The Cannibal Islands: Captain Cook's Adventure in the South Seas

"The Cannibal Islands: Captain Cook's Adventure in the South Seas" is a biographical work on the famed British explorer, cartographer and naval officer, James Cook. Cook is famous for the three voyages he made in the 18th century, for his combination of seamanship, superior surveying and cartographic skills, physical courage, and an ability to lead men in adverse conditions. In the words of his friend and naval colleague Captain King, "Perhaps no science ever received greater additions from the labours of a single man than geography has done from those of Captain Cook. In his first voyage to the South Seas he discovered the Society Islands; determined the insularity of New Zealand, discovered the Straits which separate the two islands, and are called after his name, and made a complete survey of both. He afterwards explored the eastern coast of New Holland, hitherto unknown, to an extent of twenty-seven degrees of latitude, or upwards of two thousand miles." In succeeding years he settled the disputed point of the existence of a great southern continent traversing the ocean there between the latitudes of 40 degrees and 70 degrees in such a way as to show the impossibility of its existence, "unless near the pole, and beyond the reach of navigation." The novel also captures the dramatic event of his death at the hand of Hawaiian natives.