June 16, 2025

8 thoughts on “History Notes this week of April 29th

  1. The second half of the fifteenth century spawned a large number of manuals of advice to princes on how to govern.

    Pontano (1426/9-1503) in his De principe incorporates Cicero’s ideal of decorum, prescribing how a prince should dress, speak and comport himself.

    By contrast Machiavelli in his celebrated Il principe (1513) diverges from the Ciceronian tradition; he acknowledges that liberality, clemency, inspiring affection and keeping faith are admirable traits, but stresses that Realpolitik finds it necessary to discard them.

    A willingness to use force on occasion is vital to good government.

    It is safer to be feared than loved.

    The successful ruler will not hesitate to break his word if necessary.

    Machiavelli thus deliberately stood Cicero’s precepts on their heads.

    – pp. xliii, xliv, Introduction, Cicero, On Obligations as translated by P.G. Walsh

  2. While it is true that Niccolo Machiavelli is known for “The Prince,” which was written by Machiavelli, who desperately wanted to return to politics after being exiled, to win the favor of Lorenzo de’ Medici, then-governor of Florence and the person to whom the book is dedicated in hopes of landing an advisory position within the Florentine government. he also was the author of the “Discourses on Livy.”

    In an article on the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies website entiltled “The banishment and arrest of Niccolò Machiavelli” on February 15, 2013, we learn as follows concerning his banishment and the writing of The Prince:

    The circumstances of its composition are often overlooked.

    On the return of the Medici faction to Florence in September 1512, Machiavelli was removed from his post in the city’s Chancery on account of his close association with the previous leading citizen and head of the republican government, Piero Soderini.

    A victim of regime change, he remained under suspicion due to his extensive network of contacts and the experience gathered over the fourteen years he spent at the heart of the Florentine political machine.

    He was confined for a year to his smallholding in Sant’Andrea in Percussina, just outside Florence, with a surety of 1,000 gold florins.

    When his name then appeared on a list of potential sympathisers to a conspiracy to overthrow the Medici which was discovered and handed in to the authorities, they wasted no time in seeking his capture, imprisoning him, and subjecting him to torture.

    Yet while the lead conspirators were summarily executed and their associates exiled, it seems no evidence of Machiavelli’s direct involvement in the conspiracy came to light and, under the general amnesty granted on the election of Giovanni de’ Medici as Pope Leo X in March 1513, Machiavelli was released and returned to his smallholding.

    end quotes

    How many times has something similar happened in our own history, one must wonder?

    Getting back to the writing of The Prince, we have:

    It was here that Machiavelli began a regular correspondence with Francesco Vettori a former colleague from his diplomatic missions under Soderini whose family connections meant he survived the regime change in Florence.

    Posted to Rome as Ambassador to the Papal Court, Vettori was in a perfect position to petition the new Medici Pope for Machiavelli’s repatriation and reintegration into the Florentine political and diplomatic world.

    Yet Machiavelli’s former colleague and friend proved less than enthusiastic at the prospect of being linked with a known political suspect and prevaricated and deferred in the face of Machiavelli’s regular requests for support.

    end quotes

    This reminds me of the political maneuverings in this country when JFK was killed and LBJ was trying to install himself as president in the eyes of the Kennedy people, starting with Bobby Kennedy, as well as all the machinations regarding people in the State Department during the “Tail Gunner” Joe McCarthy era, where many careers were destroyed.

    Getting back to the Harvard site:

    This game of cat and mouse was played out through their correspondence mainly over the summer and autumn of 1513 which focused on the different types of political government found in Italy and abroad; how they were best conquered and held; and which political leaders of the day adopted the best policies in the contested world of Italian Renaissance politics.

    In the famous letter of 10 December 1513 Machiavelli makes the first mention of the ‘small work’ he had pulled together on the basis of their discussions, referring to the tract by the Latin title ‘De principatibus’ (‘Concerning Principalities’).

    Subsequently modified and amplified the first draft formed the basis of the work that we now know as The Prince.

    Machiavelli twice dedicated the work to members of the Medici family in the hope of gaining favour and employment as he sought to overcome what he saw as ‘the malignity of fortune’, pinning his hopes on the pithy and attention grabbing advice contained in his handbook for new rulers.

    Whether they ever received it is not known, an unconfirmed report recounting how the intended Medici recipient took more interest in a pair of hunting dogs gifted by another petitioner at the same time.

    end quotes

    So there is some important background as to how The Prince came to be written.

