Table of Contents

Preface

Prologue: The Royal Society Plans a Voyage

I Foundations: Pacific Exploration Before Cook
1. The World Beyond Europe
2. Old Ideas and New Strategies
3. Paradise Discovered
4. Preparations

II The Discovery of Polynesia
5. Tahiti
6. Amateur Ethnographers
7. In Search of the Southern Continent
8. Homeward
9. Mr. Banks's Voyage

III Circumnavigating the Antarctic
10. To the Antarctic
11. Return to Tahiti
12. The Second Antarctic Summer
13. Island Hopping Across the Pacific
14. The Islands of Quiros
15. Mai

IV The Search for a Northwest Passage
16. The "Friendly Islands"
17. Mai Returns
18. To the Arctic
19. Kealakekua Bay
20. Cook the Hero

V Exploration and Empire: The Legacy of Cook's Voyages
21. Exploiting the Pacific: Convicts, Furs, and Breadfruit
22. The End of an Era: Vancouver in the Pacific

References
Index

About the Author

Lynne Withey has taught history at the University of Iowa, Boston University, and the University of California at Berkeley. She is the author of Dearest Friend: A Life of Abigail Adams.

Reviews

"In a time of growing worry about trade with the Pacific Rim countries, the story of the opening of the Pacific itself has on the face of it a certain interest. . . . [Withey] does a nice job examining the way in which Europeans' moral and romantic expectations colored their reactions to and interactions with the Pacific Islanders through her skillful quotation from and sensitive readings of the voyagers' own writings."--Caroline Rand Herron, "The New York Times Book Review

"In a time of growing worry about trade with the Pacific Rim countries, the story of the opening of the Pacific itself has on the face of it a certain interest. . . . [Withey] does a nice job examining the way in which Europeans' moral and romantic expectations colored their reactions to and interactions with the Pacific Islanders through her skillful quotation from and sensitive readings of the voyagers' own writings."--Caroline Rand Herron, "The New York Times Book Review