"Unfolding Cook's first great voyage with a steady eye on the hitherto minor figure of Tupaia, Joan Druett reveals how the services of this Tahitian diplomat and navigator informed and guided Cook's success. A story of the remarkable fusion of expertise and lore of two great seagoing people, the British and the Polynesian,Tupaia fills an important, and gaping gap in the history of Pacific exploration."

-- Caroline Alexander, author of THE BOUNTY and THE ENDURANCE.

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"Joan Druett's wonderful and captivating book vividly brings to life the fascinating contributions of an amazing explorer and cultural ambassador, Tupaia, who for too long has been relegated to the shadows of history. And in the process, she puts a well-deserved dent in the legend of Captain James Cook."

--Eric Jay Dolin, author of LEVIATHAN: THE HISTORY OF WHALING IN AMERICA and FUR, FORTUNE, AND EMPIRE: THE EPIC HISTORY OF THE FUR TRADE IN AMERICA

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Anyone with an interest in history will want to read this book

-- Alan Caruba, Bookviews blog, "My picks of the month," January 2011

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In this lively and sometimes lyrical biography of a forgotten man, Druett goes a long way towards righting a wrong. She goes so far as to say the story of Endeavour's first voyage to the South Pacific should be that of three extraordinary men instead of just two, James Cook and Joseph Banks. In this book she sets out to prove it, with meticulous research and an extensive knowledge of the ways of old-time searfarers ...

It isn't easy to meld a raw jumble of research material into a cohesive and lively narrative but Druett has managed it with scholarship and flair. She steers a scrupulous course between fact and speculation, and employs her novelist's instinct for a good story to augment her academic respect for history.

This handsome book is illustrated with engravings and watercolour sketches, some executed by Tupaia himself, and you can almost hear the conch shells wailing eerily in the background

-- Joan Curry, Weekend Magazine

We are often told what great navigators ancient Polynesians were, but we've seldom had it demonstrated so convincingly or with such clarity ... This is a stimulating read, and challenging in a good way.

-- Paul Little, North & South Magazine

A fascinating tale, well told

-- Rick Spilman, Old Salt Blog

A very readable and enlightening history of a great Polynesian

-- Brian Easton, The New Zealand Listener

Enthralling history

-- Bookie Monster

Selected Works

Biography
The story of the extraordinary -- but unacknowledged -- Polynesian who ensured the success of Cook's first discovery voyage
Castaway drama
A gripping tale of two starkly contrasting castaway experiences
Controversial castaways of Campbell Island
The ordeal of the castaways, and the political fall-out that followed their rescue
Wiki Coffin Mystery #1
Murder most foul in Portsmouth, Virginia, is solved in the middle of the Atlantic.
Wiki Coffin Mystery #2
Pirate-hunting on the coast of Brazil
Wiki Coffin Mystery #3
Wiki Coffin must clear his father's name of murder in this third seafaring mystery set aboard the U.S. Exploring Expedition.
Wiki Coffin Mystery #4
Contracted to track down the man who stole a sealing schooner, instead Wiki Coffin finds a skull at the foot of a sacred Gualichu tree in the stark hinterland of the Rio Negro, and joins the Patagonian gauchos to solve a grotesque murder
Wiki Coffin Mystery #5
A murderous encounter in the icy seas south of Cape Horn
Revenge at Sea
Murder and rebellion on the whaleship Sharon.
Women Under Sail
Captains' wives at sea.

Quick Links

Read my blog "World of the Written Word" here -- it covers book news and publishing gossip in New Zealand and New York
The Mystery Place
Home of the world's best short mystery fiction
Kindle Publishing Hints
A step-by-step guide to publishing your novel on Kindle
Random House New Zealand
Publishers of TUPAIA, THE REMARKABLE STORY OF CAPTAIN COOK'S POLYNESIAN NAVIGATOR
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TUPAIA, CAPTAIN COOK'S POLYNESIAN NAVIGATOR


FROM POLYNESIA COMES THE STORY OF THE UNACKNOWLEDGED TAHITAIN WHO WAS ESSENTIAL TO THE SUCCESS, AND SUBSEQUENT FAME, OF THE VOYAGE OF CAPTAIN JAMES COOK ON THE ENDEAVOUR.


The name of this remarkable man was Tupaia.


Being a gifted linguist, a brilliant orator, and a most devious politician, Tupaia could aptly be called the Machiavelli of Tahiti. Born in Ra'iatea, the most sacred island in the Pacific, and the cradle of Polynesian civilization, about 1760 he had been forced to flee to Tahiti after a disastrous war with neighboring Borabora. Within a handful of years he had risen from the humble status of a refugee to become one of the most powerful men in the land. The political advisor of Amo, one of the highest chiefs, he was also the lover and advisor of Amo's wife, Purea, a high chief in her own right. Tupaia completed the conversion of the whole island to the worship of Oro, the god of war, and designed and supervised the construction of Mahaiatea, which was one of the most massive marae (temple-compounds) in Polynesia. Then, when European ships arrived, he became Tahiti's most important diplomat.

An extremely intelligent man, Tupaia was intrigued with European science, technology, and military might. On 18 April 1769, after the Endeavour dropped anchor in Matavai Bay, Tupaia agreed to join the ship's list of supernumeraries, and was signed onto the muster roll by Captain Cook. Over the intervening weeks he struggled with the decision of whether to join the scientific contingent for the ongoing voyage. The answer was yes. In July, when the ship sailed, he sailed with them.


