The voyages of Abel Tasman in 1642 discovered the west coast of the South Island of New Zealand but he identified the land as an extension of that found by Willem Cornelisz Schouten and Jacob Le Maire and named is ‘Staten Land’. It was not until Captain James Cook arrived at the eastern shore of the North Island on 6 October 1768 and sailed around the islands that their true identity was revealed. Land was first sighted by a boy called Nicholas Young and his immortality continues in the naming of ‘Young Nick’s Head’ to this day. Immediately Cook set about mapping the islands, including observing on the 9 November the transit of Mercury which enabled them to fix the location of a point north of the Coromandel Peninsula. Poor weather hampered some of the charting but he did fix the northern tip of the island to within two minutes of its actual latitude and four minutes in longitude. After repairs Cook continued mapping the South Island and by the end of March had completed his task and proved the insular nature of New Zealand.

The official account of Cook’s First Voyage was published in London in 1773 and includes this, the FIRST MAP OF NEW ZEALAND. This example comes from the French translation appearing the following year and is engraved by Robert Bénard. Suarez (2004)’ pp. 130-1; Tooley, R. V. ‘Map Collector Series’ no. 64, no. 339; Tooley, R.V. (1979) pl. 21.