At first glance this book appears to be about the eight days that Cook and Endeavour were at Botany Bay in 1770. There are descriptions of what happened from the journals of Cook, Banks, Clerke, Forwood, Hicks and others, that is from the viewpoint of the visitors. An unbalanced view as we have no written words from the locals. So Nugent uses descriptions of later recorded accounts to explain the actions of the locals and shows their appearance or non-appearance each day was a tactical reaction to the arrival of the strangers. She then goes on to take a "challenging new look at the impact of Cook's arrival on the land and its people" up to the present day.

Nugent points out that most people's knowledge of the events at Botany Bay is of the encounter with the locals when the sailors landed, whereas there were several encounters that together are more meaningful that the just the well-known one. "As they wrote down what they saw and what happened the mariners guessed at the meanings of things with varying degrees of certainty", writes Nugent.

Nugent's critical analysis of what was written and what the locals might have been doing is an excellent read. On the first day Banks wrote "as soon as we approached the rocks, two of the men came down upon them". Nugent considers why two men. She shows from later encounters recorded by Captain Phillip and Matthew Flinders that this number was probably deliberate.

For example, on the second day a group of local men appeared and made a stand. Nugent quotes from the journals and adds, "I suspect that as they advanced as a group they held their spears and throwing sticks aloft. This is a posture commonly described in accounts written in the early years of the British settlement around Sydney".

The third day began, according to Banks with the locals shouting and lighting fires in the woods". Nugent explains how "these early-morning actions in all probability were directed at dealing with the problem of the ship and its company of unfamiliar men still lying in the bay". She quotes Paul Carter asking "Has anyone paid attention to the sounds of exploration?", and investigates the reasons for lighting fires, including what happened to Cook later that year at Endeavour River.

Throughout the book Nugent quotes from several experts, usually naming them, but maddeningly not always, occasionally writing "experts believe..." Most of her comments are given with reasoned justification, but there are occasional slips. I doubt that Cook and Banks "sat down separately" when they wrote their observations of Australia's east coast and the people they had seen. They probably sat together in the Great Cabin.

There is an excellent chapter describing how E Phillips Fox's painting of the first landing [see Cook's Log, page 594, vol. 11, no. 2 (1988)] came to be painted in 1902 and how, despite being historically researched it gives an "Australian" version of events. Nugent compares it to 19th century pictures of the same event and reproduces critical comments on the painting published in a newspaper in 1902. She then moves on to John Alexander Gilfillan's painting of the 1850s showing Cook performing a possession ceremony [see Cook's Log, page 17, vol. 26, no. 1 (2003)]. She explains it has been given different titles at different times, including "Captain Cook Taking Possession of New South Wales..." and "Captain Cook Taking Possession of the Australian Continent..." and "Captain Cook Taking Possession at Botany Bay..." However, Nugent points out "Cook did not perform a formal possession ceremony like this while at Botany Bay, despite the general impression to the contrary."

At the end of the book Nugent explores how the Aboriginal people in Australia "have sought in their storytelling to make sense of that strange meeting". It is a process that continues to this day, as this encounter "represents the beginning of their complex and fraught history of relations with the British colonists who came after" Cook. In doing so she draws on altered versions of Phillips Fox's painting and that of Gilfillan, and altered versions of John Webber's portrait of Cook.

The lack of a useful chart of the areas is a big failure of this book. Cook's unfinished "sketch of Botany Bay in NS Wales" is reproduced, and it is nice to see it in colour. At the top of every chapter is the engraved "Botany Bay in New South Wales". However, only part is printed, and it fades to the bottom so you can read the words "fresh water" clearly only once, whereas they appear six times on the full version (and are an indication they landed at these points).

Nugent's investigation into what happened during these eight days is excellent. Effectively she explains how the locals' tactics developed from "visible presence" to "obvious absence" with the result that the strangers left.

Reviewer: Ian Boreham

Originally published in Cook's Log, page 46, volume 32, number 3 (2009).

The 250th anniversary of the fall of Quebec in 1759 and Britain's acquisition of Canada provides a timely moment for the publication of John Robson's latest book on Cook's career from joining the Royal Navy to his selection to lead the voyage of Endeavour. Robson poses the question, not why Cook was chosen to lead Endeavour, but rather, why would the Admiralty have chosen anyone else, and who else could they have chosen?

