I'm John Batchew with Hampton Sides.

His book is The Wide Wide Sea.

This is the third voyage of Captain James Cook.

His mission to discover the Northwest Passage.

There's a reward.

There's the celebration of his countrymen.

There's worldwide acclaim for the person who finds the passage through the ice from Greenland to the Pacific to the Asian markets, especially China and India.

However, Cook has a magic. He finds land that isn't there on the map. And sailing across the equator north, December of 77,

they spot an island that we now know as Maui around Christmastime, I think. This is December 77 into 78.

But the wind pushes them away from Maui, and they find an island that we call

Kauaians. Kauai is part of the chain. It doesn't exist on his maps. What does he make of it,

Hampton? He can't believe it. He thinks it's a mistake at first. He wonders if it's an optical illusion or something.

But as they get closer, they realize it's a major volcanic island, one of many in a chain.

And he realizes immediately that this is a major find.

This is not, you know, some tiny little atoll somewhere uninhabited.

This is a, this is, there's a whole thriving civilization here. As the ships come closer,

all these canoes are launched out to meet him and greet him. This is a true first contact

experience for both sides.

And the Kiwaians, the men and women of Kauai, don't know what to make of cook ships.

There's all sorts of oral history passed down that they thought they were some kind of giant manta rays that had emerged from the sea or that they were gods or that they were from outer

space, all kinds

of weird ideas.

...