Tupaia (navigator)

Tupaia (also known as Tupaea or Tupia) (c. 1725 December, 26 1770) was a Tahitian Polynesian navigator and arioi (a kind of priest), originally from the island of Ra'iatea in the Pacific Islands group known to Europeans as the Society Islands. His remarkable navigational skills and Pacific geographical knowledge were to be utilised by Lt. James Cook, R.N. when he took him aboard HMS Endeavour as guide on its voyage of exploration to Terra Australis Incognita. Tupaia travelled with Cook to New Zealand, acting as the expedition's interpreter to the Polynesian Māori, and Australia. He died in December 1770 from a shipborne illness contracted when Endeavour was docked in Batavia for repairs ahead of its return journey to England.

Early Life

Tupaia was born at Ha'amanino Harbour on Ra'iatea around 1725 and became a leading ariori priest for the Taputapuatea marae. Tupaia was trained in the fare-'ai-ra'a-'upu, or schools of learning, about the origin of the cosmos, genealogies, the calendar, proverbs and histories. He was also taught how to be a star navigator. His memorized knowledge included island lists, including their size, reef and harbor locations, whether they were inhabited, and if so, the name of the chief and any food produced there. More importantly, his memory would include the bearing of each island, the time to get there, and the succession of stars and islands to follow to get there. These islands included the Society Islands, the Austral Islands, the Cook Islands, plus Samoa, Tonga, Tokelau and Fiji.[1]

Borabora warriors invaded Ra'iatea around 1763, wounding Tupaia and forcing him to flee to Tahiti, where he sought protection from the Papara chief Amo and his wife Purea. Tupaia soon became their advisor and high priest, and eventually Purea's lover. Tupaia befriended Samuel Wallis during his observation of a solar eclipse, and then Joseph Banks during the 1769 Transit of Venus observed from Tahiti. After which, Tupaia "attached himself to the British," according to Anne Salmond. Tupaia was also an artist, and ten watercolors of his survive.[1]:60-61,175-176

Joining Endeavour

"The Captain refuses to take [Tupaia] on his own account, in my opinion sensibly enough, the government will never in all human probability take any notice of him. I therefore have resolved to take him ...

I do not know why I may not keep him as a curiosity, as well as some of my neighbours do lions and tigers at a larger expense than he will probably ever put me to; the amusement I shall have in his future conversation and the benefit he will be to this ship as well as well as what he may be if another should be sent to these seas, will I think fully repay me."

— Extract of "The Endeavour Journal of Joseph Banks 1768–1771.[2]

Tupaia joined Endeavour in July 1769 when it passed his home island of Ra'iatea in the outward voyage from Plymouth. He was welcomed aboard at the insistence of Sir Joseph Banks, the Cook expedition's official botanist, on the basis of his evident skill as a navigator and mapmaker: when asked for details of the region Tupaia drew a chart showing all 130 islands within a 2,000 miles (3,200 km) radius and was able to name 74 of them.[3] Banks welcomed the Raiatean's interest in travelling with Endeavour to England where he could be presented as an anthropological curiosity. Australian academic Vanessa Smith has speculated that Banks also envisaged conversation, amusement and possibly a genuine friendship from Tupaia's company during the voyage.[2] As Cook at first refused to allow Tupaia to join the expedition for financial reasons, Banks agreed to be responsible for the Raiatean's welfare and upkeep while on board.[4]

Tupaia had navigated from Ra'iatea in short voyages to 13 of these islands. He had not visited western Polynesia, as since his grandfather’s time the extent of voyaging by Raiateans had diminished to the islands of eastern Polynesia. His grandfather and father had passed to Tupaia the knowledge as to the location of the major islands of western Polynesia and the navigation information necessary to voyage to Fiji, Samoa and Tonga.[5]

Cook was less pleased than Banks with Tupaia's evident navigational skills, resolving instead to rely on his own exploration of the region.[6]

Expedition

Tupaia's map, c. 1769.

As Cook intended to spend several weeks in the Society Islands before heading south, Tupaia assisted the expedition as an interlocutor and interpreter with local tribes. He also worked closely with Banks in compiling an account of Tahiti and its inhabitants.[6]

Tupaia accompanied Cook to New Zealand and was welcomed by some of the Māori as a tohunga (an expert).[7] It seems that they presented him with a precious dog-skin cloak.

Many Maori people have tales including Tupaia and his lineage that remains in New Zealand today.[1]:230 The crew of Endeavour had developed a less favorable impression of their shipmate. One, midshipman Joseph Marra, recorded that:

" Toobia ... was a man of real genius, a priest of the first order, and an excellent artist: he was, however, by no means beloved by the Endeavours crew, being looked upon as proud and austere, extorting homage, which the sailors who thought themselves degraded by bending to an Indian, were very unwilling to pay, and preferring complaints against them on the most trivial occasions."[8]

Tupaia landed at Botany Bay, Australia, in late April 1770. Cook said of Tupaia, "...by means of Tupaia...you would always get people to direct you from Island to Island and would be sure of meeting with a friendly resception and refreshments at every Island you came to."[1]:232-233

Death in Batavia

A Maori man and Joseph Banks exchanging a crayfish for a piece of cloth, drawing by Tupaia, c. 1769

In November 1770, Tupaia died from either dysentery[9] or malaria,[8] both of which were present aboard Endeavour during its berthing for repairs in Batavia. Cook recorded his passing in his journal: "He was a Shrewd, Sensible, Ingenious Man, but proud and obstinate which often made his situation on board both disagreeable to himself and those about him, and tended much to promote the deceases that put a period to his life."[8]

Aftermath

When Cook returned to New Zealand in 1773, the Maori approached his ship shouting "Tupaia! Tupaia!". As Cook noted, "...the Name of Tupia was at that time so popular among them that it would be no wonder if at this time it is known over the great part of New Zealand."[1]:262

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Salmond, Anne (2010). Aphrodite's Island. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 36–37, 175, 203–204, 288. ISBN 9780520261143.
  2. 1 2 Smith, Vanessa (2009). "Banks, Tupaia and Mai: cross cultural exchanges and friendship in the Pacific". Parergon. Australian and New Zealand Association of Medieval and Early Modern Studies. 26 (2): 139–142.
  3. Druett, Joan (1987). Tupaia – The Remarkable Story of Captain Cook’s Polynesian Navigator. Random House, New Zealand. pp. 226–227.
  4. Holmes 2009, p. 34.
  5. Druett, Joan (1987). Tupaia – The Remarkable Story of Captain Cook’s Polynesian Navigator. Random House, New Zealand. pp. 218–233. ISBN 978-0313387487.
  6. 1 2 O'Sullivan, Dan (2008). In search of Captain Cook. I.B. Taurus. p. 148. ISBN 9781845114831.
  7. King, Michael (2003). History of New Zealand ISBN 0-14-301867-1, Penguin Books. Pages 103 & 106
  8. 1 2 3 O'Sullivan, Dan (2008). In search of Captain Cook. I.B. Taurus. p. 150. ISBN 9781845114831.
  9. Hough, Richard (1994). Captain James Cook. Hodder and Stoughton. p. 201. ISBN 0-340-82556-1.

References

  • Druett, Joan (2011). Tupaia, Random House, New Zealand; ISBN 978-0313387487
  • Holmes, Richard (2009). The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-307-37832-3.
  • King, Michael (2003). History of New Zealand, Penguin, ISBN 0-14-301867-1
  • Tupaia at the New Zealand Electronic Text Centre
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