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Trial Of The Cannibal Dog: Captain Cook In The South Seas (Allen Lane History) by Anne Salmond
Physical xxii, 506p. : ill. (some col.),maps,ports. ; 24 cm. p438-442. Cook, James 1728-1779 — Travel — Polynesia.
528 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
About the author
Anne Salmond
28 books17 followersDame Mary Anne Salmond DBE (née Thorpe, born 16 November 1945) is a New Zealand anthropologist, environmentalist and writer.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
September 11, 2019
Australians, naturally enough, tend to think of James Cook’s “discovery” of our east coast as his most significant achievement – yet that was not the primary purpose of the great navigator’s first voyage. New South Wales was seen as quite distinct from Terra Australis Incognita, which Cook had been asked to look for in the higher latitudes of the South Pacific. On his second voyage, still looking for the phantom Great South Land, Cook circumnavigating the globe south of the 50th parallel. Reaching 71°S he wrote that he had gone “not only farther than any other man has been before me, but as far as I think it possible for any man to go”. He reached a similar latitude above the Arctic Circle on his third voyage.
But between pushing the limits of European geographical knowledge south and north, on each of his voyages Cook spent much of his time refreshing his crews and exploring the islands of Polynesia. Between 1769 and 1779 he visited the Society Islands (Tahiti and its neighbours) four times, New Zealand three times and Tonga twice. He also called at Easter Island, the Marquesas and, of course, made the first European contact with Hawaii.
Making sense of those encounters has kept anthropologists and historians busy ever since. That the historians have concentrated upon the European records, leaving the indigenous peoples as the preserve of anthropologists, has, according to Anne Salmond, created “a kind of disciplinary apartheid” which “radically impoverished” our understanding of the dynamics of the cultural interface of first contact.
Professor Salmond’s title refers to an incident in 1777, during Cook’s last visit to New Zealand. Outraged by Cook’s refusal to punish a Maori who had killed and eaten crewmen of the Adventure (Cook’s support vessel) on a previous voyage, some of Cook’s men put a Maori dog on trial, pronounced it “guilty” and promptly killed and ate it. Salmond construes this theatrical event as an open affront to Cook’s authority, his mana, and contends it created an intractable animosity that led him into harsher and more intemperate treatment of not only his own men but also Polynesians as the final voyage progressed towards Cook’s death at Kealakekua Bay. In this matter Salmond’s opinion seems to be based rather more upon psychoanalytic speculation than historical scholarship or anthropological research. It should be noted that other scholars have postulated different reasons for Cook’s behaviour during his last voyage. The notion that Cook was suffering from some illness, for example, is not, as Salmond suggests (p 319), entirely without evidence.
Even though one cannot always agree with Salmond’s slant, the story of Captain Cook in the Pacific is inherently fascinating and The Trial of the Cannibal Dog tells it well enough. Adeptly depicting the complexity of cultural interactions, Salmond is especially good in detailing the travels of those Polynesians who sailed with Cook. The best known of these was Omai, a young Ra’iatean man who spent two years in England, where Sir Joshua Reynolds painted his portrait. But there were other Polynesian voyagers with Cook and the most interesting of them all was another Ra’iatean – Tupaia, an experienced navigator and priest who joined the Endeavour at Tahiti in July 1769. Tupaia astonished Cook and Banks by drawing for them a chart of the South Pacific. He proved himself invaluable as translator and guide in other regions of Polynesia – notably New Zealand, where the Maori thought the Endeavour was his ship. Having embarked to explore the wider world, Tupaia unfortunately died of malaria in Batavia in late 1770. It is intriguing to consider what this intelligent man would have thought worth bringing home from George III’s England – something more than the suit of armour, muskets, venereal disease and trinkets with which Omai returned.
The publisher has equipped this nicely designed volume with excellent maps, essential in a work such as this, and provided a generous selection of illustrations, including an insert of fifteen color plates.
But between pushing the limits of European geographical knowledge south and north, on each of his voyages Cook spent much of his time refreshing his crews and exploring the islands of Polynesia. Between 1769 and 1779 he visited the Society Islands (Tahiti and its neighbours) four times, New Zealand three times and Tonga twice. He also called at Easter Island, the Marquesas and, of course, made the first European contact with Hawaii.
