Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Whereas there is reason to imagine that a continent or land of
great extent may be found to the southward of the tract lately made
by captain Wallis in his majesty's ship the Dolphin (of which you will
herewith receive a copy) or of the tract of any former navigators . . .
You are to proceed southward in order to make discovery of the con-
tinent above mentioned until you arrive in the latitude of 400, unless
you sooner fall in with it. But, not having discovered it or any evident
signs of it in that run, you are to proceed in search of it to the westward
between the latitude before mentioned and the latitude of 350 until
you discover it, or fall in with the eastern side of the land discovered by
Tasman and now called New Zealand.
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So ran Cook's secret instructions. But the openly acknowledged
purpose of the voyage was a purely scientific one. On 3 June 1769
the planet Venus was scheduled to pass between the earth and the
sun, a phenomenon which would not recur for another 105 years.
Mathematicians and astronomers were excited by this event because
they believed it would enable them to calculate the distance between
the two planets and between Venus and the sun, thus enabling the
distance between the earth and her parent star to be determined for
the first time ever. To do the job properly it was important to ob-
serve the transit of Venus from several locations. As part of the Brit-
ish contribution to this international scientific project, the Royal So-
ciety, supported by George III, who personally donated £4,000, pro-
posed to send observers to the recently discovered island of Tahiti.
Thus, Cook found himself making a journey to the South Sea accom-
panied by a scientific team led by the wealthy patron and amateur
botanist, Joseph Banks.
And this time a circumnavigator was provided with a vessel
specifically chosen for the purpose. The lessons of the Wallis-Carter-
et voyage seem to have been learned and the Admiralty, having con-
sidered and rejected several small naval ships currently available,