When Cook joined the Navy in 1755, Britain was in the opening stages of the Seven Years War (1756-62). The experienced seaman from Yorkshire was a welcome recruit. He entered the Navy as an able seaman in HMS Eagle, but in just a month was promoted to master's mate, and was soon on duty patrolling the Western Approaches. He seems to have made the transition without difficulty to handling much larger ships than he would have met before. Robson traces his service in HMS Eagle, his examination to become master, and appointment to HMS Solebay on duty in Scottish waters. This was a brief posting, and in October 1757 Cook was posted to HMS Pembroke, under Captain Simcoe and crossed the Atlantic for the first time. Robson recounts Cook's experience at the siege of Louisbourg and the fortunate meeting with Samuel Holland. Holland was an important military engineer and surveyor who was well known to General Wolfe and appears to have been with Wolfe when he was killed. Robson prints the entire text of Holland's letter in which he recounts his contacts with both Simcoe and Cook.

A group of six chapters then covers Cook's Peace, his growing proficiency in surveying, his appointment as Surveyor of Newfoundland, and the yearly routine of spending the summer and autumn in Newfoundland and winter with his growing family back in London, turning his charts into finished works for presentation to the Admiralty. In these years Cook became a highly professional surveyor and cartographer, acquired enough astronomical expertise to observe a solar eclipse and to use lunar tables for calculating longitude, and had five year's experience of managing an expedition and his own small ship.

The final chapters describe the extraordinarily busy months in 1768 when, rather than returning to Canada as he had been expecting, Cook was selected to lead the Endeavour voyage. His combination of skills and experience led the Admiralty to decide that he was by far the best candidate for the job.

The book is based on a huge amount of work in the archives and brings together much information from diverse sources. There is a real sense of the day-to-day business of being on patrol, the routines of issuing orders and instructions, the maintenance of the ship and crew in as fit a state as possible, the to-and-fro of survey work along difficult coastlines, with many quotations from the logs of Cook and others, and correspondence with the Admiralty. Accidents, gales, sickness, fogs and running aground were frequent hazards. Robson emphasises the vital role played by the Navy in the Canadian campaign. The joint operation to capture Quebec was carried through with an extraordinary level of co-operation from the Navy, "the constant assistance and support, the perfect harmony and correspondence which has prevailed throughout all our operations" as the senior Army commander put it in his dispatch to London. Wolfe was fortunate in the naval commanders and experienced men who served alongside him.

The text is interspersed with short sections which deal with particular individuals or questions, such as sorting out the three different James Cooks who served in the Navy at this time. This allows Robson to introduce a number of well and lesser-known figures and argue for their importance: for example, Thomas Bisset, Cook's first master in the Eagle, trained Cook in the work of a master and may have influenced his appointment to the Pembroke. The book is well illustrated with Robson's own maps, a number of Cook's charts and contemporary paintings. The paintings by Ashley Bowen, a New England sailor who joined the Pembroke, were quite new to me. The short sections mean that there is inevitably some repetition, but they bring material together in a convenient manner as well as providing information on hitherto shadowy figures. There is much fascinating detail, and Robson gives due weight to the patrons who helped Cook, that he was fortunate in coming into close contact with a succession of influential men - Colvill, Palliser, Stephens.

Robson concludes by arguing that the development of Cook's surveying, cartographic, navigation and astronomical skills, together with his seamanship and leadership, made him the inevitable choice for the Endeavour voyage. While he does not discuss possible alternatives in much detail, there is much for be said for this view, and Cook's peacetime activities were undoubtedly vital to his advancement. It is however worth returning to "Cook's War" for two reasons. First, a man who had seen action and been part of prolonged naval and military operations, was someone whom the Admiralty would see as tried and tested, and therefore a thoroughly reliable officer. Second, it reminds us of the bigger picture of the great power struggles of the 18th century between France and England, and their intense rivalry and competition. Britain's naval power and financial muscle, underpinned by international trade, were the reasons why Britain was able to oppose French domination of Europe. Indeed many in France could not comprehend why Britain did not yield supremacy to the state which saw itself as vastly more powerful and sophisticated: as the French foreign minister, the Duc de Choiseul said, "I am completely astounded that England, which is a very tiny bit of Europe, is dominant" (1767), and was determined that this should not continue. This sets the background to the decades of maritime exploration that followed the Seven Years War. At the same time there was much mutual attraction and emulation, with exchanges of information, visits and correspondence between many who found themselves in opposing camps. Cook's later career would see this too, as French voyagers both preceded him and followed in his footsteps, and his published works were received with the greatest respect in France. Cook's peace and his war are equally relevant in this respect to understanding his place in wider history.

