In 1767 the British admiralty commissioned James Cook to explore and chart as much of the Pacific Ocean as possible. Since no captain had ever done this properly, no one knew exactly what countries and islands really existed there. So this voyage was of the greatest importance to the whole civilized world.

Cook sailed first to Tahiti and then made the long trip to New Zealand. He surveyed and charted the New Zealand coast line and the east coast of Australia, more accurately than any new-found country had ever been mapped before. Under his command, Cook's crew survived attacks by bloodthirsty Maori warriors, imprisonment on a coral pinnacle of the dread Great Barrier Reef, and the deadly tropical germs of Java. The success of his three-year voyage, which took him around the world, made James Cook famous throughout Europe.

This voyage, and the two others Cook made before his death, are described with all Ronald Syme's flair for color and realism. Vivid illustrations by William Stobbs depict the beauty and strangeness of these once mysterious lands.

From the dust jacket