Making sense of those encounters has kept anthropologists and historians busy ever since. That the historians have concentrated upon the European records, leaving the indigenous peoples as the preserve of anthropologists, has, according to Anne Salmond, created “a kind of disciplinary apartheid” which “radically impoverished” our understanding of the dynamics of the cultural interface of first contact.
Professor Salmond’s title refers to an incident in 1777, during Cook’s last visit to New Zealand. Outraged by Cook’s refusal to punish a Maori who had killed and eaten crewmen of the Adventure (Cook’s support vessel) on a previous voyage, some of Cook’s men put a Maori dog on trial, pronounced it “guilty” and promptly killed and ate it. Salmond construes this theatrical event as an open affront to Cook’s authority, his mana, and contends it created an intractable animosity that led him into harsher and more intemperate treatment of not only his own men but also Polynesians as the final voyage progressed towards Cook’s death at Kealakekua Bay. In this matter Salmond’s opinion seems to be based rather more upon psychoanalytic speculation than historical scholarship or anthropological research. It should be noted that other scholars have postulated different reasons for Cook’s behaviour during his last voyage. The notion that Cook was suffering from some illness, for example, is not, as Salmond suggests (p 319), entirely without evidence.
Even though one cannot always agree with Salmond’s slant, the story of Captain Cook in the Pacific is inherently fascinating and The Trial of the Cannibal Dog tells it well enough. Adeptly depicting the complexity of cultural interactions, Salmond is especially good in detailing the travels of those Polynesians who sailed with Cook. The best known of these was Omai, a young Ra’iatean man who spent two years in England, where Sir Joshua Reynolds painted his portrait. But there were other Polynesian voyagers with Cook and the most interesting of them all was another Ra’iatean – Tupaia, an experienced navigator and priest who joined the Endeavour at Tahiti in July 1769. Tupaia astonished Cook and Banks by drawing for them a chart of the South Pacific. He proved himself invaluable as translator and guide in other regions of Polynesia – notably New Zealand, where the Maori thought the Endeavour was his ship. Having embarked to explore the wider world, Tupaia unfortunately died of malaria in Batavia in late 1770. It is intriguing to consider what this intelligent man would have thought worth bringing home from George III’s England – something more than the suit of armour, muskets, venereal disease and trinkets with which Omai returned.
The publisher has equipped this nicely designed volume with excellent maps, essential in a work such as this, and provided a generous selection of illustrations, including an insert of fifteen color plates.
March 28, 2017
Salmond understands better than anyone the two-pronged limitation of the historian- i) that she is above all a human who is susceptible to human outrage and who is to the best of her ability telling stories, and ii) she casts her eyes back from the period she was born into, and that both the figures/events accounted for in her history, and the history itself will be viewed differently within different contexts and time-periods. She is a victim of history and the best she can do is offer that This is okay, because nothing is fact and nothing is fixed.
Her approach as a self-aware historian in The Trial of the Cannibal Dog is unlike say Vollmann's in his Seven Dreams series, to make-pretend objective simplicity in her telling of the stories. This is used to subversive effect whenever the horror of an event clashes against the language with which it's told, and particularly when Salmond then adds excerpts from sailors' journals reflecting emotionally on colonial hypocrisy and tyranny (one haunting passage has a sailor describing the body of a Tahitian woman torn in half by a cannonball- it's not the sight of the body that disturbs him, but the reaction of the Tahitians that have never seen the human body so efficiently, impersonally desecrated). In other cases it is just alienness and dispassionate aloofness, making for a perfect form with which to describe Cook who is at one manic, obsessed, and constrained by Enlightenment composure. He knows not when to retaliate, or to sympathise, hence the dissonance between him and his crew(s) who were more prone cruelty but also compassion.
Salmond twice allows herself to slip near the end of the book: as Cook becomes a more remote character (he becomes increasingly volatile just as his journals disappear) she offers a kind of hallucinatory view of his final days in Hawai'i. He arrives at Kealakekua Bay in the warm afternoon sun in the Makahiki season and people jump into the water and throw up their arms in ecstasy and welcome him; Salmond points out that the sight of the cliffs and the beach would have reminded Cook of where he sailed as a young man, and because he was never 'home' in England, this would have been a surreal homecoming for him- and it would also be the place where he would die. When describing the bay later the author jumps from her past-tense historical storyteller voice to the present tense, flattening time and giving the reader chills as she finds herself cold among ghosts and not just characters from a book. The other time is in the book's conclusion where the author indulges this first historian's limitation and more or less lets go of the pretense of historical impartiality (which is insidious rhetorical manipulation, and a denial of this first limitation).
