Tupaia: Captain Cook's Polynesian Navigator

Tupaia sailed with Captain Cook from Tahiti piloted the Endeavour about the South Pacific and was the ships translator. Lauded by Europeans as an extraordinary genius Tupaia was a star navigator a brilliant orator and a most devious politician. 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 like all Polynesians he had no previous knowledge of writing or map-making Tupaia drew a chart of the Pacific that encompassed every major group in Polynesia and extended more than 2500 miles from the Marquesas to Rotuma and Fiji.Tupaia also became one of the ships most important artists drawing lively pictures to illustrate what he described and he could justly be called the Pacifics first anthropologist. Despite all these amazing accomplishments however Tupaia has never been part of the popular Captain Cook legend. In Tupaia Captain Cooks Polynesian Navigator Joan Druett restores this extraordinary genius to his rightful place in history.WINNER OF THE NEW ZEALAND POST GENERAL NON-FICTION AWARD