A new interest in European maritime exploration was aroused with thepublication of the first volume of J.C. Beaglehole's edition ofThe Journals of Captain James Cook in 1955. In the forty-oddyears since then, our knowledge of this exploration -- and of theimperialism of which it was a part -- has expanded enormously. We nowrecognise that the scientific endeavours, once seen as disinterestedmanifestations of the Enlightenment, actually had both strategic andcommercial implications. And today much greater emphasis is given tothe meanings of early encounters for both the Natives of the Pacificislands and the Strangers from the European world.