The Trial of the Cannibal Dog is haunting and mysterious- the empty spaces in Salmond's prose alert us to its story-ish contradictions and leave us wanting more. The author is sceptical of the colonial voice which has suppressed the indigenous ones in histories, but also ensures that she avoids painting the Pacific peoples as passive Noble Savages (thus affirming that other colonial image). In a talk for the opening of the exhibition Gottfried Lindauer's New Zealand (a vast display of portraits of Māori rangatira by the Czech born painter), curator Ngahiraka Mason responded to questions of whether the paintings were taonga for Māori or works of exotica for Europeans, whether an exhibition praising those who fought the colonial government would bring the country closer together or highlight extant rifts, with "it is what it is." This is not a platitude- this is our narrative of violence, resistance, treachery, and silencing. Through postcolonial eyes this is a horror story, and through colonial eyes the Birth of something. It is both, and it is ours to work through. 'Our Ancestor Captain Cook', indeed.
Her approach as a self-aware historian in The Trial of the Cannibal Dog is unlike say Vollmann's in his Seven Dreams series, to make-pretend objective simplicity in her telling of the stories. This is used to subversive effect whenever the horror of an event clashes against the language with which it's told, and particularly when Salmond then adds excerpts from sailors' journals reflecting emotionally on colonial hypocrisy and tyranny (one haunting passage has a sailor describing the body of a Tahitian woman torn in half by a cannonball- it's not the sight of the body that disturbs him, but the reaction of the Tahitians that have never seen the human body so efficiently, impersonally desecrated). In other cases it is just alienness and dispassionate aloofness, making for a perfect form with which to describe Cook who is at one manic, obsessed, and constrained by Enlightenment composure. He knows not when to retaliate, or to sympathise, hence the dissonance between him and his crew(s) who were more prone cruelty but also compassion.
Salmond twice allows herself to slip near the end of the book: as Cook becomes a more remote character (he becomes increasingly volatile just as his journals disappear) she offers a kind of hallucinatory view of his final days in Hawai'i. He arrives at Kealakekua Bay in the warm afternoon sun in the Makahiki season and people jump into the water and throw up their arms in ecstasy and welcome him; Salmond points out that the sight of the cliffs and the beach would have reminded Cook of where he sailed as a young man, and because he was never 'home' in England, this would have been a surreal homecoming for him- and it would also be the place where he would die. When describing the bay later the author jumps from her past-tense historical storyteller voice to the present tense, flattening time and giving the reader chills as she finds herself cold among ghosts and not just characters from a book. The other time is in the book's conclusion where the author indulges this first historian's limitation and more or less lets go of the pretense of historical impartiality (which is insidious rhetorical manipulation, and a denial of this first limitation).
The Trial of the Cannibal Dog is haunting and mysterious- the empty spaces in Salmond's prose alert us to its story-ish contradictions and leave us wanting more. The author is sceptical of the colonial voice which has suppressed the indigenous ones in histories, but also ensures that she avoids painting the Pacific peoples as passive Noble Savages (thus affirming that other colonial image). In a talk for the opening of the exhibition Gottfried Lindauer's New Zealand (a vast display of portraits of Māori rangatira by the Czech born painter), curator Ngahiraka Mason responded to questions of whether the paintings were taonga for Māori or works of exotica for Europeans, whether an exhibition praising those who fought the colonial government would bring the country closer together or highlight extant rifts, with "it is what it is." This is not a platitude- this is our narrative of violence, resistance, treachery, and silencing. Through postcolonial eyes this is a horror story, and through colonial eyes the Birth of something. It is both, and it is ours to work through. 'Our Ancestor Captain Cook', indeed.
December 9, 2018
long but great telling of Cook's three Pacific voages. I read the first section while in Gisborne and it was great to put a place to the story. Lots of detail about the tribal politics in the various countries Cook visited , and a good sense of character is created through journal extracts and other historical sources.
