Captain James Cook's charts entrance of Endeavour River and Botany Bay in New South Wales,...

Creator: T. Bowen [engraver]; John Gibson [engraver] This chart is an engraving in John Hawkesworth's 1773 account of the voyages of Captain James Cook, Joseph Banks and Captain John Byron. Vice Admiral John Byron accompanied George Anson on his circumnavigation of the globe (via the Falkland Islands and through the Pacific) in the 1760s. Byron's mention of signs of a southern continent encouraged the immediate preparation of another expedition to the Pacific. Captain Samuel Wallis (1728-1795) took command of the frigate Dolphin (back from John Byron's circumnavigation of the globe). Wallis' description of Tahiti (as published by John Hawkesworth in 1773 on behalf of the Admirality) helped, along with the accounts of James Cook and Joseph Banks, to stamp an exotic imprint on Europe's image of the south seas. Wallis' achievements helped shape Cook's first Endeavour voyage. Captain James Cook (1728-1779) made three separate voyages to the Pacific (with the ships Endeavour, Resolution, Adventure, and Discovery) and did more than any other voyager to explore the Pacific and Southern Ocean. Cook not only encountered Pacific cultures for the first time, but also assembled the first large-scale collections of Pacific objects to be brought back to Europe. He was killed in Hawaii in 1779.