Captain James Cook (1728-1779) is best known for his three voyages to the Pacific (1768-71; 1772-75; and 1776-79). His discoveries radically changed the western understanding of the world in the late 18th century. He was the first to circumnavigate and chart New Zealand and provided the earliest European accounts of exploration along the eastern coast of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands. On February 14th, 1779, he was killed on Hawaii after attempting to kidnap the chief of the island.

Many contemporary accounts of Cook’s voyages, including charts and engravings, appeared in the late 18th century. The first official account of Cook’s first voyage was published in 1773 by John Hawkesworth in Volumes II and III of An Account of the Voyages Undertaken by the Order of His Present Majesty for Making Discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere... William Strahan and Thomas Cadell published the first official accounts of the second and third voyages in 1777 and 1784. Accounts of his exploration were subsequently translated into French, German, and Dutch.

This chart details the region around the Society Islands, including Tahiti or "Wallis's King Georges Island." The tracks of various explorers are shown in the vicinity including Byron, Wallis, Carteret and Cook. Captain Cook explored this area on his first voyage in 1769 and declared that " to these six islands, [Raiatea, Tahaʻa, Bora Bora, Huahine, Tupai, and Maupiti], as they lie contiguous to each other, I gave the names of SOCIETY ISLANDS, but did not think it proper to distinguish them separately by any other names than those by which they were known to the natives." Engraved by Whitchurch for Hawkesworth's An Account of the Voyages…in the Southern Hemisphere....

References: Shirley (BL Atlases) G.HAWK-1a #21.

Condition: B+

Issued folding with minor soiling, a bit of creasing along the left vertical fold, and several short fold separations that have been closed on verso with archival tape.