Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 56. Chapters: James Cook, Alexander Mackenzie, Alessandro Malaspina, Jose Maria Narvaez, James Colnett, Dionisio Alcala Galiano, Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra, Manuel Quimper, John Henry Cox, Juan Carrasco, George Dixon, Claude Charles Du Tisne, Alexandre Rodrigues Ferreira, Salvador Fidalgo, Bruno de Heceta, Cayetano Valdes y Flores, Charles William Barkley, Ignacio de Arteaga y Bazan, Esteban Jose Martinez Fernandez y Martinez de la Sierra, Juan Jose Perez Hernandez, Jacinto Caamano, Evstratii Delarov, Jakob Roggeveen, Daniel Gottlieb Messerschmidt, Juan Crespi, Juan de Ayala, Jose Cardero, Francisco Antonio Mourelle, Domingo de Bonechea, Gonzalo Lopez de Haro, Christopher Dufrost de La Jemeraye, Franz de Paula Adam von Waldstein, Jose Joaquin Moraga, Jean-Michel Huon de Kermadec, Ange Auguste Joseph de Laborde de Boutervilliers, John Bean, Francisco de Lacerda. Excerpt: Captain James Cook FRS RN (7 November 1728 - 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator and cartographer, ultimately rising to the rank of Captain in the Royal Navy. Cook made detailed maps of Newfoundland prior to making three voyages to the Pacific Ocean during which he achieved the first European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands as well as the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand. Cook joined the British merchant navy as a teenager and joined the Royal Navy in 1755. He saw action in the Seven Years' War, and subsequently surveyed and mapped much of the entrance to the Saint Lawrence River during the siege of Quebec. This helped bring Cook to the attention of the Admiralty and Royal Society. This notice came at a crucial moment both in his personal career and in the direction of British overseas exploration, and led to his commission in 1766 as commander of HM Bark Endeavour for the first of th...