Act I: The First Voyage Expedition (1768–1771): One ship (Endeavour), 94 men [Click on the images below for high resolution versions.] |
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From a scientific viewpoint, worldwide observations of the 1761 transit of Venus across the face of the Sun had been a failure. They had not been coordinated enough, and cloudy weather had been a problem in several viewing spots. Astronomers, hopeful in using the data to calculate the distance from Earth to the Sun and between the planets, urged the scientific community to take advantage of the next transit, which would occur on June 3, 1769; another one would not take place until 1874. Britain’s Royal Society’s committee, established to consider the organization’s participation, first met in November 1767, barely nineteen months before the event was due to take place. Among other things, it decided to send two observers to the Pacific Ocean and to ask the government to supply the necessary ship. Alexander Dalrymple (1737–1808), Scottish geographer and Society fellow—and a main proponent of the existence of a Southern Continent—was offered the role as first observer. He declined, however, when the British Admiralty refused to have a non-naval person command one of its vessels, which was Dalrymple’s condition. |
Portrait of Captain James Cook. Engraving by James Basire from a portrait by William Hodges. Frontispiece to Cook’s A Voyage towards the South Pole . . . (London, 1777). [Rare Books Division] |
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Book: Hawkesworth, John. An Account of the Voyages Undertaken by the Order of His Present Majesty for Making Discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere and Successively Performed by Commodore Byron, Captain Wallis, Captain Carteret, and Captain Cook, in the Dolphin, the Swallow, and the Endeavor, Drawn Up from the Journals Which Were Kept by the Several Commanders, and from the Papers of Joseph Banks, Esq. 3 vols. 1st ed. London, 1773. Volumes 2 and 3 are devoted to Cook’s first voyage. [Rare Books Division] An English writer and journalist, Hawkesworth was commissioned by the British Admiralty to edit for publication the narratives of its officers’ circumnavigations. He was given full access to the journals of the commanders and the freedom to adapt and re-tell them in the first person. Cook was already on his way back from his second Pacific voyage, temporarily docked at Cape Town (South Africa), when he first saw the published volumes: he was mortified and furious to find that Hawkesworth claimed in the introduction that Cook had seen and blessed (with slight corrections) the resulting manuscript. (In his defense, Hawkesworth also had been a victim of misunderstanding.) Cook had trouble recognizing himself. Moreover, the work was full of errors and commentary introduced by Hawkesworth and, in Cook’s view, too full of Banks, who had promoted himself and the publication. Still, the work was popular; the first edition sold out in several months. | His Majesty’s Bark Endeavour Launched in 1764 as the merchant collier Earl of Pembroke designed to carry coal, the ship was purchased in 1768 by the Royal Navy for £2,300, renamed Endeavour, and refitted for Cook’s expedition. Its flat bottom was well suited for sailing along coasts in shallow waters and allowed the boat to be beached for the loading and unloading of cargo and for basic repairs. The addition of a third internal deck provided cabins and storerooms for men and supplies, and the navy armed the ship with ten four-pounder cannons and twelve swivel guns. Endeavour was a “full-rigged ship,” meaning that it used square sails on three masts; it measured 106 feet long and 29 feet wide, weighed 368 tons, and carried ninety-four men. | |
With marines, scientists, and crew, Endeavour departed from Plymouth, England, on August 26, 1768. Cook’s “secret” additional orders, to be opened at sea, contained instructions to search for the Southern Continent after his observations at Tahiti were completed. (For more on this fabled landmass, see the Terra Australis box in the Pacific Ocean section.) The ship stopped at Madeira for more supplies, including three thousand gallons of wine, before proceeding across the Atlantic, reaching Rio de Janeiro in November. The Portuguese viceroy was suspicious of the ship’s scientific nature and would not allow anyone ashore. At night, Banks and his men surreptitiously landed and brought back large numbers of plants and specimens for examination, including what was later named the Bougainvillea after the French explorer. (See Bougainville in the Explorers section.) | ||
Bonne, Rigobert, 1727–1794. “Plan de la Baye du Bon Succès dans le Détroit de la Maire; Carte de la partie S.E. de la Terre de Feu comprenant le Détroit de la Maire et une partie de la Terre des Etats.” Two copperplate maps, with added color, 16 × 17 cm. and 14 × 16 cm., on sheet 31 × 35 cm. From Relation des voyages entrepris par ordre de Sa Majesté Britannique . . . (Paris, 1774), the French edition of John Hawkesworth’s An Account of the Voyages Undertaken by the Order of His Present Majesty . . . (London, 1773). Reference: Martinic, Cartografí́a magallánica, VIII, 341, 343. Shows Cook’s passage by Cape Horn and the Bay of Success, where Banks’s servants died. [Historic Maps Collection]
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Inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego. [Hawkesworth, vol. 2, plate 1]
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Matavai Bay (Tahiti) and Tahitian Boats. [Hawkesworth, vol. 2, plate 4]
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The rest of the journey to Tahiti was fairly uneventful, Endeavour arriving in Matavai Bay on April 13 to a welcoming crowd of canoes. Knowing they would be there a long time, and having heard about the experiences of Wallis, John Gore (his third lieutenant, who had sailed with Wallis), and others, Cook drew up a list of rules for his men concerning their trading with and treatment of the islanders. (See the related box.) They established a Venus observatory fort at the isolated northern point of the bay. Generally, good relations with the Tahitians were maintained, but there were periodic clashes, usually about some theft of expedition supplies or equipment; some nails were removed from the ship’s hull for their iron. Venereal disease appeared to be rampant among the men, but it was really yaws, an endemic disease all over the Pacific, that was treated similarly with arsenic injections.
