Tupaia: Captain Cook's Polynesian Navigator

by Joan Druett

Tupaia was the brilliant Polynesian navigator and translator who sailed with Captain James Cook from Tahiti, piloted the "Endeavour" across the South Pacific, and interceded on behalf of the European voyagers with the warrior Maori of New Zealand. As a man of high social ranking, Tupaia was also invaluable as an intermediary, interpreting local rituals and ceremonies. Joseph Banks, the botanist with Cook's expedition, is famous for describing the manners and customs of the Polynesian people in detail. Much of the credit for this information rightfully belongs to Tupaia--indeed, he could aptly be called the Pacific's first anthropologist.

Despite all this, Tupaia's colorful tale has never been part of the popular Captain Cook legend. This unique book tells the first-contact story with Europeans as seen through the eyes of the Polynesians, and documents how Tupaia's contributions changed the history of the Pacific.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Biography, Travel, Australia, Cultural, Anthropology

272 pages, Hardcover

First published November 30, 2010

About the author

Back in the year 1984, on the picture-poster tropical island of Rarotonga, I literally fell into whaling history when I tumbled into a grave. A great tree had been felled by a recent hurricane, exposing a gravestone that had been hidden for more than one and a half centuries. It was the memorial to a young whaling wife, who had sailed with her husband on the New Bedford ship Harrison in the year 1845. And so my fascination with maritime history was triggered ... resulting in 18 books (so far). The latest—number nineteen—is a biography of a truly extraordinary man, Tupaia, star navigator and creator of amazing art.

Reviews

[Shayne · Rating 5 out of 5]

The engrossing story of a fascinating man. Skilled navigator, translator, orator, artist, politician, intermediary between European and Maori. Tupaia was quite probably seen by Maori as the leader of Cook's first expedition; understandably so. He certainly seems to have been responsible for much of its success.

Druett combines careful research with an accessible style and a rollicking pace, and gives us a thoroughly good read. Tupaia has waited far too long for an in-depth biography; in Druett he has found a worthy biographer.

[Rick Spilman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joan Druett’s new book, Tupaia – Captain Cook’s Polynesian Navigator, fills an important blank space in the history, as well as the legend, of Captain Cook. On his first voyage to the Pacific in HMS Endeavour, during a stop in Tahiti, Cook took aboard a Polynesian high priest named Tupaia. Tupaia was also a skilled navigator and would serve as translator and diplomat for Cook when he encountered the warlike Maoris of New Zealand.

While Tupaia played a critical role in the success of Cook’s first voyage, he died of complications from scurvy in Batavia and was never given the credit he was due by either Captain Cook or Josephs Banks in their accounts of the expedition. Finally Tupaia’s story is being told, in this, the first full biography of the remarkable navigator, linguist, artist and priest. It is a fascinating tale, well told.

When I read Tupaia – Captain Cook’s Polynesian Navigator, I was reminded, rather incongruously, of science fiction movies from the 1950s, where a spaceship lands on Earth from another planet carrying humanoids who possess advanced technology. Invariably there are cultural misunderstandings, resulting in the occasional use of the alien technology, often a death ray, until the cooler heads on both sides prevail and communication is established.
When Captain Wallis, in command of HMS Dolphin, anchored in Matavai Bay on Tahiti in 1767, the collision of the two complex cultures played out a bit like these science fiction films, ending initially in grapeshot and musket fire, no doubt more horrible and mystifying to the Tahitians than any fictional death ray could have appeared to 1950s movie-goers.
The arrival of the strange people in the “canoe without an outrigger” had been long foretold in local prophesy. Now these strange men had finally arrived with their fearsome weapons and wondrous materials, specifically, iron. One of the chief agents of diplomacy on behalf of the Tahitians was a high-priest from Raiatea named Tupaia.

When the English returned to Tahiti in 1769 with Captain Cook in command of HMS Endeavour, Tupaia was there to greet them. In the two years since HMS Dolphin departed, Tupaia’s fortunes had diminished. While still a member of the nobility and honored as a high priest, he had found himself on the losing side of a tribal war and his status in Tahitian society was tenuous. When offered a place aboard HMS Endeavour, he accepted.