  3. In an article on the Hoover Institute website entitled “Discourses On Livy, By Niccolò Machiavelli” by Angelo M. Codevilla on Monday, June 5, 2017, we learn this about that writing, as follows:

    Consisting of three books, of sixty, thirty-three, and forty-nine chapters respectively, the Discourses contains the bulk of Machiavelli’s teachings.

    Unlike The Prince, the chapters are written plainly, headlined in Italian rather than in Latin, and addressed to persons he deems sympathetic to those teachings.

    The subject is nothing less than what makes for successful states and individuals, as well as for success in war.

    end quotes

    In that way, it bears similarity in subject matter to Plato’s Republic, as well as Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching and Sun Tzu’s The Art of War and On War by Von Clausewitz.

    Getting back to the Hoover Institute article:

    The book’s relationship to Roman history—and indeed to the events of Machiavelli’s own time—is tangential.

    The Discourses is not an argument for the superiority of Roman ways over those of contemporary Europe, as may appear from Machiavelli’s praise for Rome’s religion and indictment of “the Roman Church,” i.e. of Christianity, for Europe’s political incoherence.

    Machiavelli had not turned against Christ to worship Apollo.

    Instead, he praises Roman religiosity insofar as it led to the worship of the city and to the observance of oaths, while noting that Roman officials destroyed the religion by abandoning “prudence” in their manipulation of it.

    end quotes

    At the time of this nation’s founding back around 1787, when the philosophy of government was being hotly debated in this country as to what form of government we were to have, the writings of someone like Machiavelli were studied for historical perspective by such founding fathers as John Adams who wrote “A DEFENCE OF THE CONSTITUTIONS OF GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. BY JOHN ADAMS, LL. D. AND A MEMBER OF THE ACADEMY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES AT BOSTON.” in 1786 which included these following chapters, to wit:

    DEMOCRATICAL REPUBLICS.
    III. St. Marino 8
    IV. Biscay 16
    The Grisons 21
    The United Provinces of the Low Countries 22
    V. Switzerland 22
    Appenzel 23
    VI. Underwald 26
    VII. Glaris 28
    VIII. Zug 31
    IX. Uri 32
    X. Switz 34

    ARISTOCRATICAL REPUBLICS.
    XI. Berne 35
    XII. Fribourg 39
    XIII. Soleure 42
    XIV. Lucerne 45
    XV. Zurich 47
    XVI. Schaffhause 49
    Mulhouse — Bienne 50
    XVII. St. Gall 51
    Geneva 52
    XVIII. Lucca — Genoa 56
    XIX. Venice 58
    The United Provinces of the Low Countries 69

    MONARCHICAL REPUBLICS.
    XX. England 70
    XXI. Poland 72
    XXII. Poland 74
    XXIII. Recapitulation 91

    PHILOSOPHERS.
    XXIV. Dr. Swift 97
    XXV. Dr. Franklin 105
    XXVI. Dr. Price 121

    MIXED GOVERNMENTS.
    XXVII. Machiavel 141
    XXVIII. Sidney 148
    Montesquieu 153

    ANCIENT REPUBLICS, AND OPINIONS OF PHILOSOPHERS.
    XXIX. Harrington 158
    XXX. Polybius 169
    XXXI. Polybius 177
    XXXII. Dionysius Halicarnassensis — Valerius 184
    XXXIII. Plato 188
    XXXIV. Sir Thomas Smith 207

    ANCIENT DEMOCRATICAL REPUBLICS.
    XXXV. Carthage 210

    ANCIENT ARISTOCRATICAL REPUBLICS.
    XXXVI. Rome 215

    ANCIENT MONARCHICAL REPUBLICS.
    XXXVII. Tacitus 225
    XXXVIII. Homer — Phæacia 232
    XXXIX. Homer — Ithaca 237
    Homer 242

    ANCIENT ARISTOCRATICAL REPUBLICS.
    XL. Lacedæmon 249

    ANCIENT DEMOCRATICAL REPUBLICS.
    XLI. Athens 260
    XLII. Antalcidas 286
    XLIII. Achaia 295
    XLIV. Crete 305
    XLV. Corinth 308
    XLVI. Argos 311
    XLVII. Iphitus 315
    XLVIII. Thebes 318

    ANCIENT ARISTOCRATICAL REPUBLICS.
    XLIX. Crotona — Pythagoras 322

    ANCIENT DEMOCRATICAL REPUBLICS.
    L. Sybaris — Charondas 327
    LI. Locris — Zaleucus 331
    LII. Rome 334

    CONCLUSION.
    LIII. Congress 362
    LIV. Locke, Milton, and Hume 365
    LV. Conclusion 372

    Postscript 383

    end quotes

    That is an indication of the amount of thought that the so-called “Founding Fathers” put in to devising an enduring system for this nation, based on an exhaustive survey of the philosophy of government throughout history, which as one can see under the heading MIXED GOVERNMENTS on Chapter XXVII, included Niccolò Machiavelli.