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June 3 dawned crystal clear, and for six hours, in temperatures rising to 119°F, the men did the best they could, but their astronomical observations of Venus were hindered by a dusky cloud surrounding the planet. For a week at the end of the month, Cook, with a small party, took the ship’s pinnace and circled the island so that he could chart it, a rather daring feat considering his vulnerability. Before leaving Tahiti on July 13, he had to deal with an attempted desertion by two crewmen and the kidnap and counterkidnap of Tahitian chiefs and British crew members to resolve this escalating problem. At the last moment, he reluctantly agreed to the addition of Tupaia, a young Tahitian priest and interpreter who wanted to join Banks’s party. |
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Bénard, Robert, fl. 1750–1785. “Baye de Matavai à Otahiti ; Havre d’Ohamaneno à Ulietea ; Havre d’Owharre dans l’isle d’Huaheine : Havre d’Oopoa à Ulietea.” Four copperplate maps on 1 sheet, with added color, 12 × 15 cm. or smaller, on sheet 27 × 40 cm. From Hawkesworth’s Relation des voyages entrepris par ordre de Sa Majesté Britannique . . . (Paris, 1774) [Historic Maps Collection]. Point Venus in Matavai Bay was the site of Cook’s observation of the transit of Venus in June 1769. |
Breadfruit. [Hawkesworth, vol. 2, plate 3]
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From Tahiti, Cook sailed through and surveyed the rest of what he named the Society Islands , all of which seemed protected by surrounding reefs and home to friendly inhabitants. Endeavour now headed south as Cook turned his attention to finding the Southern Continent. Banks had no doubt of its existence; Cook was very skeptical. Day by day the temperature fell, and the livestock (hens and pigs) began dying from the cold and deteriorating fodder. After reaching 40° S, as far south as the Admiralty had instructed, and finding nothing, Cook headed west for Dutch explorer Abel Tasman’s New Zealand, which was not sighted until early October. The Maori Indians they encountered were fierce fighters, and Cook’s attempts to make peace failed—even with Tupaia as translator—resulting in several shootings and deaths, which he deeply regretted. His surveying took him south, then back north, circling what proved to be the northern island in a counterclockwise direction; Endeavour endured some high seas with fearsome rollers. On January 22, 1770, from the top of an island (today’s Arapawa) in Queen Charlotte Sound, Cook realized that a strait separated New Zealand’s two islands; Banks named it Cook Strait in his honor. (During inland explorations here, the crew learned of the Maoris’ habit of cannibalizing enemies they killed). In a ceremony on another island-top in the sound, where a cairn was built and a post erected, Cook claimed both big islands for Great Britain. By rounding the northern island’s southern cape and heading north along its eastern side, actually reaching within sight of their starting point (C. [Cape] Turnagain on the French New Zealand map), Cook proved his point without doubt: this was no Southern Continent. From there, his surveying work continued—this time in clockwise direction around the southern island, in the high 40°s and through difficult seas and wind, Banks still hoping this island might be a continent. The weather did not mellow, so Cook was unable to offer the frustrated Banks and his botanical party any time on land until they reached Cook Strait at the end of March and found anchorage on Stephens Island. After gathering wood, filling their water casks, and catching fish, there was no reason to delay their departure, which occurred on March 31, 1770, from Cape Farewell (appropriately called Adieu on the French map). Cook had decided to return home via the west in order to avoid Cape Horn’s notorious winter and to add opportunities for further exploration. |
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Hogg, Alexander, fl. 1778–1819. “Chart of the Society Isles Discovered by Captn. Cook, 1769.” Copperplate map, with added color, 22 × 34 cm. From G. W. Anderson’s A New, Authentic and Complete Collection of Voyages Around the World, Undertaken and Performed by Royal Authority . . . (London, 1784). [Historic Maps Collection] |
New Zealander Tattoos. [Hawkesworth, vol. 3, plate 13]
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“Carte de la Nle. Zelande visitée en 1769 et 1770 par le Lieutenant J. Cook Commandant de l’Endeavour, vaisseau de sa Majesté.” Copperplate map, with added color, 46 × 36 cm. From John Hawkesworth’s Relation des voyages entrepris par ordre de Sa Majesté Britannique . . . (Paris, 1774). French copy of Cook’s foundation map of New Zealand, showing the track of the Endeavour around both islands, from October 6, 1769, to April 1, 1770. [Historic Maps Collection] |
