The Voyages of Captain Cook

Captain James Cook's third voyage of discovery (1776-1780) to the Pacific, ordered by the Admiralty under strict secrecy, was to locate a Northwest Passage or viable sea link between the North Atlantic and North Pacific for anticipated trade with China and the East. The landings at the Sandwich Islands (1778), Nootka Sound, Kamchatka, and Unalaska yielded these informative drawings by the expedition artist John Webber. These in turn were translated into the engravings of the animals, peoples and places included in the atlas to accompany the record of this unsuccessful mission.