    Thus, there is a direct linkage between the turbulent political times Niccolò Machiavelli lived in, and the turbulent political times we live in today.

  4. Getting back to that article on the Hoover In statute website entitled “Discourses On Livy, By Niccolò Machiavelli” by Angelo M. Codevilla on Monday, June 5, 2017, which is a part of the basis for the political philosophy we have in this country today, we have as follows:

    He (Machiavelli) also praises Spain’s Catholic king for having used Christianity to solidify his grip on the country.

    In short, regardless of time and place, Machiavelli teaches his readers to view religion from a purely instrumental perspective.

    end quotes

    One must wonder, of course, how much that writing influences the Trump Muslim bans of today.

    Getting back to the article:

    Machiavelli uses Rome to make observations that are universally valid.

    He judges its institution of Dictatorship—for specified periods of time but without power to alter basic institutions—to have been something that all republics should consider healthy.

    end quotes

    And there I will rest for the moment to let that thought be pondered as it applies to our last several presidents to include George W. (Small) Bush, Barack Hussein Obama Magnus, and this present incumbent with the bad hair-do and comb-over with a thing for porn stars.

    Is dictatorship a good thing for America?

  5. And speaking of Machiavellian drama with political “playahs” being forced into exile like Niccolo Machiavelli was, along with Princes with a willingness to use force on occasion being vital to good government, and a belief that it is safer to be feared than loved with a successful ruler not hesitating to break his word if necessary, thus standing Cicero’s precepts on their heads, we in America are sure getting a huge dose of it this morning in the New York Times article “Schneiderman’s Resignation Leads to Turmoil and Speculation About His Successor” by Vivian Wang, 8 May 2018, where we learn as follows:

    The resignation of Eric T. Schneiderman, New York’s attorney general and a central figure in the liberal resistance to President Trump, after allegations that he had physically abused multiple women set off an immediate storm of speculation in New York about his potential successor, and raised questions nationwide about the fate of his legal challenges to the Trump administration.

    end quotes

    The central figure in the liberal resistance to Donald Trump just went down in flames – spin, crash. burn, say good-bye!

    How about that for Machiavellian drama, people?

    Beats the hell out of the Khloe Kardashian/Tristan whatever-his-name-is drama by a mile and it is far better than any of the crap on TV right now, anyway, although that is not saying much these days.

    So, is this case of a flea biting a dog and then dying from whatever is in the dog’s blood?

    Sure does seem like it, as we shall soon see.

    Getting back to the Machiavellian human drama here, we have:

    Even before Mr. Schneiderman announced his resignation late Monday evening, just hours after The New Yorker first published the accusations, New York’s political circles were already abuzz with talk of who would replace him.

    end quotes

    As an aside, the man, like many other politicians, both in Washington, D.C. and New York state, including Young Andy Cuomo, the Progressive Democrat governor and presumptive Democrat party presidential front-runner in 2020, was known as a thug and bully in whose hands the law was nothing more than moldable putty, so he won’t be missed by the common folk, who are glad to see him gone.

    Getting back to the NY Times, we have:

    According to The New Yorker, Mr. Schneiderman slapped, choked or spat on at least four women with whom he had been romantically involved, two of whom spoke on the record.

    The horrific accusations included alcohol-fueled rages, racist remarks, drug abuse and threats — including to kill the women or use his power as the state’s top law enforcement officer against them if they defied him.

    end quotes

    Having personal experience with how his office operated, I am not at all surprised that he would tell someone in a threatening manner that he would use the power of his office against them, because that is exactly what his office told me, as it in fact did that, to my detriment as a new York state citizen.

    Eric T. “Teddy” Schneiderman doesn’t talk; he hits.

    Getting back to the Machiavellian drama here, it continues as follows:

    Politicians and pundits in both parties joined in swift and unsparing condemnation of Mr. Schneiderman.

