In 1768 Cook was chosen to lead an expedition to the South Seas to observe the Transit of Venus and to secretly search for the unknown Great Southern Continent (terra australis incognita).

Endeavour at sea Link to pop-up enlargement

Cook and his crew of nearly 100 men left Plymouth (August 1768) in the Endeavour and travelled via Madeira (September), Rio de Janiero (November-December) and Tierra del Fuego (January 1769) to Tahiti.

View of the coast of Tierra del Fuego Link to pop-up enlargement

At Tierra del Fuego (January 1769) Cook’s men went ashore and met the local people whom Cook thought “perhaps as miserable a set of People as are this day upon Earth.” Joseph Banks’s party collected botanical specimens but his two servants, Thomas Richmond and George Dorlton, died of exposure in the snow and cold. Leaving Tierra del Fuego Endeavour rounded Cape Horn and sailed into the Pacific Ocean.

Inhabitants of the island of Tierra del Fuego in their hut Link to pop-up enlargement

Sir Joseph Banks wrote about the homes of the Fuegans
“…huts or wigwams of the most unartificial construction imaginable, indeed no thing bearing the name of a hut could possibly be built with less trouble. They consisted of a few poles set up and meeting together at the top in a conical figure, these were covered on the weather side with a few boughs and a little grass, on the lee side about one eighth part of the circle was left open and against this opening was a fire made.”
(Banks, Journal I, 224, 20th January 1769)

A Plan of King Georges Island or Otaheite Link to pop-up enlargement

Samuel Wallis on the ship Dolphin ‘discovered’ Tahiti in 1767. He recommended the island for the Transit of Venus observations and Cook arrived here in April 1769. Cook, like Wallis two years before him, anchored his ship in the shelter of Matavai Bay on the western side of the island.

Part of the West Side of Georges Island Link to pop-up enlargement

In Matavai Bay Cook established a fortified base, Fort Venus, from which he was to complete his first task – the observation of the Transit of Venus (3rd June 1769). The fort also served as protection for all the important scientific and other equipment which had to be taken ashore as: “great and small chiefs and common men are firmly of opinion that if they can once get possession of an thing it immediately becomes their own…the chiefs employd in stealing what they could in the cabbin while their dependents took every thing that was loose about the ship…”
(Joseph Banks).
Theft by some native peoples plagued Cook’s voyages.

A scene in Tahiti Link to pop-up enlargement

Cook and his crew experienced good relations with the Tahitians and returned to the islands on many occasions, attracted by the friendly people of this earthly paradise. On arrival Cook had set out the rules, including:
“To endeavour by every fair means to cultivate a friendship with the Natives and to treat them with all imaginable humanity.”
Just as Cook was planning to leave Tahiti two members of Endeavour’s crew decided to desert, having “strongly attache’d themselves” to two girls, but Cook recovered them.

Chart of the Society Islands Link to pop-up enlargement

Cook sailed around the neighbouring Society Islands and took on board the Tahitian priest, Tupaia, and his servant, Taiata. Endeavour left the Society Island in August 1769.

Tupaia acted as interpreter when they came into contact with other Polynesian peoples and helped Cook to make a map of the Pacific islands. This showed Cook the location of islands arranged according to their distance from Tahiti and indicated Tupaia’s and Polynesian knowledge of navigation and their skill as great mariners.

New Zealand war canoe bidding defiance to the ship Link to pop-up enlargement

Cook sailed in search of the Southern Continent (August-October 1769) before turning west to New Zealand. The first encounters with the native Maori of New Zealand in October were violent, their warriors performing fierce dances, or hakas, in attempts to threaten and challenge the ship’s crew. Some of their warriors were killed when Cook’s men had to defend themselves. Eventually relations improved and Cook was able to trade with the Maori for fresh supplies.

Chart of New Zealand Link to pop-up enlargement

Exploring different bays and rivers along the way Cook circumnavigated New Zealand and was the first to accurately chart the whole of the coastline. He discovered that New Zealand consisted of two main islands, north (Te Ika a Maui) and south (Te Wai Pounamu) islands (October 1769-March 1770).

Portrait of a New Zealand man Link to pop-up enlargement

The artist Sydney Parkinson described three Maori who visited the Endeavour on 12th October 1769:
“Most of them had their hair tied up on the crown of their heads in a knot…Their faces were tataowed, or marked either all over, or on one side, in a very curious manner, some of them in fine spiral directions…”
This Maori wears an ornamental comb, feathers in a top-knot, long pendants from his ears and a heitiki, or good luck amulet, around his neck.

New Zealanders fishing Link to pop-up enlargement

At the northern end of the south island Cook anchored the ship in Ship Cove, Queen Charlotte Sound, which became a favourite stopping place on the following voyages. Parkinson noted:
“The manner in which the natives of this bay (Queen Charlotte Sound) catch their fish is as follows: - They have a cylindrical net, extended by several hoops at the bottom, and contracted at the top; within the net they stick some pieces of fish, then let it down from the side of the canoe and the fish, going in to feed, are caught with great ease.”
(Parkinson, Journal, 114)

View of the Hippa on the island of Motuaro Link to pop-up enlargement

In Queen Charlotte’s Sound Cook visited one of the many Maori hippah, or fortified towns.
“The town was situated on a small rock divided from the main by a breach in a rock so small that a man might almost Jump over it; the sides were every where so steep as to render fortifications iven in their way almost totally useless, according there was nothing but a slight Palisade…in one part we observed a kind of wooden cross ornamented with feathers made exactly in the form of a crucifix cross…we were told that it was a monument to a dead man.”

Chart of Botany Bay Link to pop-up enlargement

Endeavour left New Zealand and sailed along the east coast of New Holland, or Australia, heading north (April-August 1770). Cook started to chart the east coast and on 29th April landed for the first time in what Cook called Stingray, later, Botany Bay.

The ship struck the Great Barrier Reef and was badly damaged (10 June). Repairs had to be carried out in Endeavour River. (June-August 1770). The first kangaroo to be sighted was recorded and shot.

Two Australian Aborigines Link to pop-up enlargement

The inhabitants of New Holland were very different from the people Cook had come across in other Pacific lands. They were darker skinned than the Maori and painted their bodies:
“They were all of them clean limn’d, active and nimble. Cloaths they had none, not the least rag, those parts which nature willingly conceals being exposed to view compleatly uncovered.”
(Joseph Banks)
Tupaia could not make himself understood and at first the aborigines were very wary of the visitors and not at all interested in trading.

Australian aborigines in bark canoes Link to pop-up enlargement

Joseph Banks recorded the fishing party observed at Botany Bay on 26 April 1770. He wrote:
“Their canoes… a piece of Bark tied together in Pleats at the ends and kept extended in the middle by small bows of wood was the whole embarkation, which carried one or two…people…paddling with paddles about 18 inches long, one of which they held in either hand.”
(Banks, Journal II, 134)

Chiefs house in the island of Savu, near Timor Link to pop-up enlargement

Endeavour left Australia and sailed via the Possession Isle and Endeavour Strait for repairs at Batavia, Java (October-December 1770). Although the crew had been quite healthy and almost free from scurvy, the scourge of sailors, many caught dysentery and typhoid and over thirty died at Batavia or on the return journey home via Cape Town, South Africa (March-April 1771). The ship arrived off Kent, England (July 1771).

The voyage successfully recorded the Transit of Venus and largely discredited the belief in a Southern Continent. Cook charted the islands of New Zealand and the east coast of Australia and the scientists and artists made unique records of the peoples, flora and fauna of the different lands visited.