May 2, 2018
In The Trial of the Cannibal Dog, Anne Salmond notes that traditionally the Europeans have been studied by historians, while Polynesians have been in the realm of anthropologists. It was her aim in this book to examine the interactions between groups during Cook’s three voyages to the Pacific with a little more history for the islanders and some anthropology for the explorers.
Hence the titular incident; putting an animal on trial was something that Europeans did, and doing so as a proxy for a serious complaint well known. (In this case Cook’s failure to respond to the killing and eating of some of the crew of the Adventure during the previous visit to New Zealand). However roasting and eating the dog was not a typical European action, while dogs were on the Polynesian menu and eating someone to take on their mana or power was precisely what the Maoris had done.
The heart of the book is detailed accounts of every encounter between the various peoples of the South Seas and Cook’s crews. This can be a little overwhelming, and occasionally, when things go well and they meet chief after chief and exchange gifts (usually iron or red cloth for food) repetitive. Fortunately I was reading this for research so the day to day routine was of help to me in getting a feeling of how the voyages went on.
Read This: For an excellent account of how Cook emerged in Polynesia, and in return how the Pacific Islanders influenced him and his crews.
Don’t Read This: If lengthy discussions of the details of relatively mundane encounters are not of interest. Also, the paperback edition I read had a quite small font; perhaps it’s because I’m getting older but I sometimes found it not easy to read after a day of staring at the computer screen.
Hence the titular incident; putting an animal on trial was something that Europeans did, and doing so as a proxy for a serious complaint well known. (In this case Cook’s failure to respond to the killing and eating of some of the crew of the Adventure during the previous visit to New Zealand). However roasting and eating the dog was not a typical European action, while dogs were on the Polynesian menu and eating someone to take on their mana or power was precisely what the Maoris had done.
The heart of the book is detailed accounts of every encounter between the various peoples of the South Seas and Cook’s crews. This can be a little overwhelming, and occasionally, when things go well and they meet chief after chief and exchange gifts (usually iron or red cloth for food) repetitive. Fortunately I was reading this for research so the day to day routine was of help to me in getting a feeling of how the voyages went on.
Read This: For an excellent account of how Cook emerged in Polynesia, and in return how the Pacific Islanders influenced him and his crews.
Don’t Read This: If lengthy discussions of the details of relatively mundane encounters are not of interest. Also, the paperback edition I read had a quite small font; perhaps it’s because I’m getting older but I sometimes found it not easy to read after a day of staring at the computer screen.
December 20, 2022
I learned a great deal from Salmond’s study of competing influences on Cook and his crews, and the attention shown to islanders’ customs and politics was welcome. But given the undeniable importance of sex and property to the story, how is it that no attempt whatsoever was made to grapple with the questions of the attitudes of Europeans (and at least one American) and South Sea islanders toward sexuality and thievery? In a nutshell, why were island women so ready to prostitute themselves, and why was thieving so universal a practice?
I was also distressed by the shoddiness of the editing. Someone should have pointed out to Salmond her many repetitions and her several errors with dates. To give a few examples of the latter, the months are regularly wrong on pp. 148, 149, and 394. If I spotted these based on internal evidence alone, I suspect there are a dozen other dating errors in the book.
I was also distressed by the shoddiness of the editing. Someone should have pointed out to Salmond her many repetitions and her several errors with dates. To give a few examples of the latter, the months are regularly wrong on pp. 148, 149, and 394. If I spotted these based on internal evidence alone, I suspect there are a dozen other dating errors in the book.
January 1, 2021
This book looks at all three of Cooks journeys to the Pacific region and has a remarkable level detail of detail. In some places there is just too much detail on the interactions, trading, trade items, coming and goings of people and groups between ship and land, which can be distracting. However, overall the telling provides valuable commentary on the meeting of Europeans with Islanders and the intersection of vastly different cultures. Cook was there to effectively carry out geographical work, whether it be to find the Southern land or Northwest Passage, and on the first voyage scientific research the main one being the transit of Venus. The influence of the Royal Navy also meant staking claims on territories, although this book does not touch on the impact of the latter. But what Cook did need at all the island stops was food and water for his crew, and occasionally a harbour for boat repairs. It is this need that is so thoroughly described in this book, such as battering pigs and yams and women for nails and red feathers. What is surprising from these descriptions is that Cook and his party had significant positive interactions with indigenous peoples. It could have all gone horribly wrong at each meeting. Exchange of names with chiefs took on special significance in the eyes of the people and presumably Cook was to some extent sensitive or appreciative of traditions. Managing this along with a crew who didn’t always agree with their Captain is well addressed here. A great story of a remarkable person.