    But the conversation quickly turned partisan, given Mr. Schneiderman’s meteoric rise as a relentless and outspoken legal foe of Mr. Trump who had sued the federal administration more than 100 times over policies ranging from immigration to taxation.

    end quotes

    BUZZ, BUZZ, BUZZ – Teddy Schneiderman was like a tiny gnat buzzing around a whale with all of his lawsuits, none of which ever seemed to go anywhere once the headlines died down.

    Teddy was “show-boating” as the tactic is known in New York, filing frivolous lawsuits to keep his name in lights as “THE PEOPLES’ CHAMPION,” which he certainly wasn’t.

    Getting back to the Machiavellian elements of the Teddy Schneiderman story, we have:

    Prominent Republicans nationwide reveled in the news.

    Donald Trump Jr. mockingly shared several old tweets from the attorney general, in which he had denounced the president and expressed solidarity with victims of sexual assault; “This didn’t age well,” he wrote.

    Kellyanne Conway, the president’s counselor, wrote in a tweet that Mr. Schneiderman had been “drunk with power.”

    end quotes

    I don’t run in the same social circles as does Kellyanne Conway, and I can’t say I think much of her, and I’m not a fan, but that notwithstanding, I would say that she is dead on the money here with her comment that Teddy Schneiderman had been “drunk with power,” an observation that also applies to many of our state and nation politicians today, including Young Andy Cuomo and Donald Trump, himself.

    As to where the Democrats stand with respect to Teddy Schneiderman’s political exile, the NY Times tells us this:

    Mr. Schneiderman’s fellow Democrats had also called on him to step aside, with Mr. Cuomo, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Mr. Heastie saying the attorney general was incapable of continuing in his office.

    end quotes

    In terms of New York state politics, those names correspond to the de’ Medici’s in Machiavelli’s time.

    Getting back to the political exile of Teddy Schneiderman, we have:

    While Mr. Schneiderman’s resignation signals the probable end of a career that many had seen as gaining quick national prominence, the legal fallout is most likely only beginning.

    A spokesman for Cyrus R. Vance Jr., the Manhattan district attorney, said Mr. Vance’s office had opened an investigation into the allegations in the New Yorker article.

    Mr. Schneiderman had, at the direction of Mr. Cuomo, himself been probing Mr. Vance’s office over questions about its handling of groping allegations against the film mogul Harvey Weinstein in 2015.

    end quotes

    See how convoluted this political drama is, people – wheels within wheels within wheels.

    Young Andy Cuomo sees Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance as some kind of political rival or threat, so he had Teddy Schneiderman conduct a politically-motivated probe of Vance’s office over questions about its handling of groping allegations against the film mogul Harvey Weinstein in 2015, and now, that appears to have backfired.

    So to get himself un-hoist from that petard, the NY Times tells us this:

    Separately, Mr. Cuomo also said on Monday that he would direct an “appropriate New York district attorney” to investigate the allegations.

    An administration official said Monday that the governor’s office wanted to avoid any conflict of interest and ensure the proper jurisdiction, given the attorney general’s review of Mr. Vance and the fact that some of the alleged abuse occurred on Long Island.

    end quotes

    “Ah, whoops,” says Young Andy, time to do some political razzle-dazzle here to get people’s minds off that and onto something else.

    And this I think is rich:

    Mr. Schneiderman had been in contact with a criminal defense lawyer late Monday afternoon to advise him on his response to The New Yorker, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.

    end quotes

    HUH?

    The dude’s a hotshot lawyer who sued Trump over a hundred times.

    So why does he need another lawyer to tell him how to respond to the New Yorker?

    Doesn’t Teddy know how to do that himself?

    And what is with all these lawyers having lawyers, like Trump’s lawyer did?

    Do the lawyers they lawyer up with have their own lawyers that they are in turn lawyered up with?

    And where does that chain start or stop?

    Getting back to the NY Times on that subject, we have:

    Later, an associate of Mr. Schneiderman was looking for a lawyer to represent him in connection with the criminal investigation, several other people with knowledge of the matter said.

    end quotes

    Doesn’t that sound like what the Trump people are also doing?

    And here we get into more of the Machiavellian politics here, as follows:

    Several women’s groups that had previously supported Mr. Schneiderman — he was known for being an outspoken advocate for women’s advancement, especially reproductive rights — expressed shock and sorrow.

    The National Institute for Reproductive Health, which had honored the attorney general at a May 1 luncheon, said in a statement that it was “appalled and horrified.”

    (By Tuesday, the group had removed Mr. Schneiderman from its list of honorees.)

