Project Gutenberg Australia
a treasure-trove of literature
treasure found hidden with no evidence of ownership
Home Our FREE ebooks Search Site Site Map Contact Us Reading, Downloading and Converting files
James COOK (1728-1779)
Read ebooks by James Cook
Read the biography The Life of Captain James Cook by Arthur Kitson
Read The Voyage of the Endeavour by G Arnold Wood
Captain James Cook, discoverer of the east coast of Australia, was one of England's ablest navigators and an astronomer of note.
He set out in the "Endeavour" in 1768, bound for Tahiti, to make observations of the planet Venus. His orders, however, also provided for charting the coasts of New Zealand and searching for "the Great South Land".
Leaving New Zealand in March, 1770, Cook sighted the south-east coast of Australia a few weeks later. He discovered and named Botany Bay, carefully explored and mapped the coast northward, and finally, on Possession Island in Torres Strait, took possession of the whole eastern coast, naming it New South Wales.
On a later voyage, he proved that there was no large continent between New Zealand and South America, thus removing an old misconception. He was killed by natives on Hawaii in 1779.
Updated 21 November 2012