Synopsis

A new one-volume abridged edition of Cook's famous journals—"a majestic story of epic proportions"(Philip Edwards in the Introduction)
Captain Cook's Journals provide his vivid first-hand account of three extraordinary expeditions between 1768 and 1779. These charted the entire coast of New Zealand and the east coast of Australia and brought back detailed descriptions of Tahiti, Tonga, and a host of previously unknown islands in the Pacific including the Hawaiian Islands. The journals amply reveal the determination, courage, and skill that enabled Cook to wrestle with the continuous dangers of uncharted seas and the problems of achieving a relationship with the peoples whose unannounced guest he became. This edition, abridged from the definitive four-volume Hakluyt Society edition, makes Cook's inimitable personal account of his years of voyaging widely accessible for the first time and includes an Introduction to each voyage, a Glossary of unusual words, indexes of people and places, and a Postscript assessing the controversy surrounding Cook's death.

Selected and Edited with Introductions by Philip Edwards

Born in Yorkshire, England, James Cook (1728-1779) joined the navy in 1755. His expeditions to the Pacific did more than any other navigations to add to our knowledge of the area. He was killed by local inhabitants in Hawaii.

Philip Edwards is Emeritus Professor of English at Liverpool University and the author of Last Voyages: Cavendish, Hudson, Ralegh and The Story of the Voyage: Sea Narratives in Eighteenth-Century England.