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James Cook (1728–1779)
Journal of HMS Endeavour 17681771
National Library of Australia

 

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National Library of Australia
Canberra, Australia

James Cook's Endeavour Journal
1768–1771

The Endeavour Journal written by James Cook records the voyage of His Majesty’s Barque Endeavour to the South Seas from 27 May 1768 to 12 July 1771. Captained by First Lieutenant James Cook, the flat-bottomed ship and its crew of 94 men were sent out by the Admiralty of King George III, officially to observe the transit of Venus from King George’s Island (Tahiti). Unofficially, however, the voyage was to be one of discovery. Cook was to search between Tahiti and New Zealand for ‘a Continent or Land of great extent’ (The Instructions, Secret, 30 July 1768).

The Endeavour’s voyage took nearly three years. When the expedition returned to England in July 1771, the transit of Venus had been observed, an unprecedented number of botanical and zoological specimens collected, and New Zealand and the east coast of New Holland (Australia) had been charted and claimed for King George III.

The 753 pages of the Endeavour Journal were written by Cook in a series of double-leaved folios. He wrote the body of the text in dark-coloured ink, with the dates beginning each instalment in red. On the left-hand side of each page, he recorded navigational information. Journal entries describing daily events were entered on the right-hand side of the page. As the voyage progressed, however, Cook’s entries became more discursive, with the state of the weather and winds becoming intertwined with events. The journal is one of the few substantial manuscripts in the hand of one of the world’s great navigators and maritime explorers. It is also of extraordinary importance in the history of the British colonisation of Australia, and as one of the earliest written records of the Indigenous peoples of Polynesia, New Zealand and eastern Australia.

In 2001, the Endeavour Journal was included on UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register.