James Cook
Voyage of the Endeavor
1768-1771

Introduction
Tahiti
From Tahiti to New Zealand
New Zealand
Australia: South Coast
Australia: North Coast and the Great Barrier Reef
From Australia to Batavia
From Batavia to England
Review of Cook's First Voyage

Introduction

During the decade prior to Cook's departure for the South Seas, Augustus Dalrymple brought together the collective of his thinking, experience and research to propose there existed a large, heretofore unknown to the Europeans continent somewhere in the region of the south Pacific. He reasoned an imbalance of the known oceanic mass with the known land mass in the southern regions by a ration of about 8 to 1, indicated a large continent to be found. His writings of the known state of the Pacific and his reasons for expecting more caught the attention of the geography and political elements of Europe.

As the planet Venus was to pass across the disk of the sun (in the view from Earth) on 3 June 1769, the Royal Society of Britain determined to make a world observation of the event. One viewing station was to be from an island (Otaheite) in the South Pacific and Dalrymple was chosen to lead the expedition, the Admiralty providing a ship. However, when Dalrymple insisted that he have command and control of the ship, the Navy said No and it came to pass that a young officer by the name of Cook was inserted to control the vessel. Dalrymple declined to participate in the expedition under the circumstances. The ship was the Endeavor Bark and Cook was 40 years old.

There is much to be said about preparations, influences, concerns, and capabilities in the setting of this venture, but two things are notable in this abbreviated account.

The ship's crew included the accomplished botanist, Joseph Banks, and the capable naturalist, Daniel Solander, as well as Charles Green, an assistant at the Greenwich Observatory. A natural history artist by the name of Sydney Parkinson, was also part of the scientific entourage. Departure from England was from Plymouth on 26 August 1768.

Tahiti

Enroute, Cook took the direction of the Strait of Le Maire, then passed Cape Horn and into the Pacific on 27 January 1769. After refreshing at several islands along the way, Cook anchored at Tahiti on 13 April 1769. In the passage, he noted no ocean currents indicative of nearby land mass. He found no reason to believe a great land mass (Terra Australis) existed in the region he passed.

On board, Cook had several persons, including xxx, who had traveled to Tahiti with Wallis in the Dolphin two years earlier. These men recognized a degradation in the quality of life for the Tahitian natives since there first visit.

At Tahiti Cook's notes and journal began to identify him as great not only in navigation and the ways of the sea, but also as an observer of human ceremony, society, and culture. He lingered longer than any other European in this location, spending three months to build a fort at Point Venus and observe the transit, then circumnavigating the island, giving it a geographic identity. In mid-July Cook sailed for other islands in the group, noting nearly 75 of them and surmising there may well be hundreds more scattered about the oceans. The closeness of these islands caused Cook to call them the Society Islands (excepting Tahiti) as he took possession for the Crown.

During this long period, Cook found it necessary to institute very strict rules, including one related to expedition members trading ship's iron (nails, hinges, latches, and the like) for amorous favors on shore. Two years earlier, Wallis' ship was scavenged by the sailors for any iron that could be pried or otherwise loosed, resulting in the ship's integrity becoming somewhat compromised.

Cook took on board a native priest, who was called Tupaia and his boy servant. Tupaia was an able navigator through regions of the Society Islands, and proved a great asset in meeting peoples in New Zealand. In addition, Tupaia offered appropriate prayers for the expedition, at times calling on the winds to blow favorably.

On 9 August 1769 the expedition left Tahiti.

From Tahiti to New Zealand

True to the objective of discovery, Cook's itinerary, following his Tahiti departure, was set to resolve the issue of a great southern continent. As instructed, he sailed south to 40 degrees latitude at or by which point proponents of the southern continent theory expected he would make landfall. On finding no land mass, Cook's path was to take him west and into the eastern side of the land recorded by Tasman.

At 40 degrees South latitude, Cook found no land body. Furthermore, the nature of the ocean swell indicated no major land mass in the vicinity. The weather worsened and Cook turned northward and continued west. By the end of September, Cook sailed into water with pieces of floating seaweed and other material, as well as sea birds, associated with the presence of land, and concluded landfall was imminent.

On 7 October 1769 land on the eastern side of New Zealand's North Island was sighted.

New Zealand

New Zealand to Batavia

The issue of new Zealand was significant to geographers as they plotted the distant ocean. Tasman had barely touched the land and left it by surmising it could be an extension of the polar land Le Maire identified as he (Le Maire) transited the southern end of South America. Le Maire called this Staaten Land, and Tasman conjectured with the same name. Cook intended to determine the relationship of Tasman's Staaten Land with the Staaten Land of Le Maire.