When Cook sailed from Tahiti, Tupaia served as pilot, navigating to his home island of Raiatea and other nearby islands. He also drew a remarkable map which covered over 2,500 square miles and showed myriads of islands to the west, which where wholly unknown to Europeans. Tupaia wanted Cook to sail westward but Cook followed his orders and sailed south in an attempt to discover the mythical “Terra Australis Incognita,” the vast southern continent which had appeared on western charts for centuries. Tupaia new nothing of this continent, as it did not exist.

After sailing to 40 degrees South latitude without locating land, Cook, sailed to chart the coast of New Zealand. Here, Tupaia proved invaluable as translator and diplomat to the often warlike Maoris. Tupaia, understood their language and was a high priest in a religion that they recognized as a more developed form of their own. The Maoris were far more impressed by Tupaia than by Captain Cook.

In addition to serving as navigator and translator, Tupaia also acted as anthropologist and ship’s artist. When Alexander Buchan, the artist/draftsman assigned to sketch daily life in Tahiti, died early during the expedition, Tupaia began making his own sketches. While primitive, they were quite detailed and captured the only record of life in Tahiti made during the voyage. Likewise much of what both Banks and Cook learned of Polynesian culture likely came from Tupaia, though neither saw fit to acknowledge Tuapai’s contribution in their journals. When Tupaia died in Batavia, he largely disappeared from history, which is one reason why Joan Druett’s new book is so welcome.

Joan Druett has written nineteen books, both novels and non-fiction, all with a nautical focus. She has won numerous awards for her work, including the John Lyman Award for Best Book of American Maritime History for Petticoat Whalers: Whaling Wives at Sea, 1820-1920, the New York Public Library’s 25 Best Books to Remember for Hen Frigates: Wives of Merchant Captains Under Sail, and the L. Byrne Waterman Award, for contributions to maritime history and women’s history. She was also a John David Stout Fellow, at Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand.

What this translates to on the printed page is that Druett is both an excellent historian and a highly skilled writer. (This combination of skills is not unknown, but it is too often rare.) Tupaia – Captain Cook’s Polynesian Navigator is fascinating and engrossing history. Highly recommended.

[Roger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting look at the navigator Captain Cook picked up in Tahiti to help him find his way around the Pacific Ocean.
Accounts of first contacts between Polynesians and Europeans plus details of pre-contact Polynesian culture. I thought I knew a lot of this, but I didn't.

The book is well written and fairly romps along. It is easy to forget you're reading seriously researched history instead of a high seas adventure. The author draws a fascinating picture of Tupaia who seems to have been one seriously cool dude. Being a navigator in a culture that had no writing meant having an astonishing ability to observe and remember patterns in the seascape. His abilities were just a little reminiscent of Paul Mua'dib from Frank Herbert's Dune series.

But Tupaia was also a politician, linguist, priest and diplomat. Cook's crew had no skills like those at all. Left to their own devices they quickly degenerated from trying to trade to firing muskets. Tupaia, when they let him, was able to forge good relationships with Maori and, to a limited extent, Australian natives. It seems likely that both of these understood Tupaia was the leader of the expedition rather than Cook.

There are lots of details about Polynesian life, as well as ship board life which I found so fascinating it was hard to put the book down.

[Boy Blue · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's been a long time coming. It's taken me a year and half to finally track down a copy of this book. In that time I'd done a lot of research and so while none of the information was particularly new it was still fascinating.

Druett has done the studious work of reading every journal and diary from all members of the Endeavour and the Dolphin (visited Tahiti before Cook's ship). She's also combed through the archives for any other first hand sources and impressions of these constant moments of first contact. It's truly fascinating stuff. Tupaia is absolutely transfixing, he's essentially a more impressive Queequeg from Moby Dick. The difference being Tupaia was a high priest and thus a deep repository of his culture's history, he also had amazing negotiation skills, was possibly one of the greatest navigators the Pacific has ever seen, and was actually real.

