Nlle. Galles Meridle ou Cote Orientale de la Nouvelle Hollande.

Early French chart with a series of insets all of which show the discoveries made by James Cook on the east coasts of Australia.

Cook First voyage: 1768-1771 Ship: HMS Endeavour Rank: Lieutenant

Cook was chosen to lead an expedition to the South Seas to observe the transit of Venus, in preference to the Royal Society’s recommendation of Alexander Dalrymple. The Admiralty wisely chose Cook and promoted him from master to lieutenant and gave him command of the H.M.S. Endeavour, a 368 tons converted collier. He sailed from Plymouth on 26 August 1768 with a complement of ninety-four, including Joseph Bank’s.

They reached Tahiti on 13 April 1769 and made their observations and charted the islands. Cook had also been given, secret instructions just prior to his departure, to determine the existence of a southern continent which instructed him to sail to the portion of the north west coast of the south island of New Zealand that had been discovered by Abel Tasman in December 1742. In August 1769, he charted the islands of New Zealand.

Further following his instructions he sailed westward towards the Southern Continent;

‘We sailed Westward until we fall in with the E coast of New Holland’.

At 6 p.m. on 19 April 1770 Lieutenant Hicks sighted the south-east coast of Australia which was named after him. Cook then proceeded north, charting the coast and seeking a harbour where the Endeavour’s fouled bottom could be scraped. On 29 April he landed at ‘Stingray Bay‘, where Banks and his naturalists collected so many botanical specimens that the anchorage was renamed ‘Botany Bay’. After a week they sailed again and landing at Bustard Bay (Seventeen Seventy, QLD) on May 1770. Further north Cook found himself in the treacherous waters of the Barrier Reef and on the 11th June the ship struck fast on a coral reef at high tide. Ballast, guns and decayed stores were thrown overboard and after three days she was beached and careened for repairs in the Endeavour River. Repairs and gales delayed them for seven weeks but, after rounding and naming Cape York, on 22 August at Possession Island, he took possession of the whole eastern coast, later adding the name, New South Wales, in his journal.

Satisfied that New Guinea and New Holland were separate islands, he sailed for Batavia, arriving on 11 October. Repairs and refitting delayed his departure until 26 December, reaching England 13 July 1771.

The map of ‘Van-Diemen’ was made by Captain Furneaux while at Adventure Bay on Cook’s second voyage and which was the agreed rendezvous if the ships were separated

From Bonne’s, Atlas Encyclopedique, Contenant La Geographie Ancienne, et Quelques Cartes sur La Geographie du Moyen Age, La Geographie Moderne, et les Cartes Relatives a la Geographie Physique.

Collections:
National Library Australia: Bib ID 334752