A young ship's boy (possibly aged about 12) was the first to sight this land, and two days later Cook was at anchor in a bay he eventually called Poverty Bay, as he was unable to find supplies he wished for the ship's company. The prominent headland at the southern end of the bay was named for the first to spy the land, Young Nick's Head. In this bay Cook had his first encounter with the aboriginal New Zealanders, the Maori. The Tahitian priest Tupaia was able to converse with the Maori natives, but he determined they were not friendly and Cook's men must be constantly on guard for their safety and for their effects. In a first meeting, the sword of one of Cook's officers was taken and the result was the shooting (and killing) of the Maori thief.

Cook set sail to the south to survey, but after less than a week, he turned to retrace his coastal journey back toward Poverty Bay, naming the place Cape Turnagain. It was evident to Cook that the land continued to the south and as the winter weather was not yet abated, he decided to go north before exploring south. This would give the southern weather a chance to become more agreeably, as the season turned to summer. In this down-and-back maneuver, Cook twice passed through and charted the great, sweeping Hawke Bay, named for the first Lord of the Admiralty at the time, Sir Edward Hawke. On the southward leg of this sweep, at the southern end of Hawke Bay, natives tried to kidnap the boy servant of Tupaia. With the boy in their canoe a group of kidnappers began paddling off. Cook's men fired upon the group, killing two or three and allowing the boy to jump over and swim back toward Endeavor. The incident caused Cook to name the southern point at Hawke Bay, Cape Kidnappers.

Following the coastline northward and then west, Cook was nearing the lowest latitude for the North Island, when squally weather blew Endeavor out of sight of land. In beating back into the coastline, Cook determined the swell he faced indicated a large expanse of ocean and that he would begin moving south along the west coast. More bad weather again blew Endeavor off the coast, but Cook was able to identify the islands Tasman had called the Three Kings and also to fix very accurately, the Cape Tasman had called after the wife of his administrative supporter, Cape Maria van Dieman.

Cook wrote of the weather:

On the 14th of January, on the western coast, and on passing (and naming) Mount Egmont (First Lord of the Admiralty) on the southwest prominence of the North Island, Cook found a wide expanse of water, a broad, deep bay, reaching to the east. On the southern shore of the bay, cook found many smaller bays as part of a complex he called Queen Charlotte's Sound. Here he anchored and repaired and serviced his ship at a place called Ship's Cove. The location was less than 50 miles from the location of Tasman's Murderer's Bay, yet Cook was unable to uncover from the local natives any history related to the Tasman incidents.

Early in February Cook climbed a local hill to better see the inlet and surrounds. He descended elated, for he had seen the passage of the large bay into the oceans of the east. The expedition was on the southern shore of a strait (later, Cook Strait) which separated the North Island from any claim of being part of a super continent. Cook was set to prove the North Island was that, an island. He sailed for Cape Turnagain on the east coast of the North Island.

Turning south, Cook set about discovering the southern geography, but was greatly hampered by squalls and unfit weather, forcing him offshore several times, until he reached 47 degrees South latitude. From the east Cook worked in on the strait separating what is now known as Stewart Island from the mainland of the South Island, but he did not complete the passage, and so never recognized the distinct nature of that smaller island. West of Stewart Island made a successful passage which caused him to note his good fortune and identify a dangerous conditions for the unwatchful.

By mid-March, the southern reach of the southern island had been bested and Endeavor was turned north, again on a west coast. Banks and those favoring the existence of a southern continent, conceded this land was not it.

In this moment there appears to have developed a lasting enmity from Banks toward Cook, if not mutually placed. There appears on the southwest edge of the South Island, beautiful and deep fjord lands into which Banks was emphatic the expedition should cruise. Cook recognized the basic danger of being in a sailing craft on a west coast with a west wind and entering a narrow confine by which turning would be difficult, if accomplished at all. The rocky nature of the fjord indicated a rocky bottom which would offer poor or no purchase for anchor flukes. He refused to jeopardize his ship and sailed northward, past Banks' requested stop. Cook makes little note of the incident, but Banks recalled it negatively 30 years later (and after Cook's death), when comparing the expeditionary captain ships of Matthew Flinders and Cook.

Cook returned to secure harbor inside Cook Strait. Here he planned and prepared for his departure of New Zealand. The work for which he had been sent to the South Pacific had been completed, and Cook's instruction was to return to England in the manner he believed most appropriate. Beaglehole identifies the four options before Cook.