December 29, 2017
A very interesting and extremely detailed account of Cook’s three voyages in the South Seas. Loved all the descriptions of the local customs, a lot of the book is dedicated to the cannibalistic culture of people in New Zealand and how revolting it seemed to the Europeans. Of course, no thought crossed Cook's mind and his crew of their revolting acts toward the local people of many islands they visited. The vivid descriptions of all the hardships of a long journey at sea made me feel like I was a part of it!
January 7, 2024
I found this book very insightful and also very intense it's packed with facts and insights from the author
At times it was repetitive but then I guess sailing with Cook was
Took me a long time to really enjoy reading this book however like a marathon there was a sense of accomplishment when done along with a far better understanding of Cook and his relation to the South Pacific
Totally recommend this book and loved the ethnographic process that illuminated a part of the world where I have a passion for
At times it was repetitive but then I guess sailing with Cook was
Took me a long time to really enjoy reading this book however like a marathon there was a sense of accomplishment when done along with a far better understanding of Cook and his relation to the South Pacific
Totally recommend this book and loved the ethnographic process that illuminated a part of the world where I have a passion for
November 1, 2025
I enjoyed the way the author tried to give the history from the point of view of both the British documents of the time and anthropological studies of the Pacific Islanders. So you get to see something of the different worldviews at that time and the complexities of cross cultural interactions and how they affect each other. Worldviews in different times , places and cultures are always fascinating and complex and then add to that the interactions of two extremely different worldviews and the complexity and fascination increases.
April 6, 2018
A good book but I found it contained a lot of detail which for someone who isn't really, really interested (like me) might find a bit boring. For example it contains a lot of detail on how the sailors traded with the natives all the time, nails for pigs happened a lot. Otherwise it was interesting to learn more about Captain Cook and where exactly he went exploring.
June 21, 2023
I'm marking this as read but I haven't finished it yet. It is something I will come back to. It is scholarly, and something i will complete over time to give myself a better understanding of the beginning of interaction and colonisation of New Zealand and the pacific.
March 7, 2025
Reads like a story, which of course it is! 'A' version of the story perhaps, but well research from a renowned historian. Impressions from descendants of the Pacific People are quoted, but it might be interesting to have the story told through a Pacific person.
December 25, 2025
Amazing and enlightening
October 7, 2016
Astoundingly detailed account of both life on Captain Cook's ship and life in the South Pacific in the 1770s. I could hardly put it down, but it might be too much detail for some people. I found this glimpse into the lives of South Pacific Islanders fascinating!
September 1, 2010
An absolutely riveting account of Cook’s three voyages in the South Seas. Tremendous detail is needed to bring out the complex web of internal and inter-tribal relationships and power structures amongst the inhabitants of the islands, and how they reflected in a strange way the social and political relationships of European countries at the time.
Ritual cannibalism amongst the Maoris of New Zealand and the natives of Tahiti, the general elevation of theft to something of an institution, and the common use of sex as a sign of courtesy are just a few of the apparent differences but counterparts can be found in European practice, and the whole scenario of inter-island relationships, wars, regents, royalty, ceremony, protocol and the like are like a microcosm of European affairs, using natural products and practical utensils rather than gold coins as the basis of currency, and with a high premium on honour and respect.
What struck me most were Cook’s struggles to keep discipline aboard ship and be fair to his crew, punishing when necessary but greatly interested in their health and well-being, and sensitive when dealing with the natives. He comes across as a good man who struggled to his position from lowly origins and did his utmost to succeed in his voyages. Also, the islanders are portrayed as very like the Europeans in many ways, rather than the anonymous mass of savages they are frequently portrayed as being.
There are some great characters, and it is to Cook’s credit that many of them came to count him as a personal friend, despite the surface differences in their social structures and the problems with the language.
