Description

During Charles Darwin's 1831-6 voyage on the Beagle, his on-board library included 'Cook's voyages' (the edition is not specified). This illustrated 1821 edition, in seven volumes, is representative of the versions available in the early nineteenth century. Volumes 3 and 4 cover Cook's second voyage (1772-5), a key objective of which was to look for a continent in the Southern Ocean. The explorers sailed to 71 degrees south, within the Antarctic Circle, encountering stormy weather and icebergs, albatrosses and storm petrels. On this voyage, the ship's naturalists were Johann Reinhold Forster and his son Georg (1754-94), who is credited here as co-author. Volume 3 contains accounts of the Antarctic in December 1772 and December 1773, Tasmania (by Captain Furneaux, whose ship had become separated from the Resolution for several weeks), and the inhabitants of Tahiti, Easter Island with its giant statues, Tonga, and New Zealand.