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who, whilst circumnavigating the globe, explored and charted the inner coastal regions of New
Zealand between October 1769 and April 1770, including the Bay of Islands, the Bay of Plenty
and Queen Charlotte Sound. Despite the often fleeting and violent nature of many of the
Endeavour’s initial encounters with different Maori tribes and the act of cannibalism becoming a
sticking point for many European observers, there was a clear ambivalence between the
traditional negative values of what Belich refers to as the ‘Red Maori’ stereotype and the more
admirable attributes of fearlessness and openness, resulting in the dual image of Maori being
welcoming and kind to their friends but, by the same token, savage and cruel toward their
enemies. 16
This same viewpoint reappears in the accounts of Cook’s second voyage to New
Zealand, 17 in which Georg Forster is also no exception. In the preface of his Reise um die Welt,
he assures his readers of his objective standpoint which, although not infallible, will provide his
narrative with no unnecessary prejudices or biases towards any given nation or race of people,
such as the questionable arguments of contemporary racial philosophy, 18 through viewing all
savages “aufs allgemeine Beste” 19 in terms of their ‘perfectibility’ and potential to be raised to an
‘improved’ and ‘enlightened’ state. 20 In this way, he attempts to view the natives of the South
Seas through a clear lens: “Zuweilen folgte ich dem Herzen und ließ meine Empfindungen reden;
denn da ich von menschlichen Schwachheiten nicht frey bin, so mußten meine Leser doch wissen,
wie das Glas gefärbt ist, durch welches ich gesehen habe. Wenigstens bin ich mir bewußt, daß es
nicht finster und trübe vor meinen Augen gewesen ist” (I:13). Thus, he does not simply measure
these peoples alongside his own civilisation as being naturally inferior and with lesser values;
rather he tries to view them as developing along the same historical processes as Europe, albeit at
an earlier and more primitive stage, with their own set of characteristics. 21 In other words,
16
See Hawkesworth, Voyages II:281-410, III:7-76; cf. Salmond, Two Worlds, 87-296; Between Worlds, 25-27;
Cannibal Dog, 113-151.
17
See Salmond, Between Worlds, 36-117, 141-60; Cannibal Dog, 180-190, 220-31, 282-86, 290.
18
See, for example, Wolfdietrich Schmied-Korwarzik, “Der Streit um die Einheit des Menschengeschlechts.
Gedanken zu Forster, Herder und Kant”, in: Georg Forster in interdisziplinärer Perspektive, 115-32.
19
Georg Forster, Dr. Johann Reinhold Forster’s und seines Sohnes Georg Forster’s Reise um die Welt, auf Kosten
der Grosbrittanischen Regierung, zu Erweiterung der Naturkenntniß unternommen und während den Jahren 1772
bis 1775 in dem von Capitain J. Cook commandirten Schiffe the Resolution aufgeführt [1778-80]. In: Georg Forsters
Werke. Sämtliche Schriften, Tägebücher, Briefe. Bearbeitet von Gerhard Steiner. Bd. 2 & 3. Berlin: Akademie
Verlag, 1965, I:14. (All further references to this work will be given in parentheses in the text.)
20
Erhard Lange, “Georg Forsters Theorie der Vervollkommnungsfähigkeit der Menschen und Völker”, in:
Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena 13:1 (1964): 57-63.
21
See, for example, Tanja van Hoorn, Dem Leibe abgelesen: Georg Forster im Kontext der physischen
Anthropologie des 18. Jahrhunderts. Tübingen: Niemeyer, 2004; Eberhard Berg, Zwischen den Welten: Über die
Anthropologie der Aufklärung und ihr Verhältnis zu Entdeckungs-Reise und Welt-Erfahrung mit besonderem Blick
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