Description

During Charles Darwin's 1831-6 voyage on the Beagle, his on-board library included 'Cook's voyages' (the edition is not specified). This illustrated 1821 edition, in seven volumes, is representative of the versions available in the early nineteenth century. Volumes 1 and 2 cover the first Pacific voyage of James Cook (1728-79), the object of which was to observe the 1769 transit of Venus from Tahiti. The text replicates the version published in 1773 by John Hawkesworth (1715-73) as part of a collection of 'Voyages ... in the Southern Hemisphere', which interwove Cook's account with botanical and ethnographical notes by the ship's naturalist, Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820). The journals were only published separately much later: Cook's in 1893 (ed. Wharton) and Banks' in 1896 (ed. Hooker); both are also available. Volume 1 narrates the voyage to Tahiti, the observations there, and the explorers' first impressions of New Zealand.