Captain Cook - A Chart of part of the South Seas (Australia, New Zealand)

Captain Cook - A Chart of part of the South Seas (Australia, New Zealand)
This fascinating engraving is from Captain James Cook & John Hawkesworth's An Account of the Voyages Undertaken by the Order of His Present Majesty for Making Discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere. The work was published in London in 1785. It is the an account of Cook's first voyage.

Cook's first voyage of three, taking place between 1768 and 1771, was a combined Royal Navy and Royal Society expedition to the South Pacific aboard the HMS Endeavour. Departing from the Plymouth Dockyard in August 1768, the expedition crossed the Atlantic and reached Tahiti in time to observe the transit of Venus before setting off into the largely uncharted ocean to the south. In 1769, the crew reach New Zealand, and spent six months charting the coast before resuming their journey westward. In 1770 the crew became the first Europeans to reach the east coast of Australia before rounding the Cape of Good Hope in 1771 and returning to England the summer of that year.

"The famous accounts of Captain Cook's three voyages form the basis for any collection of Pacific books. In three great voyages Cook did more to clarify the geographical knowledge of the southern hemisphere than all his predecessors had done together. He was really the first scientific navigator and his voyages made great contributions to many fields of knowledge." (Hill)

"Cook earned his place in history by opening up the Pacific to western civilization and by the foundation of British Australia. The world was given for the first time an essentially complete knowledge of the Pacific Ocean and Australia, and Cook proved once and for all that there was no great southern continent, as had always been believed. He also suggested the existence of antarctic land in the southern ice ring, a fact which was not proved until the explorations of the nineteenth century." (Printing and the Mind of Man p.135)

"The success of Cook's first voyage led the Admiralty to send him on a second expedition, which was to circumnavigate the globe as far south as possible in search of any southern continents ... the men of this expedition became the first to cross the Antarctic Circle. Further visits were made to New Zealand, and on two great sweeps Cook made an astonishing series of discoveries and rediscoveries including Easter Island, the Marquesas, Tahiti and the Society Islands, Niue, the Tonga Islands, the New Hebrides, New Caledonia, Norfolk Island, and a number of smaller islands. Rounding Cape Horn, on the last part of the voyage, Cook discovered and charted South Georgia, after which he called at Cape Town, St. Helena and Ascension, and the Azores ... This voyage produced a vast amount of information concerning the Pacific peoples and islands, proved the value of the chronometer as an aid to finding longitude, and improved techniques for preventing scurvy." (Hill p.123)


Paper Size: ~ 26 7/8 - 27 1/4" by 15"

The work is in very good to excellent condition. There is some paper loss of right margin due to fold out nature. There may be a few minor marks or imperfections to be expected with age. Please review the image carefully for condition and contact us with any questions.
~ 26 7/8 - 27 1/4" by 15"