The remarkable story of Tupaia, Captain Cook's Polynesian
navigator. Winner of NZ Post 2012 Best General Non - fiction Book
Award. 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.
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