Captain Cook's voyage to Australia

Since liberty is our man purpose in education, we look closely at the source of government in the lives of the people we study in history. Government involves that which directs, regulates, controls and restrains us. When we have good self-government, we self-direct, self-regulate, etc. When not, someone else does that for us, either in our community or in civil government. That is why to be a free nation, we must be a virtuous nation. We have also looked at the difference between a leader and a dictator. Good leaders inspire others to follow them. They serve and make decisions based on the best interests of those whom they lead. Dictators, on the other hand, force people to submit to them.

This is why the story of Captain Cook caught our attention immediately. We compared him a little to Columbus whom we studied last year. Columbus had many mixed motives in his journey, but he was not a very good leader. He chose to take men with him who did not want to go. They stirred up trouble with the other men and may have been responsible for some damage done to the ship. He still did not really deal with them accordingly. It seems he was a little too desperate for men.

Captain Cook, on the other hand, appears to have been a remarkable leader. From the introduction to his log book:

On Cook's ships a band of officers and seamen, enriched by growing experience, enjoyed a strenuous but not unhappy life, and members of his crews enlisted for voyage after voyage. An important cause of this was that, in a savage age, he pioneered comparatively mild punishments and the wearing of clean and warm dress. There was little of the usual brutal flogging, and instead of keelhauling any seaman who undressed during the long and wet voyages, Cook encouraged his men to change their damp and filthy clothes...

From the stories of the seamen, they had a remarkable trust in him, claiming he could smell land before anyone sighted it.

So far, we have read the introduction to his log book and about his arrival to Eastern Australia, the discovery of Botany Bay and his shipwreck on the coral reefs East of Queensland. We have done this over the course of three days. Each day, they had a small task complete while I read.

While reading the introduction about his life, the children colored picture of Captain Cook (from captaincook.org/uk. Day two, since we were reading about Botany Bay, they colored a eucalyptus tree with a koala in it. While reading about the shipwreck, they made a raft out of popsicle sticks.

Captain Cook's log book with some general information about this fascinating leader may be found online. It is amazing to see just how much he sailed and all he "discovered," but we are focusing on chapter eight (about Australia).

This comes slightly out of order. We also spent a day on the rumors of Australia but I have to track down my materials. So within the next couple of days, I will post a pre-Captain Cook lesson.