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This series includes accounts, by eye-witnesses and contemporaries, of voyages by Europeans to the Americas, Asia, Australasia and the Pacific during the colonial period. Driven by the military and commercial interests of powers including Britain, France and The Netherlands, particularly the East India Companies, these expeditions brought back a wealth of information on climate, natural resources, topography, and distant civilisations. Their detailed observations provide fascinating historical data for climatologists, ecologists and anthropologists, and the accounts of the mariners' experiences on their long and dangerous voyages are full of human interest.

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112 results in Cambridge Library Collection - Maritime Exploration

Page 6 of 6

A Voyage to the South Atlantic and Round Cape Horn into the Pacific Ocean
  • For the Purpose of Extending the Spermaceti Whale Fisheries, and Other Objects of Commerce
  • James Colnett
  • Published online:
    05 May 2013
    Print publication:
    07 June 2012
    First published in:
    1798
  • British naval officer James Colnett (1753–1806) served on many voyages during his career. He was a midshipman on Captain Cook's second voyage, and in 1774, he was first to sight New Caledonia, which led to Cook naming Cape Colnett after him. Later in his career, he was in command of the fur-trading expedition that resulted in the Nootka Crisis and near-war between Spain and England. In this book, first published in 1798, Colnett gives an account of the voyage he commanded to the Antarctic in 1793. The expedition's success at charting suitable places for ships to anchor was instrumental to the development of the whaling industry in the area. This book contains accounts and maps of the islands and coastlands visited during the expedition. Among the islands visited were the Galapagos Islands, and Charles Darwin is known to have had a copy of this book on HMS Beagle.

A Voyage Round the World, in the Gorgon Man of War; Captain John Parker
  • Mary Ann Parker
  • Published online:
    05 December 2011
    Print publication:
    09 September 2010
    First published in:
    1795
  • In 1791, Mary Ann Parker accompanied her husband, Captain John Parker, on a voyage to deliver supplies to New South Wales. A Voyage Round the World, in the Gorgon Man of War (1795) records their travels past the Cape of Good Hope to New South Wales and back, offering valuable insights into late eighteenth-century colonialism, trade, and slavery, as well as the social worlds of Europeans who made careers in the business of empire. Written on subscription following the death of her husband, Parker's travelogue also offers poignant witness to the conditions for women's authorship at the close of the eighteenth century. As she assures her readers, 'nothing but the greatest distress could ever have induced her to solicit beneficence in the manner she has done, for the advantage of her family'. Engaging and observant, Parker's book is an important addition to the canon of early women's travel writing.

A Voyage to Madagascar, and the East Indies
  • To Which Is Added M. Brunel's Memoir on the Chinese Trade
  • Alexis-Marie de Rochon
  • Translated by Joseph Trapp
  • Published online:
    05 March 2014
    Print publication:
    22 August 2013
    First published in:
    1792
  • Published in English translation in 1793, this was the first study of Madagascar by a European. A member of the Académie des Sciences, Alexis-Marie de Rochon (1741–1817) was a distinguished French physicist, astronomer and traveller. He was involved in scientific voyages of discovery in the 1770s, conducting a hydrographic survey of the Indian Ocean. The present account was intended to show the advantages of French settlement in Madagascar and includes details of geography, anthropology and agriculture. In discussing cocoa and sugar, Rochon outlines the potential advantages of steam engines in sugar factories. He also provides an exploration history of the region and an interesting account of colonial leaders, notably Maurice Benyovszky (1746–86), the explorer-adventurer who was appointed governor of Madagascar by Louis XV. The work also includes a 'Memoir of the Chinese Trade', which details the many products traded between Europe and China in the late eighteenth century.

A Voyage to the South Sea, for the Purpose of Conveying the Bread-fruit Tree to the West Indies
  • In His Majesty's Ship the Bounty, Commanded by Lieutenant William Bligh
  • William Bligh
  • Published online:
    05 March 2014
    Print publication:
    28 March 2013
    First published in:
    1792
  • During the voyage of HMS Bounty from Tahiti to bring the breadfruit plant to the West Indies, Fletcher Christian led what became the most infamous mutiny in seafaring history. Perhaps better known today through Hollywood depictions, the story of the events surrounding the date of 28 April 1789 is told here by William Bligh (1754–1817), the ship's commander. This reissue includes as an appendix Bligh's first narrative of the mutiny, published in haste in 1790 with the intention of following it with a separate account of the events leading up to the mutiny. The main text comprises the revised, fuller version he published instead in 1792, citing 'the manifest convenience' of having everything in one continuous narrative. The reasons behind the mutiny remain to this day a subject of debate. Undeniable, however, is that Bligh's is a remarkable tale of seamanship and survival.

