Legacy of the Voyages

Professor Bernard Smith in his book Captain James Cook and His Times suggests that “Cook was not a discoverer of new lands in any fundamental sense of the word.” This may be true, since most of the areas sighted by Cook were already inhabited. Nevertheless, Grenfell Price states: “His outstanding contributions to geographical knowledge were the completion of the outline map of the Pacific by the discovery of the long eastern shoreline of Australia, the delineation of New Zealand,

Captain James Cook​—Intrepid Explorer of the Pacific

BY AWAKE! CORRESPONDENT IN AUSTRALIA

OTHER than in England, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, and the Pacific islands, the name Captain James Cook might not even strike a chord of recognition in most people. In the countries listed above, though, almost every schoolboy knows of Captain Cook​—in much the same way as American children learn of Christopher Columbus.

Without doubt, however, it is in Australia​—the South Pacific’s island continent—​and in New Zealand that the seafaring explorer is best known, for the name Captain Cook can be seen everywhere.

He had also completed a circumnavigation of both islands of New Zealand and was the first European to map the east coast of Australia.