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
Journals of Captain James Cook: Endeavour, 1768–1771, National Library of Australia and Australian Joint Copying Project. Digitized manuscript journals and logs supporting the first voyage’s chronology, coastal survey, Botany Bay, Endeavour River, Torres Strait, and return route.
Joseph Banks: Scientist, Explorer and Botanist, Natural History Museum. Banks’s role, scientific party, collecting programme, major voyage regions, and the expedition’s imperial context.