In the year 1768 Lieutenant James Cook, R.N., at the instance of the Royal Society, was sent out by the Admiralty with an expedition to observe the transit of Venus. This work at Tahiti being finished, Cook sailed to these southern seas.

A second objective was to set at rest the argument that somewhere in the southern seas was a great southern continent, which was thought to act as a counterpoise to the great land masses of the Northern Hemisphere.

Cook was instructed to sail along the latitude of 40 degrees south, and if any continent was discovered to annex it.

Failing this discovery, he was “to fall in with the eastern side of the land discovered by Tasman and now called New Zealand.”

North Island Sighted.

At 2 o'clock in the afternoon of October 7th, 1769, a boy named Nicholas Young, acting as lookout from the masthead, sighted land. Owing to difficulties in getting supplies, this place was named Poverty Bay. After sailing southward, Cook turned north at Cape Turnagain and anchored at Tokomaru Bay. He later passed East Cape, and got supplies in such quantity from the Natives that he set down “Bay of Plenty” on his map.

At Mercury Bay he took possession in the name of King George III. Having fixed the North Cape on the 31st December, Cook got a sight of Cape Maria Van Dieman. In a heavy gale he got down as far as Kaipara Harbour, but stood away to the north–west. Again sighting Cape Maria Van Dieman, the barque was headed south once more. On January 12th he sighted and named Cape Egmont.

Cook's stay at Ship Cove is set out in the history books. While there he had a conversation with a Maori Chief, who assured the Englishman that both mainlands were really islands and could be circumnavigated.

On February 6th the “Endeavour” sailed from Queen Charlotte Sound through the strait we now call “Cook,” and, to settle the matter beyond doubt, sailed north to Cape Turnagain. So was the North Island circumnavigated.

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Harbour Named Molineux.

On the 18th February Banks Peninsula was sighted and named “Banks Island.” Dirty weather necessitated much tacking.

On March 4th, the weather having moderated, the vessel turned westward.

Here is the entry from Hawkesworth's “Account of Cook's Voyages”:—

“Sunday, 4th, 1770.—In the morning of the 4th we found the variation 16 degrees 16 minutes east. This day we saw some whales and seals… At noon we saw Cape Saunders bearing N. 1/2 W., and our latitude by observations was 46 degrees 31 minutes south. At half an hour past one o'clock we saw land bearing west by south, which we steered for, and before it was dark were within three or four miles of it; during the whole night we saw fires upon it, and at 7 in the morning (Monday, 5th) we were within about 3 leagues of the shore, which appeared to be high but level…”

But Sydney Parkinson, who was draughtsman to Sir Joseph Banks, on board the “Endeavour,” and who died at Batavia in January, 1771, while on the homeward voyage, is more informative:—

“On the 4th March, 1770, after having been beat about with adverse winds for nearly a week, by the favour of a breeze from the north we again got sight of land, which tended away to the south–west and appeared to be of great extent. We had a continual rolling swell from the south–west, and saw the appearance of a harbour which we named Moulineux's Harbour, after the name of the master of our ship.”

Continuing southwards, on the 6th March Cook saw Ruapuke, with Stewart Island looming up behind it. Passing on a moonlit night between some dangerous reefs, which he named “The Traps,” on the 10th March Cape South was rounded, and the last chance of finding a continental connection for New Zealand was gone for ever.

Passing and naming Solander Island, a stay at Dusky Bay, and then on past Cascade Point, Cape Foulwind, Cape Farewell, Stephens Island, and so once again to Queen Charlotte Sound, proved to Cook, and then to the world, that the South Island was really an island.

On April 1st, 1779, the “Endeavour” passed Cape Farewell on the homeward journey. Cook had completed a great job. He had sailed round both islands, annexed them, and mapped them. Pember Reeves says, “… he found New Zealand a line on the map, and left it an archipelago.”

When the sailormen of the world examined this new map of New Zealand, they saw printed the words “Molineux's Harbour.” Lieutenant James Cook, R.N., had literally put Molineux's Harbour on the map.

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Death of Molineux.

There is little more we know of the sailing master of the “Endeavour.” But in the list of the “Crew of Lieutenant Cook's Ship ‘Endeavour,”’ as preserved by the Admiralty, is the entry “Rob't Molineux, Master, D.D., 15th April, 1771.” (The letters D.D. stand for “discharged” and “died.”) The “Endeavour” returned to England on “July 12th, 1771, from Otamete.”

To complete this section, it is regrettably necessary to reprint an extract from Cook's Journal:-

“On the 25th (April, 1771), at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, we weighed (from Mauritius) with a light breeze at S.E. and put to sea. About an hour afterwards we lost our master, Mr. Robert Mollineux, a young man of good parts, but unhappily given up to intemperance, which brought on disorders which put an end to his life.”