The deepest shame of the book is that Druett is constantly forced to imagine and postulate what Tupaia was thinking at every stage. The only records we have from his hands are the few drawings he did along the journey. Both Cook and Banks are reluctant to accept and at times entirely dismissive of Tupaia's crucial role in their expedition. He was instrumental in the navigation of the Pacific but moreso in negotiating with the various indigenous people they encountered. There is no doubt in this reader's mind that Cook would have been lucky to make it out of Aotearoa with all of his crew and possibly even his own life if not for Tupaia's involvement. It's incredible to see Tupaia speaking with the Maori and being honoured by them. He holds them enraptured when he reintroduces them to many of their lost stories and legends. Imagine how incredible it would have been for both sides of those interactions to meet a branch of your family tree that split off half a millennium ago.

The book does tend to get a wee bit dusty and bogged down in detail. Druett even tracked down the name of every Maori killed by members on the Endeavour in New Zealand. This is both the book's blessing and it's curse. While at times reading this can feel like swimming in the warm and relaxing tropical waters of Tahiti, other times you feel like you're swimming through a barrel of molasses. Those not local to the Pacific or without external knowledge of the region may also find it tiresome. But you can't fault the scholarship, it's a stunning piece of work. Druett captures shipboard life and life among the indigenous communities so well, you can really understand how different they were to each other and to the lives we live now. She also captures the incredible drama of true first contact. At times I thought she overreached ascribing certain feelings and emotions to people but it certainly helped ease the story along. I really think every person living in the Pacific should be taught this story at school. I'm also quite surprised no one has written a fictionalised account of Tupaia's journey yet. Something to look forward to.

[Ali · Rating 5 out of 5]

I expected this book to tell an important story, but I hadn't expected it to be this enjoyable to read, honestly. It stands as one of the most engaging accounts of Cook's voyages I've read (and I've read a few) even without its most important achievements - allowing space for a Tahitian viewpoint alongside the British, and celebrating the incredible life of one of the most important figures in early European-First Peoples engagement in the Pacific.
Druett's research delved deeply into both ship logs and journals, and also into Polynesian history and culture, she has then drawn all this together into a trustworthy, detailed and intriguing biography of a brilliant, prickly, and hugely influential figure in Tupaia. Along the way, she draws striking portraits almost in passing of both Cook and Banks, as well as Tahitian leader Purea. This process never feels like work for the reader, belying the considerable scholarship that underpins the book.
By alternating viewpoints between the British and the Polynesians, the book highlights the many, many misunderstandings, the groping towards communication, that constituted "first contact". Although this is the first encounter with a radically different culture for both the Polynesians and the British/French, it is notable how much faster the Polynesians catch on to that reality - that this group of people have a different set of *values* - than the Europeans do. It isn't that the Brits don't understand that the laws and customs are different, but rather that they judge these by their own standard - so 'theft' of items is 'mischievous', and they assume that land is for a ruler to exchange. This dismissiveness of other cultures leads to the worst, avoidable, massacres.
One of the most revealing part of the book is the encounter between the Guugu Yimithirr of FNQ and Cook's crew. Tupaia has no cultural or linguistic advantages over the British here, as this is a culture far removed from Polynesia. However, he is still the figure to establish friendly relations. He achieves this feat by, putting his weapons down, and, sitting down to talk. This simple act - to sit - is not something that the Europeans have tried in any of the many voyages to date (after this, observing the success, Cook tries it a lot). It seems inconceivable, really, that such a simple act was such an innovation. But underpinning it is a totally different approach to the encounter than the British brought. To sit, invites listening, settling in, an offer of time without immediate objective.
You see this refusal to listen in a number of the British actions. Particularly the worn tactic of *kidnapping* people to, essentially, make them listen. The fact that Cook (and later in Botany Bay, the First Fleet) decide to kidnap locals in order to show them the benevolence of the British is a direct result of assuming that what you are offering is the only thing worth talking about, not what is already there. The once exposed to your worldview, goods, and customs, people will automatically want them, irrespective of what they already have (which you are totally uninterested in).
And the British (and the other Europeans) were there to achieve objectives - to take resources, including land, by negotiation, purchase or force. Such an objective carries so many assumptions within it - particularly about property - that true cultural exchange was never going to occur.
One of the greatest myths of European arrival in the Pacific and Australasia, is that the boats were the most exciting thing that Polynesian and Aboriginal peoples had seen. In reality, as this book amply demonstrates, these events were viewed in terms of their local worlds - particularly, as to how the arrivals could be turned to advantage in local politics and warfare. The host peoples weren't living static or unchanging lives, just because their cultures were long-lived. Rather, they were complex and often tense societies, engaged in the same process of shifting power balances and changing environmental conditions that mark all peoples.
In granting complexity to the Tahitian culture, and in examining how this shapes Tupaia's choices, Druett also grants the same complexity to the British. She delves into the complex set of pressures upon Cook, and also his crew, taking into account how class and hierarchy constructions in British society also shape their choices. If to some extent Banks and Cook emerge with their usual stereotypes - Banks as a brilliant polymath rich kid, carelessly wielding his financial power to get exactly what he wants, Cook as a driven working-class escapee, a true believer in military hierarchy, especially equally applied, brutal discipline, with a brilliance single-mindedly directed to charting territory - it is because truth is not always new revelation. And you can see how both men's flaws hamper Tupaia's legacy - Cook's resolute focus leads him to disregard a very different kind of navigational brilliance, and his dislike of aristocratic polymaths doesn't endear Tupaia to him at all - Banks, on the other hand, whose intellect and class background are so similar to Tupaia, is clearly not fond of rivals, but also is far too careless to provide either the sponsorship or engagement needed to fully appreciate Tupaia, or even to keep him alive.
My only real criticism of the book is that at times, the author, allows her frustration with Cook to colour the text. An example is the near-obsession with the role of scurvy in killing Tupaia. it is understandable that Druett is infuriated with Cook's attempts to downplay the role in scurvy, but honestly, it seems a minor point in the history to me. A far bigger tragedy is the blindness of both Cook and Banks to how many times Tupaia had saved their butts, and how much they could have learned by taking him more seriously.
But again, in reading detailed accounts, it is always easy to lose the forest for the trees, or the war for the battle. These journeys, no matter what the personalities of the crew and scientists aboard, were always to end in tragedy. Because they were ultimately intended to conquer, to impose European ideals of property and monarchy on the populations in order to exploit and obtain resources. The kind of world in which first encounters were mutual respectful exchanges - first encounters which peoples had managed for millenia, no doubt - were not going to happen under these circumstances. It isn't the number of times Cook lost his temper that was the problem, it was why he was there at all.

[V.E. Ulett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joan Druett’s biography of the Tahitian navigator who helped ensure the success of Captain Cook’s first voyage of exploration is both an important and fascinating book. Tupaia’s early life as a young noble in Raiatea, his education toward being a tahua or priest, and his selection as an ariori—an elite sect of entertainers and keepers of tradition—show a highly intelligent and promising young man. Attack by a tribe of Bora Bora sends Tupaia, now a master navigator, astronomer and priest, into exile in Papara, Tahiti, where Captain Cook and the first Endeavour voyage encounter him. Tupaia’s reasons for voyaging with the British, his courage in doing so, his fate and how his assistance as a navigator, translator, and diplomat were received are the subjects of this excellent book.

The Polynesian tradition is an oral one, so we have only the accounts of Cook, Joseph Banks, and other Europeans describing Tupaia’s part in the Endeavour voyage. Using these primary sources along with an array of scholarship in Polynesian culture and early Pacific exploration, Joan Druett constructs a portrait of an important historical figure. In the process Druett also provides a rare glimpse from a native perspective into the encounter between western European civilization and the Polynesian culture.

[Helen Filisi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A recommended read for understanding how Tupaea actually showed Capt. Cook where the various islands were. He was the actual skilled navigator and Capt Cook didn't discover any places as they were already inhabited.

[Duncan Cambray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just the best book. I was constantly amazed at the breadth of research and the author's wonderful story-telling. Hard to believe it is non-fiction.

[G · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Tupaia" is an excellent biography of the politically nimble statesman who left Tahiti to sail with Captain Cook's voyage to New Zealand and Australia. Cook and the British members of his crew do not come across particularly well here, endlessly backing themselves into precarious situations that they are lucky to have Tupaia's linguistic abilities to help them escape. His considerable navigational expertise and knowledge of the geography is mostly dismissed by Cook, and even when Tupaia is in his element talking story with the populations they visit and forging ties to benefit Britain, Cook is shown as annoyed that his crew member has gone missing again.

And so the book represents not just the story of a tremendous, adaptable, fearless man, but also the palpable loss of what might have been, had he lived or done the exploration he advised his British shipmates was more sensible.

[Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great insight into Polynesian navigation and life pre-contact. Tupaia's story is another heartbreaking example of Indigenous exploitation. He was an exceptional man and I'm glad he's finally getting the recognition he deserves!!! (Cpt. Cook who?👀)

[Wendy Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would give this six stars if I could. Tupaia's life is fascinating, and Druett does it justice with her fastidious research and sympathetic narration. I was transfixed for the entire book - Druett drops you right into place: Tahitian life at the time Tupaia was alive (late 1700s); first encounters between Polynesians and Europeans; Cook's visit to Aotearoa / New Zealand; and the alternating drudgery and grind of shipboard life. This last point must have been a shocker for Tupaia: having his immense knowledge of ocean navigation yet being treated like he had nothing to offer (and meanwhile having to put up with horrible food and filthy shipmates).
Tupaia was essentially written out of history by Cook, Banks, and others on the Endeavour - in their journals, most made him out like a bit character barely worth mentioning. Druett reveals the facts: it was Tupaia's cultural competency and linguistic skills that facilitated the European's interactions with Indigenous peoples (who recognised Tupaia's mana). Hopefully this book and other biographical works (e.g., a children's book, 'The Adventures of Tupaia' by Courtney Sina Meredith and Mat Tait; a film, 'Tupaia's Endeavour') will give him the profile, respect, and honour he so richly deserves.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I gave up on Chapter 9 - to be honest.
I was pleased when my good friend Diane told me that she was also having trouble with this read that is our monthly read for our book club - because she is a teacher and in my humble estimation teachers are awesome readers ... let's face it they have to read stuff that kids of ages read and try to give it a mark right? LOL So I didn't feel so bad when I decided that I just couldn't read this anymore. The story itself is fine, but the type is so small and the book is so large and heavy that it became a mission right from the word go. I am not a fan of novels in the form of coffee table books. Coffee table books should only be artsy type books - not historical stories.
But in a nutshell the story is quite interesting for those that would like to read it.
This is how it's described by Amazon:

The remarkable story of Tupaia, Captain Cook's Polynesian navigator. Winner of New Zealand Post 2012 Best General Non-fiction Book Award. 'We are often told what great navigators ancient Polynesians were but we've seldom had it demonstrated so convincingly or with such clarity.' Paul Little North & South Tupaia, lauded by Europeans as 'an extraordinary genius', sailed with Captain Cook from Tahiti, piloted the Endeavour about the South Pacific, and interceded with Maori in NZ. Tupaia, a gifted linguist, a brilliant orator, and a most devious politician, could aptly be called the Machiavelli of Tahiti. Being highly skilled in astronomy, navigation, and meteorology, and an expert in the geography of the Pacific, he was able to name directional stars and predict landfalls and weather throughout the voyage from Tahiti to Java. Though he had no previous knowledge of writing or mapmaking, Tupaia drew a chart of the Pacific that encompassed every major group in Polynesia and extended more than 4,000 kilometres from the Marquesas to Rotuma and Fiji. He was also the ship's translator, able to communicate with all the Polynesian people they met. As a man of high social ranking, Tupaia performed as an able intermediary, interpreting local rituals and ceremonies. Joseph Banks is famous for his detailed, perceptive descriptions of the manners and customs of the Polynesian people. Much of the credit for this belongs to Tupaia. Not only did Tupaia become one of the ship's important artists, drawing lively pictures to illustrate what he described, but he could justly be called the Pacific's first anthropologist. Despite all this, Tupaia has never been part of the popular Captain Cook legend. This is largely because he died of complications from scurvy seven months before the ship arrived home. Once he was gone, his accomplishments were easily forgotten-indeed, by removing Tupaia from the story, what the Europeans had achieved seemed all the greater.This fascinating, handsome book also won the 2012 PANZ Book Design Award for best cover.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was our book club choice for this month. It took awhile to get into it and I did skip a little in the middle to get to the end. I was worried it would be a revisionist history whereby every European would come off looking like rapacious colonialists. Certainly Captain Cook doesn't come out looking all that good, cooking his records so to speak to make the deaths from scurvy look less than they were. So much for the accepted view of the great man saving all his sailors from a horrible death. And Joseph Banks wasn't backward in trying to have sex with all the native women. Indeed Cook and Banks didn't really understand each other or get on much at all.
Tupaia is an interesting character and it's obvious from this text that Cook really relied on him to navigate around the pacific. The tribal customs of the Islands were also a revelation, especially the infanticide rates which were horrific, because of superstition. Tupaia was also a canny man on the make but his death, by scurvy was pretty horrific.
All in all an interesting text with valuable source notes and references.

[Emily Ventura · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the second Druett book I've read, the first being "Island of the Lost". I got about a third of the way through this book and had to let it go (this is big, I rarely abandon books). It was unfortunately quite boring and worked better than melatonin.
Usually, if I abandon a book I will give it one star, but in this case I made an exception and gave it two. I did this based on the fact that the book had a few marks against it when I started. First, much of the cultural aspects of Tahiti were known to me and didn't add to the story as new information might. Secondly, the Tahitians were portrayed from mostly a European standpoint and understanding-which unfortunately paints them in a very unfavorable light and produces in me a general irritation. Third, I was expecting the excitement I found in Islands or the Lost, an unfair comparison as they are completely different stories. I should mention again that I did not finish the book, but a third of the way through I was completely underwhelmed, and if it got exciting later, it was too late for me.

[Julie Perry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the book after seeing Tim Finn's preview of his upcoming opera Star Navigator which is based on this book. Tim got so much out of the book and has created an amazing tale of two cultures clashing - the modern man of science (Cook) who placed zero credence on the skills of his Polynesian navigator. Cook gives no credit to Tupaia but the author leaves the reader in no doubt that Cook's voyages would have had a different outcome without the assistance provided by Tupaia. The book was a bit dry for me - the author has done well to glean as much information as she has and to provide the historical context. An interesting read but not as emotionally grabbing as the story reinterpreted in song by Tim Finn.

[Ian Lambert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of interesting stuff here though at the end I was left with some uncertainties about the author's interpretations. Druett can see things in Tupaia's watercolor sketches that I still can't and her all too brief and confident scene setting for first contact in NZ sent me scurrying to her references (which were excellent). For me, these and other items threw into doubt the way Druett sees the characters and personalities of all participants including Tupaia. It's difficult to interpret social interactions from such a distance in time but the author's research is very thorough and enlightening.

[Marilyn Tseng · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an amazingly well researched book, and one that finally gives Tupaia the credit he deserves. The maritime terminology was over my head, but I loved the descriptions of encounters with the different native populations in the Pacific, NZ, and Australia, learned a lot about a day in the life of a sea voyager, and gained a huge appreciation for the cultural complexity and navigational knowledge and skills of Pacific populations.

[Monica Bond-Lamberty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another example of how Europeans take credit for the knowledge/expertise of others. Fascinating examination of the possible impact of tsunamis on Maori and Polynesian culture.

[Angela Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Conventional views of Capt James Cook may well be overturned by this book which places the Tahitian, Tupaia, front and centre on Cook’s first Pacific voyage. Joan Druett’s account is essential reading for a new perspective on Pacific history and her book is an easy and enjoyable read
Tupaia sailed with Cook from Tahiti in 1769 and acted as navigator, pilot, illustrator and interpreter on the voyage which circumnavigated New Zealand and charted the eastern seaboard of Australia, until his miserable death in Batavia in December 1770. The extent of his assistance particularly in brokering peaceful encounters with Maori is undeniable and contributed to much of the success of Cook’s time in New Zealand.
None of the characters in this story come out of it particularly well however and certainly none appear to have become close companions. Class and racial distinction were very real so Cook’s humble beginnings, Bank’s upper class position and what would have to be to the Europeans, Tupaia’s alien origins were the cause of misunderstandings and arrogance.
Druett rightly points out that Tupaia’s deep understanding of the ocean and navigation and ability to communicate with Maori was on many occasions overlooked. However, Cook is somewhat short-changed by the author in this account as the incredible achievement of his seamanship, charting and captaincy are fairly arbitrarily dismissed.
There is plenty of food for thought in this entertaining book.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an interesting dive into the life of a man that I certainly have never heard of. Tupaia lived an incredible life, and the book is a good lit review and description of him and his time with the Dolphin and Endeavor. I think the author takes some liberties with her interjections and extrapolations, which I appreciated in some parts to make the book much more enjoyable and readable, but in others they threw off my reading groove. The importance of Tupaia in almost every decision, interaction, anything these Europeans did on their voyages cannot be understated. Similarly, the importance of this story, and other stories like Tupaia's, cannot be understated. Most people have heard of Captain Cook, they should certainly know about Tupaia as well.

[Alastair Crawford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enthralling, detailed, everything I said about Andrew Mango's 'Attaturk' - a great non-fiction read. There are some terribly sad aspects, but there are many interesting aspects of Tahitian and English cultures covered which answer things you might have thought about. Tupaia was regarded more as the Admiral than Cook by Maori, and Druett criticizes Cook for claiming successfully to have overcome scurvy suffering, which she says he claimed as he hadn't succeeded in finding the great Southern Continent.

[Gill · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not going to write a long review, as I agree with most of the positive reviews that already on this page.
This is a fascinating book, and totally upended my views of Captain Cook as the hero-explorer.
This account makes a lot of sense in terms of the importance of Tupaia in navigating, communicating and interpreting situations and people who were a lot closer to him than the Europeans. I'm glad that this book has finally given Tupaia the credit he deserves, and sad that it haas taken so long.
Very well researched, the story really moves, and the characters are well drawn.

[Marie Greaney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding. Needs to be widely read. The absolute arrogance of an explorer in the 1700s to arrive by sea in a land, to shoot at the people (or not, but often Cook did - and he was very aware there WERE inhabitants and he hadn’t occasioned upon a deserted land) and then to “claim” the land is breathtaking.
And his voyage would have been disastrous if not for Tupaia, to whom he gave no credit whatsoever.

[Daryl Lucarelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much more the Capt Cook... this book was very interesting especially after having read other books on Pacific discoveries..... Cook surely should have give him more credits. Good informative easy read

especially after having read other books on Pacific discoveries..... Cook surely should have give him more credits. Good informative easy read

[Uwe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too much speculation on what Tupaia "must have", "would have", "undoubtedly", "may have", "could have" done. Also a bit too much criticism of the others on the boat about their lack of writing about Tupaia. Where the author sticks to the information available from the sources the book is interesting and informative.

[Vien Guenther · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very interesting book. I wonder if Captain Cook would be well-known today if not for Tupaia. Just like Tom Crean (on his expeditions with Scott and Shackleton), Tupaia was an unsung hero, forgotten in the "Annals of History". We usually only read about the stories of the great explorers and their successes (or failures), but not about the people behind them. Good read!

[Gillian Torckler · Rating 4 out of 5]

here is my published review of this great book:
http://booksellersnz.wordpress.com/20...

[Timothy Wright · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Book seeks to set the record straight on this Polynesian's contribution to Capt Cook's voyage to the south seas.

[Alohatiki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Totally fascinating. If interested in this subject area, you will not be disappointed.