    Sonia Ossorio, president of New York’s arm of the National Organization for Women, which endorsed Mr. Schneiderman in his 2010 and 2014 campaigns, said she was “in shock.”

    “I’m just beside myself right now,” she said.

    end quotes

    That sounds like Hillary Clinton being shocked when she learned that Harvey Weinstein was the way he was with woman: “oh, I’m so shocked, I didn’t know!”

    And then we get to here:

    And political observers said the news would further erode public trust in Albany, which has been roiled repeatedly by corruption trials, sexual harassment scandals and other ethics controversies.

    Douglas Muzzio, a political science professor at Baruch College, said the allegations were “another blow” to our “trust in government officials and in the institutions of government itself.”

    end quotes

    But that last statement by Douglas Muzzio, the political science professor at Baruch College, is not true, people – there hasn’t been “another blow” to our “trust in government officials and in the institutions of government itself, precisely because we don’t have any, and have not in quite some time because of all the corruption trials, sexual harassment scandals and other ethics controversies swirling around in this corrupt state and hack thug politicians like Eric T. “Teddy” Schneiderman using the power of his office to paper over endemic public corruption in New York State especially with respect to its corrupt New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

    And that, people, is contemporary American history from our times today.

    “The Prince” lives on!

  6. And getting back to that article on the Hoover Institute website entitled “Discourses On Livy, By Niccolò Machiavelli” by Angelo M. Codevilla on Monday, June 5, 2017, which as stated above underlies and forms a part of the basis for the political philosophy we have in this country today, it continues as follows:

    But multiple examples are available to bolster a host of other points: Money does not make power.

    Rather, power attracts wealth and is able to compel it.

    Which is better, a spirited army or a wise leader of armies?

    The leader is more important, because leaders can create armies de novo as well as make the difference between using their power wisely or counterproductively.

    end quotes

    Those people, are the political thoughts spanning a period of several hundred years that people in America at the time of our Revolution had, and the questions they asked themselves as they tried to set in place an enduring Republican form of government in the United States of America.

    Getting back to Machiavelli’s influence on our own times today as well as his political relevance, we have as follows:

    None of the Discourses’ anecdotes strike the reader as relevant to modern circumstances more than those regarding internal security, which Machiavelli treats under the rubric of “fortresses.”

    end quotes

    In our time, of course, it is the Great Wall of MAGA-man Donald Trump, but the idea is just the same.

    Getting back to Machiavelli:

    Regardless of what precautions any regime takes, it cannot prevent either treason or, just as dangerous, such disaffection as renders the regime vulnerable to foreign powers.

    end quotes

    There I will say WOW, and rest for the moment to let that thought sink in, along with these final words from that same article, to wit:

    No civil libertarian, Machiavelli notes that the harder that a regime tries to crack down on dissent, the likelier it is to foster it.

    Real internal security comes only from a population that is strongly committed to the regime or, what is almost the same thing, strongly opposed to its enemies.

  7. Staying with the theme that in his celebrated Il principe (1513), Machiavelli diverged from the Ciceronian tradition, let us for the moment consider the implications of what that might mean to us in our times, given the connection between Machiavelli’s political thoughts from the times he was in versus our political philosophy in this country today, assuming that there actually might be one, by looking at what Ciceronian tradition might be, and more importantly, whether our founding fathers might have been aware of it to any degree.

    According to “Cicero, On Obligations” as translated by P.G. Walsh, Cicero wrote in his De Legibus that both justice and law derive their origin from what nature has given to man, from what the human mind embraces, from the function of man, and from what serves to unite humanity.

    For Cicero, natural law obliges us to contribute to the general good of the larger society,

    end quotes

    Here, I am forced to admit that yes, I am of the Ciceronian tradition in that regard, which perhaps serves top skew my perspective when commenting on matters political in this country today, especially in corrupt New York state.

    Getting back to Cicero:

    The purpose of positive laws is to provide for “the safety of citizens, the preservation of states, and the tranquility and happiness of human life.”

    end quotes

    In corrupt New York state today, where Machiavelli’s “The Prince” is the political handbook of choice, that is considered to be a dangerous way of thinking, as my own experiences with NYS government prove.

    And back to Cicero:

    In this view, “wicked and unjust statutes” are “anything but ‘laws,'” because “in the very definition of the term ‘law’ there inheres the idea and principle of choosing what is just and true.”

    Law, for Cicero, “ought to be a reformer of vice and an incentive to virtue.”

    end quotes

    Good luck with that today in America is my thought, anyway.