The Life of Captain James Cook
  • Andrew Kippis
  • Published online:
    05 February 2013
    Print publication:
    02 February 2012
    First published in:
    1788
  • The dissenting minister Andrew Kippis (1725–95) was a Member of the Society of Antiquaries and of the Royal Society. With this work of 1788, he was the first biographer of Captain James Cook (1728–79), although several of Cook's colleagues, including Johann Reinhold Forster in 1778 and David Samwell in 1786, had previously published memoirs of their service with him. Believing that 'his public transactions ... are the grand objects to which the attention of his biographer must be directed', Kippis draws on the official Admiralty accounts of Cook's voyages and focuses on his professional life. The book was criticised at the time for failing to convey Cook's personality and motivation, stressing his achievements without putting them in context. However, it remained the only biography for forty years, and shaped public perception of Cook as a brilliant navigator and commander, a fearless explorer and an exemplary British hero.

Observations Made During a Voyage Round the World
  • On Physical Geography, Natural History, and Ethnic Philosophy
  • John Reinhold Forster
  • Published online:
    07 October 2011
    Print publication:
    02 June 2011
    First published in:
    1778
  • John Reinhold Forster (1729–98), a scientific writer and translator of German origin, took part in Cook's second Pacific voyage, from 1772 to 1775, and published this study, which records his examinations of 'nature in its greatest extent; the earth, the sea, the air, the organic and animated creation', in 1778. He drew upon the ideas of 'the most ingenious men of the age' in constructing his observations on natural history and navigation. The first half of the book addresses the physical aspects of the world: earth and land, oceans, global changes and flora and fauna. The second half focuses on the anthropological origins of the people of the southern seas. The book was originally written as a popular travel narrative, and it remains an important publication which will appeal to readers interested in historical geography, zoology, ethnology, astronomy and travel writing.

A Voyage round the World, Performed by Order of His Most Christian Majesty, in the Years 1766–1769
  • Louis de Bougainville
  • Translated by John Reinhold Forster
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    25 August 2011
    First published in:
    1772
  • This is an English translation from 1772 of the famous Voyage Autour du Monde (1771) by Louis de Bougainville (1729–1811), French admiral and explorer. The contemporary fascination with global circumnavigation created demand for this translation by John Reinhold Forster (1729–98), which includes many annotations and comments from the translator himself on de Bougainville's observations. Describing all of de Bougainville's adventures on the voyage (which took place between 1766 and 1769) as well as his descriptions of local flora and fauna, the gripping tale includes such interesting passages as the unmasking of the botanist's valet as a woman (the first known to have circumnavigated the globe); de Bougainville's famous descriptions of Tahitian society; and graphic descriptions of the discomforts and perils of sea voyaging in the eighteenth century. It includes a copy of the original eighteenth-century plot of the route, and several plates representing original sketches from the trip.

A Voyage to China and the East Indies
  • Together with a Voyage to Suratte, and an Account of the Chinese Husbandry, to Which Are Added, a Faunula and Flora Sinensis
  • Volume 1
  • Pehr Osbeck, Olof Torén, Carl Gustaf Ekeberg
  • Translated by Johann Reinhold Forster
  • Published online:
    05 March 2014
    Print publication:
    29 August 2013
    First published in:
    1771
  • A student of Carl Linnaeus, Pehr Osbeck (1723–1805) was a Swedish explorer, naturalist and chaplain. He travelled to Asia in 1750–2 and brought back some six hundred specimens that were included in Linnaeus' Species Plantarum (1753). His account of his voyage was published in Swedish in 1757, in German in 1765, and here in English in 1771, edited and translated by Johann Reinhold Forster (1729–98). This two-volume work also includes letters to Linnaeus by another pupil, Olof Torén (1718–53), who also travelled to the East in the early 1750s, as well as a paper on Chinese husbandry by Carl Gustaf Ekeberg (1716–84). Ekeberg made ten trips to China and India between 1742 and 1778, becoming a captain in the Swedish East India Company. He too brought back numerous specimens for Linnaeus. Volume 1, however, is given over entirely to Osbeck's narrative.

