has been made to translate Cook's names in the South Seas into terms of modern geography, andthe readerisleft to flounder(or founder)in the mazeof Polynesia without a helpinghand. The author appearsto believein De Fuca'sdiscovery of the strait which now bears his name. Cook was right, despite the implied criticism,in hisdenialof De Fuca'sallegedstrait: de Fuca'sstrait andde Fonte's archipelago weremerefigmentsof imagination. All that Admiral Muir hasto tell hasbeentold over and over again;and even the emphasis on the preventionof scurvy doesnot, in the opinionof this reviewer,justify a volume of 300 pages. Amongstthe seventeenplates that of Captain Clerke is new, but the majority are familiar to readersof Cook's Voyages. Mr. Carrington'sclaim is that, after utilizing the informationavailablein the greatcollections, hehaswritten "with anintimateknowledge of muchof thePacific Ocean,and particularly with the benefitof closeresearchinto Polynesiancustom and lore." Thoughhe statesthat hisaccountof Captain Cook'slife in the navy until the closeof...