Note: The Admiralty Library, formerly housed in the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office, Taunton was transferred to the Royal Naval Museum in Portsmouth in 2005, and charts referred to as of the Admiralty Library are therefore now in Portsmouth.

Reviewer: Sophie Forgan

John Robson is to be congratulated on this masterpiece, not only is it well written, the depth of research and amount of information is astounding. John not only takes us though Cook's life in the Royal Navy from 1755 to 1768, but also provides monographs of the people and events that influenced his life.

Many of us are aware of Cook's meeting with Samuel Holland, but few of us were aware of the active involvement of Captain John Simcoe, who encouraged Cook to improve his talents. At Simcoe's invitation they all met in HMS Pembroke and formed a friendship. What I never realised, was that to the east of Lake Huron, the Holland River enters Lake Simcoe at Cook Bay! The naming appears to be from surveys carried out in the area in 1783.¹ Perhaps he had only just heard about Cook's death and decided to acknowledge their former friendship.

To return to the book; John's explanation of the historical events provides us with a better understanding of why Cook was patrolling the French Coast and later surveyed St. Pierre & Miquelon and Newfoundland.

The book is liberally sprinkled with maps, which helps considerably with the story. Those who have delved into Captain Cook's World,² another of John's books will not be disappointed with the quality of the maps.

However, some of the places mentioned are not indicated on the maps and I had to resort to one of my atlases with a reasonably large scale map of Newfoundland to find many of them. John says that some of the place names had changed. My atlas shows the original names, so they must have been changed within the last sixty years.

I was surprised to discover that Michael Lane had only one season with Cook. He must have been a good teacher as Lane completed the survey of Newfoundland to the same high standard.

This book greatly assists in the understanding of the development Cook's career and talents. He was fortunate to serve under captains who both appreciated his work and had connections with the Lords of the Admiralty. So, when their Lordship's chose Cook to lead the expedition, they entrusted the task to one of their most able seamen.

It has to be essential reading for every Cook enthusiast.

Reviewer: Richard. A. Hindle

References

1. Dictionary of Canadian Biography online.
2. Robson, John. Captain Cook's World: Maps of the Life and Voyages of James Cook R. N. Random House. 2000.

Originally published in Cook's Log, page 9, volume 32, number 4 (2009).

From August 2009 to February 2010, the Art and Exhibition Hall in Bonn, Germany has been home to over 500 objects including paintings, drawings and other ethnographic objects collected during the three Cook Voyages in the latter part of the eighteenth century. I found the James Cook und die Entdecking der Südsee (James Cook and the Exploration of the Pacific) exhibition very impressive and informative, so in many ways I did not really see how the catalogue would add much except for providing a detailed record of the objects and their provenance.

However, once the English version had been delivered to me from the publishers, I became somewhat star-struck! Not only have all the objects been beautifully depicted according to the region they came from (with full explanations of the context in which they were collected) but, more than that, the book has over 26 essays written by eminent scholars, many of whose writings I have consulted over the last few years.

The book is divided into two main sections: the Essays and the Catalogue.

The Essays are organised in four group: James Cook, Enlightenment, Endeavour and Encounter. The scholars have summarised key material from within their area of expertise. All of the themes reflect up-to-date thinking on different aspects of the Cook voyages and their legacy for Europe and for the Pacific Islands.

The catalogue section is organised by region and beautifully reproduces the items in the exhibition, with lively descriptions and useful commentary. It also includes a section on James Cook and his fellow travellers as well as a section on the ships and equipment.

The Cook voyages and their aftermath continue to be a rich area of study and interpretation for academics, and the topics are never devoid of controversy. The first essay, "Captain Cook's Three Voyages of Enlightenment" by Adrienne Kaeppler, is a brief but comprehensive account of the voyages, with some biographical context about Cook. It sets the scene perfectly for the subsequent essays. Kaeppler headed the team of curators who put this exhibition together and is a leading social and cultural anthropologist, with great knowledge of the Pacific region and its people.

Like a telescope pivoting on the deck of a ship, the subsequent essays hone in and look at the impact of these same three voyages from different viewpoints.

Although they celebrate Cook and his accomplishments, the essays also look to cut through some of the glorification which has surrounded the legend of Cook. An example of this approach can be seen in the second essay written by Nigel Rigby, "James Cook's Navy" where he briefly concludes that "Seamen moved between the merchant and armed services relatively frequently, as did officers", and explains that although Cook and his accomplishments were immense, the route which got him to the navy was not in itself particularly remarkable.

