8 Captain James Cook (1728-1779)

Captain James Cook was a British explorer, navigator, and captain in the Royal Navy. He made three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean and to Australia. By finding Australia and mapping New Zealand, Captain Cook essentially created the map of the Pacific we know today.

He almost had all the essential virtues of an excellent traveler. He was fearless in adventure, discreet and precise in the survey and indomitable in hardship. Besides being a navy captain, he was also a good navigator who drew up accurate charts and mapped lands from New Zealand to Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean in great detail, which was unprecedented among western explorers. From his travel notes we can see that he was also a broad-minded person who had genuine interest in various indigenous cultures he encountered along the journey.