Captain Cook-Walter Besant

Following his discovery and circumnavigation of New Zealand recorded in Volume 1, Cook sailed westwards to Australia, whose east coast was at that time unknown. After initially sighting Port Hicks, Cook landed at Botany Bay, where he tried but failed to make contact with the native inhabitants. He proceeded northward, mapping about a thousand miles of coastline and discovering the Great Barrier Reef by severely damaging his ship in running into one of the reefs. The ship was in danger of sinking and limped to the mainland where, over a period of seven weeks, major repairs were made by the ship's crew. Cook then proceeded to Cape York, the northern tip of Australia and completed his circumnavigation of the globe via Batavia (modern Jakarta, Indonesia), the Cape of Good Hope and St. Helena. - Summary by David Cole