On the last option, the officers were unanimous. The ship's company was now on the return leg to England. Cook plotted to reach Tasman's Van Dieman's Land. With Endeavor watered and wood brought aboard and a fresh supply of ascorbic vegetables, Cook left New Zealand.

Australia: South Coast

Cook intended to reach Van Dieman's Land (known now as the island state of Tasmania) where Tasman had left it. Had he been successful, he may have discovered the watery strait (Bass Strait) separating that island from the mainland. However, nearing the end of the westward crossing of the Tasman sea a storm sent Cook too far north, and land was sighted by Lieutenant Hicks on the 19th of April (1770) west of the southeastern prominence of the continent. Sailing north, Cook was hampered by disagreeable winds, but finally made for a shallow harbor at 34 degrees South latitude. He entered on April 29th. In the bay he found native peoples (Tupaia could understand nothing in their language), plenty of firewood, good water (eventually), swampy and sandy shores, and many sting rays in the water. The bay was called Sting Ray Bay, but following the enthusiasm of Banks and Solander in recovery unique vegetation specimens, the name was changed to Botany Bay.

Australia: North Coast and the Great Barrier Reef

Cook continued northward naming features and always searching for good harbors and maintenance materials for his ship and crew. He passed and identified

As Cook was funneled into the narrowing channel between the mainland and the maze of distributed reefs of the Great Barrier Reef system, he continued sounding and naming features he observed. The events leading into the grounding of Endeavor on a reef and the resulting actions leading to breaking out beyond the Reef and into the Coral Sea are recorded in excerpts from Cook's journal, edited and footnoted by Beaglehole.
As a result of Cook's escape away from the mainland and into the sea beyond the Reef, Cook was unable to explore the coast. In his charts it was marked from Endeavor Reef to the north end of the continent LABYRINTH, but at approximate latitude 13 degrees South, he returned to the coast and proceeded to the peninsular tip.

The next day (Wednesday, 22 August 1770) Cook went ashore of an island in the York group and proclaimed the lands he had discovered for the King.

It was then left for Cook to transit between the New Holland continent and New Guinea and he was confident this would be possible, as he had long held that Torres had proved the existence of the strait. The relief of passing out of the reef myriad is not lost in Cook's words on passing through Torres Strait.

From Australia to Batavia

Cook realized these waters had been well enough plotted by the years of Dutch presence, and therefore had identified no geographic issue to which he could apply himself. His route was to the coast of New Guinea, then west along the southern coast of Java and around the west end of the island into Batavia.

From Batavia to England

Batavia was a difficult stay for the crew of Endeavor, there being so much death and sickness. The ship required a major overhaul to make fit for the return to England. Rigging was brought down and the ship was careened for cleaning and repair. The hull required more attention, following the grounding on Endeavor Reef. Then the rigging reinstalled. Three months were spent at this port, which was rife with disease and general unhealthiness.

From England to Java not one man had been lost to scurvy. Villiers gives the following account of deaths.

Batavian conditions were so foul that death was common throughout the sailing community. The effects lingered well into the Atlantic. About the Endeavor crew Villiers continues

Four more died at the Cape and after leaving South Africa Robert Molyneaux died and in the North Atlantic Lieutenant Hicks, Cook's Number One finally died of a Consumption which he was not free from when we sailed from England so that -- he had been dying ever since, tho he held out tolerable well until we got to Batavia. [Cook's words]

Nicholas Young was first to sight Land's End and three days later the Anchor was dropped in the Downs, 13 July 1771.

Review of Cook's First Voyage

The accomplishment of Lieutenant James Cook in the Pacific regions during 1769 and 1770 are not easily distinguished without a solid understanding of methodology and accomplishment to that time and under the same conditions. Cook reported not as a traveler, but as a scientist, a scientist of geography. His journals are filled with the statement of winds and seas, tides and sunken rocks, the character of the lands, the habits of men. Cook gave quality to his discoveries unlike any before him or any imagined by the British Admiralty. He had taken a bay, a landfall, a vague strip of coast and presented to geography an outline, clear and defined, set and proportioned in the general scheme of knowledge.

The technical competence under extreme conditions throughout the passage is represented by his work off Cape Maria van Dieman and throughout the Great Barrier Reef labyrinth. With only dead reckoning and his celestial abilities, Cook charted an unknown world with himself as his greatest asset. Great error in calculation, the accepted inevitable among navigators, became with him the regretted exception.

Beaglehole states the accomplishments.