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Endeavour came within sight of land on April 19, well north of the area charted by Tasman 125 years earlier. The New Holland (Australia) coast was exasperating, however, and Cook could not find a safe place to land until the afternoon of Saturday, April 28, when they entered Botany Bay (part of today’s Sydney Harbor), which Cook later named for the wide variety of plant life found there. The Aborigines that they saw there were unintelligible to Tupaia and kept away, avoiding contact. Through May and into June, Endeavour sailed north, arcing northwest, following the Great Barrier Reef coastline. On the evening of June 10, when most of the men were sleeping, the ship struck coral, stuck fast, and began leaking. Quick thinking and decisive action by Cook and his men—pumping furiously and jettisoning fifty tons of decayed stores, stone ballast, and cannons—kept the ship afloat and allowed a temporary underwater repair. A few days later, the damaged ship was safely beached on a barren shore (near today’s Cooktown, by the EndeavourRiver), and a fury of activity began more permanent work: the expedition had avoided a real disaster. (Henceforth, the British Admiralty would send Cook out with two ships for safety.) During this time, the men enjoyed more favorable interactions with the natives, but not without miscommunications and incidents of distrust. (See the box on Cook’s ultimately positive views on the New Hollanders.) By August 13, the ship was ready to resume its journey. |
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Bonne, Rigobert, 1727–1794. “Nlle. Galles Mérid.le [i.e. Nouvelle Galles Méridionale], ou, Côte orientale de la Nouvelle Hollande.” Copperplate map, with added color, 34 × 17 cm. Plate 137 from vol. 2 of R. Bonne and N. Desmarest’s Atlas Encyclopédique . . . (Paris, 1788). [Historic Maps Collection] Places to note include Botany Bay (B. de Bontanique) around 34°, part of today’s Sydney, highlighted in an inset, and Endeavour River (Riv. Endeavour) at the top, between 15° and 16°, where the ship was repaired. The large inset at the bottom left shows the part of Tasmania explored by Captain Tobias Furneaux of the Adventure during Cook’s second voyage. |
Beached Endeavour and Examination of Its Damage. [Hawkesworth, vol. 3, plate 19]
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Kangaroo. [Hawkesworth, vol. 3, plate 20]
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Natives of New Holland From what I have said of the Natives of New-Holland they may appear to some to be the most wretched people upon Earth, but in reality they are far more happier than we Europeans; being wholly unacquainted not only with the superfluous but the necessary Conveniences so much sought after in Europe, they are happy in not knowing the use of them. They live in a Tranquillity which is not disturb’d by the Inequality of Condition: The Earth and sea of their own accord furnishes them with all things necessary for life, they covet not Magnificent Houses, Household-stuff &c., they live in a warm and fine Climate and enjoy a very wholesome Air. . . . In short they seem’d to set no Value upon any thing we gave them, nor would they ever part with any thing of their own for any one article we could offer them; this in my opinion argues that they think themselves provided with all the necessarys of Life and that they have no superfluities. [Journals, p. 174] |
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In Batavia (today’s Jakarta, Indonesia), where Endeavour anchored on October 7, 1770, there was English news! American colonists had refused to pay taxes, and the king had dispatched troops to put down the first signs of a rebellion. Because of Cook’s strict insistence on a clean ship, exercise, and a healthy diet (including scurvy-preventing sauerkraut) for his crew, he had, until then, lost no man to sickness. Now, in one of the most diseased foreign cities, malaria, dysentery, and other ills began their work: almost everyone got sick during the months they remained on the island for refit and repair, and many died, including the Tahitian, Tupaia. Even after Cook left for home (December 26), the unfortunate deaths continued—thirty-four in all by the time they reached Cape Town in March—and five more would die there or on the last leg back to England. (Never failing to provide milk for the officers, Wallis’s goat was among the elite, having survived its second circumnavigation.) Endeavour docked in the Downs on July 12, 1771. |
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Zatta, Antonio, fl. 1757–1797. “Nuove scoperte fatte nel 1765, 67, e 69 nel Mare del Sud” (1776). Copperplate map, with added color, 29 × 39 cm. From Zatta’s Atlante novissimo (Venice, 1775–1785). Reference: Perry and Prescott, Guide to Maps of Australia, 1776.01. [Historic Maps Collection] First decorative map to show Cook’s tracks in the Pacific, recording the discoveries he made in Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, and the South Pacific during the Endeavour voyage. Also noted are the tracks of Philip Carteret, John Byron, and Samuel Wallis. The chartings of the east coast of Australia and New Zealand’s two islands are shown in detail, drawn from Cook’s own map of the region, “Chart of Part of the South Seas” (1773). The ship depicted is most probably the Endeavour. |