Captain Cook was extraordinarily lucky. Not only was Tupaia highly skilled in astronomy, navigation, and meteorology, but he was an expert in the geography of the Pacific, able to name directional stars and predict landfalls and weather. At any stage in the convoluted course of the voyage, including in the East Indies, he was able without hesitation to point unerringly to the position of distant Tahiti. He even drew a chart of the Pacific, which encompassed every major group in Polynesia and extended more than 2,500 miles from the Marquesas to Rotuma and Fiji. In normal times such privileged knowledge of currents, weather patterns, geography, and astronomy would never have been revealed to anyone outside Tupaia's select group. But, as an exile . . . and a man who had boarded the British ship to evade capture and sacrifice by his enemies . . . the navigator-priest was willing to share this secret lore.
Tupaia was also the ship's translator, able to communicate with all the Polynesian people they met, including New Zealand Maori. As a noble member of the arioi sect, which was going through its greatest flowering at the time, and was famous for its gifted orators, artists, actors, dancers, and lovers, Tupaia commanded awe and respect wherever he went.

Unhappily, Tupaia died before the ship arrived home, and since then has been almost forgotten, his name familiar only to a handful of Pacific historians, geographers, and anthropologists. Worse still, his belongings were ransacked, and the precious taonga - treasures - that had been entrusted to him by Polynesian nobility were appropriated as presents for royalty and museums, their origin forgotten.

The story of this remarkable man, who was aptly called "an extraordinary genius", was published in the United States by Praeger Books (a division of ABC-Clio), while a splendidly illustrated edition was produced by Random House, in New Zealand.

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The first contacts between European navigators and Pacific islanders were often marked by suspicion and animosity. The islanders were usually under threat from raiders from neighbouring islands or rival tribes. the Europeans, facing threats and hostility, were equally on the defensive. Clashes were common, and a mixture of tact and firmness was required in situations where the difference in languaes made communication almost impossible.

Anyone who gave the impression of being a person of high status and having a gift for interpereting gestures and language was a real blessing to the voyagers.

Samuel Wallis, whose Dolphin was the first English ship to reach Tahiti, was fortunate to come upon Tupaia ... And James Cook, who followed in the Endeavour, was able to establish an observatory for his scientists and carry out a detailed survey of the island in safety.

When Cook left, he took Tupaia with him ...

Tupaia deserved a full biography, and thanks to Joan Druett's meticulous research, he now has one, comprehensive, highly readable, and attractively produced. Plentiful illustrations are perfectly presented, and reveal Tupaia's astonishing ability as a sketch artist, using drawing material that had been totally unknown to him ...

Druett's biography restores Tupaia's place in Pacific history and defines his role on the Endeavour. Avoiding the use of footnotes, common in academic works but which interfere in the narrative flow, she provides a detailed analysis of her sources in a series of detailed chapter "commentaries" and adds a reliable bibliography as well as a detailed index. She also avoids what would have been the tiresome use of "the men of the Dolphin and "the crew of the Endeavour by resorting to the rather endearing terms "the Dolphins" and "the Endeavours."

This reflects the originality and talent of one of New Zealand's most gifted authors.

John Dunmore, The Listener


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Author of maritime histories and the Wiki Coffin nautical mysteries, Druett resurrects a figure encountered on Tahiti by eighteenth-century British explorers Samuel Wallis, James Cook, and botanist Joseph Banks. Named Tupaia, he was recorded in the visitors' journals and in several self-portraits reproduced in this book, sources that Druett reinforces with Polynesian oral tradition to portray what manner of man he was. About 40 years old, he had fled to Tahiti after a war between his native island of Raiatea and attackers from Bora Bora. When Wallis dropped anchor in 1767, he gradually grasped Tupaia's significant status in incidents of parlay between the British and Tahitians, in which Tupaia emerged as intermediary, translator, and explicator of Polynesian society. At Cook's arrival in 1769, Tupaia's talents were remembered. Druett recounts the advantage the British took of them, even taking Tupaia on board for the continuation of Cook's voyage to New Zealand, Australia, and Java, where Tupaia died after falling ill. The only biography of Tupaia, Druett's astute portrait vitally contributes to annals of exploration and cultural contact."

-- Gilbert Taylor, BOOKLIST.


Many accounts of James Cook's first voyage to the South Pacific (1768-71) make scant mention of the Tahitian high priest Tupaia who became an invaluable navigator and translator on Cook's ship Endeavour for the latter part of the voyage. Maritime historian Druett's (Island of the Lost) refreshing, detailed, and insightful biographical history redresses that lack.

Much of what is known about Tupaia comes from the journals of the officers, scientists, and seamen with whom he shared the voyage, and Druett has drawn heavily upon thse sources, showing Tupaia to have had extensive knowledge of South Pacific island locations beyond Tahiti and outstanding skill in celestial navigation. He also helped the Endeavour's crew in translating the language and interpreting local culture on other Polynesian islands where Cook conducted extensive explorations.

Tupaia's legacy is apparent in his fascinating drawings made during the ship's voyage, reproduced here, which provide a glimpse into his perceptions of the world around him.

VERDICT Druett's narrative beautifully captures the essence of Tupaia's world and brings it alive for readers. her excellent study of an extraordinary and nearly forgotten Tahitian should be enjoyed by readers interested in British maritime history and Polynesian history and culture.

--Elizabeth Salt, Otterbein Univ. Lib., Westerville, OH. LIBRARY JOURNAL Copyright 2010.

Joan in Beaglehole Library with a reproduction of Tupaia's chart


I am very grateful to Creative New Zealand and the Stout Trust for their generous support of this project.

For an interview, follow this link:




Video designed and created by Rick Spilman