The Oregon Coast in 1778 by Captain James Cook

What it is

This passage comes from a 1935 chapter titled Literature of the Explorers, in a history of Oregon literature. Within it, the text reprints a section titled The Oregon Coast in 1778, by Captain James Cook, which gives his own account of that coast. The chapter introduction notes that early explorers of Oregon recorded many observations in logs, diaries and chronicles, but often did not record the words of the native people they met. The text is taken from a digital copy on Wikisource.

Why it matters

Cook's account of the Oregon coast is one of the early written records of that region by European explorers. Because it appears inside a later literary history, it shows how 1930s writers chose to preserve and present the explorers' writings. The chapter's comments on what the explorers did and did not record help readers think about whose voices are kept in such accounts.

Look closer

• Whose voice do you hear in the reprinted passage, and whose voice is absent?
• Why might a book from 1935 choose to reprint an explorer's account in this way?
• What does the chapter say the explorers failed to record, and what might that leave out?