The subsequent essays in the first part touch on the ambivalent impact that contact with the Cook expeditions had for several of the Pacific people and the continuing dilemma this poses for their descendants in New Zealand, Australia, Melanesia and Hawaii. The section concludes with an essay from Anne Salmond, "The Death of Cook", which revisits the fatal moment and the subsequent controversy which has endured more than two hundred and thirty years. This one event has been the subject of countless images, and is constantly being revisited with new explanations as contemporary areas of study emerge and social anthropologists look to reinterpret the customs and events of the indigenous people. Salmond concludes the essay by accepting that there is no one explanation for the death of Cook and in the end "It was a cross-cultural collision of forces that killed him".

The unfinished painting by Zoffany, The Death of Captain James Cook, which appeared in the exhibition and is reproduced in Salmon's essay, is a perfect example of how this tragic moment became a rich subject for the artist who sought to perpetuate the myth by setting it in an apparently classical setting, with some observers even commenting on how the head-dress of the natives recalled classical Greek helmets.

I have to admit that even though I had studied this image and also looked at images of Hawaiian dress, it was not until this exhibition and the beautifully illustrated catalogue that I came to fully appreciate the complexity of these items, and to realise that Zoffany was painting an actual headdress, or feather helmet mahiole. This object was probably collected by the artist John Webber, who travelled on the last voyage, and is depicted in the exhibition and catalogue. Webber and Zoffany are known to have shared much information over this subject. Interestingly, it was Webber who created the mostly widely reproduced image of the event in the eighteenth century, where Cook is seen at the water's edge, holding up his hand up in a heroic gesture to cease fire, as a local warrior prepares to stab him in the back. That image was greatly favoured by the Enlightenment publicists, but, interestingly, it is not actually referred to in the exhibition or the catalogue. By this omission, it is as if we have moved on the discourse from all the myth-making and glorification back to empirical evidence and actual artefacts to tell the story in a sober and inclusive manner, from many points of view simultaneously.

In order to keep this review concise I will not be able to comment on all the essays, though I would like to point out that all aspects of the voyages are covered, from the conflicts that arose, the role of the scientists and artists who accompanied the voyages, the impact on geography and cartography, how native lands and people were observed through a European eye, as well as discussions on depictions and interpretations of gender.

The last essay is written by the eminent German art historian, Rüdiger Joppien, who quickly takes us through the breadth of material that was drawn or painted during the course of these voyages and which formed the basis of so much our western learning in the aftermath of these expeditions.

I hope others will find as much treasure amongst these pages as I have.

Reviewer: Marilena Netty

Originally published in Cook's Log, page 45, volume 33, number 1 (2010).

This selection of passages from Captain James Cook's journals was originally published in 1957 by Georgian House and the Limited Editions Club, and has been reissued in later editions, including the 1971 paperbound edition by Dover Publications. The book's 292 pages include three dozen line drawings by Geoffrey C. Ingleton. Maps illustrating understanding of the Pacific geography before and after Cook are also included. Regrettably, there is no index.

This edition contains an introduction by Professor Percy C. Adams placing various editions of Cook's journals and voyages in perspective. There is a short chapter on "ocean problems of the eighteenth century" and a short summary of Cook's early career. A brief bibliography cites J. C. Beaglehole's edition of the journals published by the Hakluyt Society, as well as other primary and secondary sources. Professor Beaglehole checked journal extracts included in this edition that corresponded to his research at the time of publication.

The text is structured in sections organized around each of the Three Voyages. The editor's commentary is found at the beginning and end of the seventeen chapters and occasionally within connecting journal extracts to provide continuity. Cook's death is based upon Lieutenant James King's account. A final chapter summarizes Cook's achievements. The editor concludes, "No previous navigator had contributed voyages of such length; remained at sea for such long periods, or brought back so much accurate knowledge of such an immense extent of the Earth."

There are several reasons to acquire a volume that was initially published fifty years ago. The editor's introductions are brief but useful and lead the reader to an understanding of highlights during Cook's three voyages. The text contains extracts of the Admiralty's instructions to Cook for each expedition as well as a few citations from Cook's letters to the Admiralty as, for example, the encounter with the Great Barrier Reef in June 1770.

For readers unable to locate or read J. C. Beaglehole's four volumes of the journals or other versions, such as Philip Edwards's James Cook: The Journals, the Grenfell Price book serves as a very manageable and useful introduction to Cook's journals, navigation, and voyages of exploration. Although published some time ago, the book remains in print today and is relatively inexpensive in either new or used copies.

Reviewer: James C. Hamilton

Originally published in Cook's Log, page 47, volume 33, number 1 (2010).