Captain James Cook and his Times ed. by Robin Fisher, Hugh Johnston (review)

244 THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW firsttimecitedinafootnote;apitythepractice wasnotfollowedinthisinstance. w.j. •.cc•.•.s University ofToronto Captain James Cook andhisTimes. EditedbyROBIN FISHER andHUCH JOHNSTON. Vancouver, Douglas andMcintyre; London,CroomHelm, •979. PP.x, 278, illus.$•6.95. Thisisnotjustanotherbiography ofJames Cook,thefamousgeographer and explorer.It is a collectionof paperspresentedat an international,interdisciplinary conference heldatSimonFraserUniversity in thespring of •978 commemorating the bicentennial of Cook'sarrivalat NootkaSoundon the west coast of Vancouver Island. This conference was one of a series of such bicentennial celebrations heldoveraten-year period,tracing Cook's voyages of discovery in the Pacificregion. Because so much of Cook's attention was directed towards the South Pacific, few Canadianscholars havemadethe famousmarinera subject of serious study.This mayexplainwhymostof the contributors to the SimonFraser symposium camefrom the Antipodes;such,for instance,as Alan Frost, Howard Fry, and Bernard Smithfrom Australia,MichaelHoare and David Mackayfrom NewZealand.Other conference participants, whose papers are printedin thiscollection, includeTerenceArmstrong, SirJamesWatt,and GlyndwrWilliamsfrom GreatBritain;RfidigerJoppienfromWestGermany, andChriston ArcherfromtheUniversity of Calgary. Of thetwoeditors, bothof whomaremembers of theDepartmentof HistoryatSimonFraserUniversity, Robin Fisherwasborn in New Zealandand graduatedfrom Auckland University.This obviousantipodeandominationof Cook scholarship is scarcely surprising. The bestknownandmostcomplete biography ofJames Cook is that written by the late John CawteBeaglehole and published posthumously in •974. His son,T.H. Beaglehole wrotein the prefacethatit wasa bookthat only a New Zealandercouldwrite, markedas it is by an understandingof and empathy for the peopleof the South Pacific.And Beaglehole, during his career,influenceda wholegenerationof younger scholars in theirthinkingaboutCook,includingseveral of thosewhooffered their papersat Vancouver. Thisisnot to implythatthe conference papersmerelyre-echoed Beaglehole 's ideasaboutCook.Asanygoodbiographer should, Beaglehole focussed the lensof hisscholarship on Cookhimself,the manand hisactivities; the contributors to the Simon Fraser conference addressed themselves to the influences exercised uponCookbyhiscontemporaries andassociates, menlike Joseph Banks andAlexander Dalrymple; theyexamined theextentandnature of Cook's contributions togeographical knowledge; theydiscussed howCook wasviewedin Russia, and how Spainreactedto hisPacificpresence; they REVIEWS 245 lookedat the problemof culturalinteraction betweenthe Indiansand the Europeans atNootka.A paperonthemedical aspects oftheCookvoyages shed lightuponCook's deathat Kealakekua Bayon 14 February•779; another discussed the artisticlegacyof the Pacificexpeditions as revealedin the engravings, etchings, woodcuts, andaquatints produced inthepost-Cook era, manyofwhichwerepiratedfromillustrations in Cook's narratives, sometimes altered,oftendistorted.The volumeconcludes withaninteresting analysis of Cook'sreputationas perceivedby scholars and popularizers from George Forster toJohnBeaglehole, throughKippis,Young,Besant, andKitson. The pointismadethat,in recentyears, scholarly perceptions of Cookhavebeen changing. In termsof sociology andanthropology these perceptions aremore profoundandmoresignificant. Cookscholarship isnowmovingalongnew lines, if thepapers inthisvolume areindicative ofpresent trends. Theprobable outcome? Cook's imagewillemerge asless god-like, morehuman,mortal,and sacrificial. The editorsaretobecongratulated ontheselection of thepapers in this book,andcongratulated, too,onthefactthattheirbookhangs together better thanmanybooks of thistype.It iswelleditedandamplyillustrated. Onlythe mapsleavesomething tobedesired. Seldom docontemporary maps emerge clearlyandlegiblywhenreproduced on stockpaper. GEORGE F.G.STANLEY MountAllison University Baptists inCanada: Search forldentity amidst Diversity. EditedbyJAROLD I•.ZEMAN. Burlington, Ont.,G.R.Welch,•98o.Pp.x, 282.$8.5o. Repent andBelieve: the Baptist Experience inMaritime Canada. EditedbyBARRY M. MOODIE. Hantsport, NS, Lancelot Press, •98o.Pp.xii,217.$6.95. The first of thesetwo books,neither of which includesan index, contains fifteen ofthethirty-five papers readatasymposium ontheCanadian Baptist traditionheld at AcadiaDivinityCollege,Wolfville,NS,in October1979. Contributors came fromallthemainBaptist groups inCanada andsome from the UnitedStates. The essays rangefrom carefullyresearched historyto statements ofdoctrinaire opinion thatmakeinteresting reading butaddlittle tohistorical knowledge. Valuable ashistory arepapers byNelson Thomson onBaptists in French Canada, 1836-1969,whobythelatterdatehadformedtheUniond'Eglises baptistes franqaises auCanada; byEdward B.LinkonBaptists of German origin, incorporated under federal charter astheNorthAmerican Baptists of Canada in •954;andbyKenneth R. Davis ontheFellowship of Evangelical Baptists inCanada, who afteratwelve-year effortsucceeded inuniting witha number of'Regular' Baptist churches across Canada in 1965. Robert Wilson's study ofBritish Baptist influence inCanada inthenineteenth century isalso of ...