    And back to Cicero:

    Cicero expressed the view that “the virtues which we ought to cultivate, always tend to our own happiness, and that the best means of promoting them consists in living with men in that perfect union and charity which are cemented by mutual benefits.”

    end quotes

    How naïve Cicero was, which explains how he came to die on the orders of Mark Antony.

    And here is the tie-in to our political philosophy we have been looking for:

    Cicero influenced the discussion of natural law for many centuries to come, up through the era of the American Revolution.

    The jurisprudence of the Roman Empire was rooted in Cicero, who held “an extraordinary grip … upon the imagination of posterity” as “the medium for the propagation of those ideas which informed the law and institutions of the empire.”

    Cicero’s conception of natural law “found its way to later centuries notably through the writings of Saint Isidore of Seville and the Decretum of Gratian.”

    Thomas Aquinas, in his summary of medieval natural law, quoted Cicero’s statement that “nature” and “custom” were the sources of a society’s laws.

    The Renaissance Florentine chancellor Leonardo Bruni praised Cicero as the man “who carried philosophy from Greece to Italy, and nourished it with the golden river of his eloquence.”

    The legal culture of Elizabethan England, exemplified by Sir Edward Coke, was “steeped in Ciceronian rhetoric.”

    The Scottish moral philosopher Francis Hutcheson, as a student at Glasgow, “was attracted most by Cicero, for whom he always professed the greatest admiration.”

    More generally in eighteenth-century Great Britain, Cicero’s name was a household word among educated people.

    Likewise, “in the admiration of early Americans Cicero took pride of place as orator, political theorist, stylist, and moralist.”

    end quotes

    Today, in America, Cicero is all but forgotten, buried for etermi8ty by what is going on in the multiple lives of the Kardashians and Prince Harry and Megan.

    Oh, well.

    Back to Cicero:

    The British polemicist Thomas Gordon “incorporated Cicero into the radical ideological tradition that travelled from the mother country to the colonies in the course of the eighteenth century and decisively shaped early American political culture.”

    Cicero’s description of the immutable, eternal, and universal natural law was quoted by Burlamaqui and later by the American revolutionary legal scholar James Wilson.

    Cicero became John Adams’s “foremost model of public service, republican virtue, and forensic eloquence.”

    Adams wrote of Cicero that “as all the ages of the world have not produced a greater statesman and philosopher united in the same character, his authority should have great weight.”

    Thomas Jefferson “first encountered Cicero as a schoolboy learning Latin, and continued to read his letters and discourses as long as he lived.”

    “He admired him as a patriot, valued his opinions as a moral philosopher, and there is little doubt that he looked upon Cicero’s life, with his love of study and aristocratic country life, as a model for his own.”

    Jefferson described Cicero as “the father of eloquence and philosophy.”

  8. Shifting gears here, this story of Captain James Cook brings to mind the story of Tupaia the Navigator, as well.

    According to Wikipedia, 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.

    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.

    end quotes

    If anyone has seen the modern movie from Disney titled “Moana,” that story seems to be based on the loss of that knowledge.

    According to recorded history, Tupaia joined Endeavour in July 1769 when she 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.

    Banks welcomed the Raiatean’s interest in travelling with Endeavour to England where he could be presented as an anthropological curiosity.

    end quotes

    An anthropological curiosity?

    But that is how the Brits looked on non-Brits at the time, so we just have to accept that characterization, although if Trump were to call people in other countries, France, for example, “anthropological curiosities,” it is pretty much guaranteed that all heel would break loose, which is some kind of statement about where we have come to since then.

    Australian academic Vanessa Smith has speculated that Banks also envisaged conversation, amusement and possibly a genuine friendship from Tupaia’s company during the voyage.

    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.

    According to an extract of “The Endeavour Journal of Joseph Banks 1768–1771, we have as follows on that subject:

    “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.”

    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.

    end quotes

    And here we come to some friction between Cook, who afterall, was the star of the show, and Tupaia, who was seen by Cook as stepping on his lines and upstaging him, to wit:

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

    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.

    Tupaia accompanied Cook to New Zealand and was welcomed by some of the Māori as a tohunga (an expert).

    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.

    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.”

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    Hey, the Brits didn’t like bending to an American either back in those days, so that attitude on their part is not at all surprising.

    Getting back to the story:

    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.”

    As to the end of Tupaia, in November 1770, he died from either dysentery or malaria, 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.”

    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.”

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    Today, however, the name of Tupaia is barely known, while that of Cook is famous.

    And such is the way things go.

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