The information that follows was obtained from
many sources including the Wikipedia free
encyclopaedia website, the Fairfax Australian
Travel Guide and the City of Botany Bay website
to whom due acknowledgement is given here.
JAMES COOK was born on October 27, 1728 in the
Yorkshire village of Marton. Botany Bay is where
Lieutenant James Cook, then an officer in the
Royal British Navy, landed with his friends and
crew on board the barque 'Endeavour' in the Terra
Australis Incognita (Unknown Southern Land) on 27
April 1770. By the time he later visited Tasmania
and New Zealand Cook had been awarded the rank of
Captain.
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Cook had been sent to the South Seas with a dual
mission: to observe the transit of Venus across
the sun and to secretly investigate the largely
uncharted southern lands. He reached the
Australian coast and sought a suitable place to
anchor.
Just north of the cliffs which form the district
now known as Point Solander
(right)..........
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........Cook found an inlet (left)
between Point Solander in the foreground and Cape
Banks in the distance which opened into a bay
with safe anchorage and easy access to a beach
and adjacent land (below).
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James Cook arrived at Botany Bay on April 28,
1770, where he and his party saw Aborigines
onshore and others fishing from canoes. As the
Endeavour approached, about 10 of them left their
fireplace and sought higher ground to view the
ship.
The British party anchored near what is now
Kurnell. Onshore was what Joseph Banks later
described as 'a small village consisting of about
6 or 8 houses.'
Next day, 29 April, two small boats bearing Cook
and others from the Endeavour approached the
shore and the Aborigines retired to the bush
except for two men. Cook threw some nails and
beads ashore which, he says, 'they took up and
seemed not ill pleased'. He thought the men were
signalling encouragement to come ashore but, when
the boats approached the shore, the men threw
stones and 'darts' at them. Cook responded by
firing a musket between the two.
Cook then fired 'a second musket load with a
small shot' as the men failed to heed his
warning. Some of the shot hit of the men, 'yet',
he wrote in his log, 'it had no effect than to
make him lay hold of a shield and defend
himself.' The two men left, however, when a third
shot was fired.
(below)
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Midshipman Isaac Smith, cousin of Cook's wife,
jumped out onto a rock (left) and held
the boat while Cook clambered ashore. On the
beach, Cook found '4 or 5 small children' in one
of the bark huts, to whom they gave some
beads.
The plaque on the rock (below) reads :
"According to tradition in the Cook family,
Midshipman Isaac Smith, cousin of the wife of
Captain James Cook R.N. afterwards an Admiral of
the British Fleet, was the first Englishman to
land on this rock and on the shores of New South
Wales April 29 1770"
Isaac Smith joined the crew of the Endeavour on
27 May 1768 as an able-bodied seaman. He was a
cousin of Elizabeth Cook, nee Batts.
It was very likely due to his family connection
with Elizabeth Cook that Smith rose in naval
rank. He served as an able-bodied seaman until 23
May 1770 when he was appointed midshipman. On 26
May 1771 he was made master's mate. During the
course of the Endeavour his duties included
assisting Cook in surveying. After serving as
master's mate aboard the Resolution on Cook's
second voyage, Smith was commisioned as
lieutenant and promoted to post-captain in
1787.
Smith appears to have served on the East India
Station for a number of years before retiring
with the superannuation of a rear-admiral in
1807. Until his death in 1831 he spent the summer
at a modest country estate at Merton Abbey in
Surrey, and the winters with Cook's widow at her
house in Clapham.
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The only fresh water in the area was in a 'small
hole dug in the sand', presumably by the
Aborigines. On the third day, Cook later sent a
party ashore to explore the underground source. A
stream was found and this became the major source
of fresh water for the ship's crew.
Another party went ashore to cut wood. Cook made
a landing at 'a place from whence some other
Aborigines had just fled', finding mussels
broiling on a fire and 'the largest oyster shells
I had ever seen scattered about'
(overexploitation saw the complete disappearance
of these large mud oysters from the bay by
1900).
Later, a group of '16 or 18...came boldly within
100 yards of our people. Mr Hicks tried to entice
them to him but all they seemed to want was for
us to be gone.' Cook wrote that they were 'well
armed' although their weaponry, he states,
consisted of throwing sticks and their 'darts'.
The latter, he noted, 'have each four pointed
prongs made from fish bones and seem to be
intended more for striking fish than as offensive
weapons.'
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