Instructive first hand account of Cook's first voyage along the east coast of Australia. The journal reveals an industrious, clever man. Cook is a leader par excellence, practical, with an intelligent husbandry of all the resources available. He calmly made his way through the shoals and reefs of the Barrier Reef, avoiding placing his crew and ship in unnecessary danger.
The period ashore at Endeavour River (Cooktown, QLD) reads as a project carried through with an expert understanding of organization.
There are shorter accounts of the Second Voyage, in which Captain Furneaux visited South and South-east Van Dieman's Land (Tasmania) in 1773: and in 1777, the Third Voyage during which Cook called at Adventure Bay, Tasmania to replenish for his return to New Zealand.