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Setting the Scene-James Cook

© John Harman

If you stopped some Australians in the street, and ask them who discovered Australia, they would probably say 'Captain Cook'. Cook was not the first white man to set foot in Australia, but he was the man who mapped the important eastern coastline, where the majority of the population now lives, and where the first colonial site was established.

This was however, not the primary reason for Cook's voyage. He left England from Plymouth on August 26 1768, in the Bark 'Endeavour', that had originally been designed as a collier, never intended for deep sea sailing, for the purpose of observing the transit of planet Venus. One of the best points of observation was deemed to be the newly discovered Pacific Island of Tahiti, (originally named King George III's Island) which had just been accurately charted.

After stops in Madeira,Rio and Tierra del Fuego, Cook rounded Cape Horn in good weather, and in April 1769, anchored in Matavai Bay, Tahiti. The locals were friendly, and traded with the English, exchanging fresh meat fruit and vegetables, for ironware like nails and hatchets.

The transit of Venus was observed on June 3 from three different points. Cook sailed around the island and charted it accurately. After an idyllic three months on one of the world's paradise islands, the Endeavour sailed on.

The Admiralty had given Cook orders to sail due south after leaving Tahiti to 40 degrees Latitude and search there for a southern continent. If none was found, he was to turn west, and further explore the New Zealand area, which Tasman had discovered in 1642.

Cook found nothing as he sailed South, and in keeping with his orders, turned west. In October he dropped anchor in Poverty Bay on the North Island of New Zealand. He had an altogether different reception from the locals here, than he did in Tahiti though. The war like and cannibal Maoris approached the Endeavour many times, threatening death to the crew. Tupia, the Tahitian on board the ship managed to communicate with them though, finding that their language and customs were not all that different, other than the cannibalism of course. Thereafter, the Endeavour crew was able to go ashore to collect wood and water unthreatened.

Cook produced the first accurate charts of the main two New Zealand islands, proving that they were not part of the great southern continent, as had been suspected by some Geographers.

Cook was now free to return home. He first considered sailing east, back around the Horn, perhaps finding a great continent. But with winter near, his officers feared that the ship would not withstand the seas of the 'roaring forties'. He decided to sail west to Van Diemans Land (Tasmania), then turn north to chart the east coast of New Holland, then return to England via Batavia and the Cape of Good Hope. It was a fateful decision.