Ritual cannibalism amongst the Maoris of New Zealand and the natives of Tahiti, the general elevation of theft to something of an institution, and the common use of sex as a sign of courtesy are just a few of the apparent differences but counterparts can be found in European practice, and the whole scenario of inter-island relationships, wars, regents, royalty, ceremony, protocol and the like are like a microcosm of European affairs, using natural products and practical utensils rather than gold coins as the basis of currency, and with a high premium on honour and respect.
What struck me most were Cook’s struggles to keep discipline aboard ship and be fair to his crew, punishing when necessary but greatly interested in their health and well-being, and sensitive when dealing with the natives. He comes across as a good man who struggled to his position from lowly origins and did his utmost to succeed in his voyages. Also, the islanders are portrayed as very like the Europeans in many ways, rather than the anonymous mass of savages they are frequently portrayed as being.
There are some great characters, and it is to Cook’s credit that many of them came to count him as a personal friend, despite the surface differences in their social structures and the problems with the language.
August 4, 2008
An interesting new view of Cook's voyaging in the Pacific, and the background of his interactions with native people, Polynesians in particular. While it does not quite manage to explain insane actions such as the chasing down of an innocent fishing canoe in New Zealand, and the killing of four of the unarmed fishermen when they courageously tried to defend themselves with their paddles -- even throwing "a packet of fish" at the intruders -- it gives great insight into Cook's emotional state after he realized what he had done. A remarkable blending of anthropology and history, deserving of its award-winning status.
August 12, 2012
This is an incredible book in many ways - well researched, full of interesting stories and it brings the characters/cultures/landscapes to life. It could have benefited from a *very* strong edit though - it's written a lot like an academic narrative - full of very detailed facts and information that had me wanting to skip pages as I got further in. And the same patterns start repeating (so we don't need to hear the same details every time). The richness of the book could have been condensed into something about half this size to make it more readable. And almost 100 pages of the book are references/bibliographic notes. Otherwise this is a mighty feat of research and writing.
April 23, 2014
Fascinating account of Cook's voyages to the Pacific and his meeting with various Pacific people. What is great about this book is that it seems to be drawn from the records and diaries kept during the voyages and diligently seeks to understand and explain the cultural meetings between European and Pacific peoples without prejudice or revisionism. This is refreshing, informative and thought provoking.
June 26, 2023
Simply put this book was an outstanding favourite during my Anthropology Honours year. A fantastic read, academic, erudite, extensive but also wonderfully readable and quite accessible to a wider audience (than students and academics). New Zealanders wanting to know their European ancestors and their voyages should start here.
April 15, 2012
An amazing review of James Cook's voyages in the Pacific, especially throughout the Polynesian triangle. Salmond describes brilliantly the forces at work during the Contact era and how Polynesians and Europeans learned from each other. Absolutely recommended, a dense, rich, enlightened writing, one of my best literary experiences ever!
March 30, 2013
It is a great book for anybody who wants a vivid, and informative narration of Captain Cook's travels in the South Seas. Gives a wonderful glimpse of the British point of view when dealing with inhabitants on various islands. Discusses the differences and nuances between various cultures on islands. Highly recommend this book.
November 28, 2024
What an incredible story to tell, and the narrative is easily to follow and interesting.
So interesting and sad how some of the early events unfolded - for example how Tupaia died on the journey to England and was awarded so little recognition by Cook after being so critical to his success.
I do recommend this to anyone interested in NZ history, and maritime exploration in the 1700s.
So interesting and sad how some of the early events unfolded - for example how Tupaia died on the journey to England and was awarded so little recognition by Cook after being so critical to his success.
I do recommend this to anyone interested in NZ history, and maritime exploration in the 1700s.
Read
February 15, 2012An incredible meticulously researched and well-written account of the three voyages of Captain James Cook from the point of view of his meetings with the Indigenous People of the vast Pacific Ocean. He consequently changed their world - and that of Aboriginal Australians - forever.
September 15, 2008
Utterly fascinating, deeply strange and sad, this book served as a corrective to the tiresome history I reluctantly imbibed as a nipper. The accounts of first contact are riveting.
August 6, 2011
Extremely interesting, well written, easy to read, fantasically researched.
May 10, 2021
3.4 While the detailed account of Cook’s explorations is a bit tedious at times a vivid depiction of the life of a seafarer in the 1770’s is provided
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews