Lieutenant James Cook commanded HMS Endeavour on a joint Royal Navy and Royal Society voyage to observe the 1769 transit of Venus at Tahiti. Under further Admiralty orders, the expedition then circumnavigated and charted New Zealand, followed the eastern coast of Australia, and returned to England through Batavia and the Cape of Good Hope.
Sources and further reading
Captain James Cook: Research Guide and Timeline, Royal Museums Greenwich. Institutional overview distinguishing the first voyage from Cook’s later voyages and summarizing its Tahiti, New Zealand, and eastern Australian work.
HMS Endeavour 250, Natural History Museum. Scientific legacy, losses after Batavia, and Endeavour’s arrival at Dover on 12 July 1771.