A Voyage to China and the East Indies
  • Together with a Voyage to Suratte, and an Account of the Chinese Husbandry, to Which Are Added, a Faunula and Flora Sinensis
  • Volume 2
  • Pehr Osbeck, Olof Torén, Carl Gustaf Ekeberg
  • Translated by Johann Reinhold Forster
  • Published online:
    05 March 2014
    Print publication:
    05 September 2013
    First published in:
    1771
  • A student of Carl Linnaeus, Pehr Osbeck (1723–1805) was a Swedish explorer, naturalist and chaplain. He travelled to Asia in 1750–2 and brought back some six hundred specimens that were included in Linnaeus' Species Plantarum (1753). His account of his voyage was published in Swedish in 1757, in German in 1765, and here in English in 1771, edited and translated by Johann Reinhold Forster (1729–98). This two-volume work also includes letters to Linnaeus by another pupil, Olof Torén (1718–53), who also travelled to the East in the early 1750s, as well as a paper on Chinese husbandry by Carl Gustaf Ekeberg (1716–84). Ekeberg made ten trips to China and India between 1742 and 1778, becoming a captain in the Swedish East India Company. He too brought back numerous specimens for Linnaeus. Volume 2 contains the conclusion of Osbeck's account, the pieces by Torén and Ekeberg, and a catalogue of animals and plants native to China.

A Journal of a Voyage round the World, in His Majesty's Ship Endeavour
  • In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, and 1771, Undertaken in Pursuit of Natural Knowledge, at the Desire of the Royal Society
  • Anonymous
  • Published online:
    05 September 2015
    Print publication:
    27 April 2015
    First published in:
    1771
  • This slim volume, published anonymously in 1771 within months of the Endeavour's return from Captain Cook's first voyage, predates Hawkesworth's publication of Cook's own journal in his Voyages (1773, also reissued). It has been attributed variously to two of the ship's petty officers (Orton and Perry); Sydney Parkinson, draughtsman; his employer Joseph Banks; or the Swedish botanist Solander. The story moves rapidly, with well-chosen detail: mines that 'destroy two thousand slaves yearly', or the brown granite of a communal laundry. The author describes marine animals, Tahitian and New Zealand society, and foodstuffs including a 'large milky farinaceous fruit, which when baked resembles bread' - the breadfruit that Joseph Banks later decided to introduce to the Caribbean, leading to the ill-fated Bounty voyage (Bligh's account of which is also reissued). The author reports making 'considerable progress in learning the language of the country', and concludes with a short list of Tahitian words.

A Voyage to the South-Seas, in the Years 1740–1
  • Containing a Faithful Narrative of the Loss of His Majesty's Ship the Wager on a Desolate Island
  • John Bulkeley, John Cummins
  • Published online:
    05 September 2015
    Print publication:
    27 April 2015
    First published in:
    1743
  • The tale of the ill-fated HMS Wager gripped the public's imagination, feeding its taste for dramatic accounts of survival against the odds. Part of George Anson's squadron that had been sent to harass Spanish ships in the Pacific, she was wrecked after rounding Cape Horn in 1741. The majority of the survivors, led by ship's gunner John Bulkeley, mutinied against their irascible and unpredictable captain and chose to make their own way home in what would become one of the most hazardous journeys ever recorded. Their journey took them over 2,000 miles in an open boat through ferocious seas, enduring starvation and extreme privation. Two years after the disaster, the thirty remaining men arrived back in England. Bulkeley and ship's carpenter John Cummins published this account in 1743. Also reissued in this series is the 1768 account of John Byron, who had been midshipman aboard the Wager.

Relation du voyage de la mer du sud aux cotes du Chily et du Perou, fait pendant les années 1712, 1713 & 1714
  • Amédée-François Frézier
  • Published online:
    05 July 2015
    Print publication:
    04 September 2014
    First published in:
    1716
  • The first reliable maps of the Chilean and Peruvian coasts were drawn by the French explorer Amédée-François Frézier (1682–1773). In 1712, he was sent on a spying mission to the Spanish ports and fortifications of South America, travelling along the Pacific coastline as far as Callao, the port of Lima. His maps were later used by two of France's most famous explorers, Bougainville and Lapérouse. Frézier also took a keen interest in botany, mineralogy, economics and anthropology. His most celebrated achievement is the introduction to Europe of the Chilean strawberry, which was used to create the hybrid species known today as the garden strawberry. Frézier's observations and illustrations of the people, plants and animals he encountered on his South American travels are given in this popular account, published in Paris in 1716 and subsequently translated into several European languages.

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