Cook James - Discoveries: the voyages of Captain Cook

Nicholas Thomas

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DISCOVERIES

The Voyages of Captain Cook

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First published by Allen Lane 2003

Published in Penguin Books 2004

Reissue with a new Preface 2018

Copyright Nicholas Thomas, 2003, 2018

The moral right of the author has been asserted

Cover images: Portrait of a New Zealand man by Sydney Parkinson, 1769 British Library/Bridgeman Images/Drawing of the HMS Endeavour CPO Ray Parkin RAN (Rtd.) AM

ISBN: 978-0-141-98817-7

A marvellously fresh, authoritative treatment of Cooks voyages written in a relaxed and informal style Glyn Williams

A richly detailed life of perhaps the greatest maritime explorer in history a nuanced contribution to the history of exploration Kirkus Reviews

Fascinating Rich, vivid and deeply provocative, Thomass work combines premiere adventure story and with thorough history and intensive sociology Thomas displays sure, careful research and thoughtful interpretations, with a style matching the adventures detailed Publishers Weekly

Superb Thomas does not so much debunk the mythic Cook, but pushes it to logical and far more satisfying conclusions Thomas has always had the rare and great ability to be able to resist received wisdom in favour of a more believable truth and here he uses it to great effect Nigel Rigby, Naval History

[Thomas] writes illuminatingly about the less fashionable and usually overlooked meetings with the peoples of Tierra del Fuego and Nootka Sound Jonathan Dore, The New York Times

A definitive book on a mythic character Science News

Thomass mastery is evident throughout as he draws on years of research An insightful and engrossing book Library Journal

A complex portrait Thomass perspective on Cook is particularly fresh Independent

Nicholas Thomas first visited the Pacific in 1984 to undertake research on culture and history in the Marquesas Islands. He has since travelled and written extensively on voyages, cross-cultural encounters, colonialism and art in Oceania. His many books include Entangled Objects (1991), Islanders: the Pacific in the age of empire (2010), which was awarded the Wolfson History Prize, and Art in Oceania: a new history (2012), a collaboration among scholars in New Zealand and Britain which received the Authors Society Art Book Prize. He has curated or co-curated many exhibitions, including Oceania, shown at the Royal Academy of Arts in London in 2018. Since 2006, Nicholas Thomas has been Director of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Cambridge, where he is also a Fellow of Trinity College.

for Annie Coombes
with all my love

: The Resolution in Antarctic waters: William Hodgess Ice Island, 17734, wash and watercolour, Mitchell Library, New South Wales.

: Detail from A Chart of the West Coast of Newfoundland, Surveyed by Order of Commodore Pallisser, Governor of Newfoundland, Labradore &c., by James Cook, London, 1768.

: Tupaia, A Scene in Tahiti, 1769, pencil and watercolour, British Library, London.

: William Hodges, Tongan Canoe, 1774, pen and Indian ink, British Library, London.

: John Webber, A Night Dance by Men in Hapaee, 1777, Dixson Library, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney.

: The Milbi Wall, Cooktown (photo: Mark Adams).

William Hodges, Capt. James Cook of the Endeavour, 17756, oil on canvas, National Maritime Museum, London.

Portrait frontispiece of Cook, engraved by Basire after Hodges, from James Cook, A Voyage Toward the South Pole, London, 1777.

Nathaniel Dance, Captain James Cook, R.N., 1776, oil on canvas, National Maritime Museum, London.

Paddy Fordham Wainburranga, Too Many Captain Cooks, 1987, natural pigments on bark, private collection.

Detail from A Chart of the West Coast of Newfoundland, Surveyed by Order of Commodore Pallisser, Governor of Newfoundland, Labradore &c., by James Cook, London, 1768.

The Dolphins assault on the Tahitians at Matavai Bay, June 1767. Engraving from John Hawkesworth, An Account of the Voyages Undertaken by Order of His Present Majesty for Making Discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere, London, 1773.

H.M. Bark Endeavour, profile drawing by Ray Parkin; courtesy of Ray Parkin.

Alexander Buchan, Ornaments Used by the People of Terra Del Fuego, 1769, British Library, London.

Tahitian chief mourners costume, collected on either Cooks second or third voyage. Institute of Ethnology, University of Gttingen.

Cooks chart of Tahiti, surveyed during his tour of June 1769, as published in Hawkesworths Account, 1773.

Tupaia, The Marae Mahaiatea, 1769, pencil and wash, British Library, London.

Sydney Parkinson, Tahitian tattoos, 1769, pen, wash and pencil, British Library, London.

Sydney Parkinson, Vessels of the Island of Otaha (Tahaa), 1769, wash, British Library, London.

Herman Diedrich Spring, New Zealand War Canoe. The Crew Bidding Defiance to the Ships Company, 1769, pencil, British Library, London.

Sydney Parkinson, Portrait of a New Zeland Man, 1769, pen and wash, British Library, London.

Patu paraoa, whalebone club. Collected during Cooks voyages. Institute of Ethnology, University of Gttingen.

A view of the Endeavour River, on the coast of New Holland, where the ship was laid on shore, in order to repair the damage which she received on the rock, engraving by Byrne after Parkinson, from Hawkesworths Voyages, London, 1773.

Sydney Parkinson, Sketch of a Kangaroo, 1770, British Museum (Natural History), London.

Joseph Banks, mezzotint by J. R. Smith after Benjamin West, c. 1772, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney.

William Hodges, View in Pickersgill Harbour, Dusky Bay, New Zealand, 1773, oil on canvas, National Maritime Museum, London.