Cook rarely arrived first — the peoples of the Pacific had lived on those lands for centuries. What he did was draw them, with stunning accuracy, onto the European map. Three voyages between 1768 and 1779 charted New Zealand, Australia's east coast, and Antarctica's margins, reached Hawai'i, and advanced science from astronomy to the near-defeat of scurvy at sea. The same voyages were the leading edge of empire: settlers, missionaries, and disease followed in their wake. Cook was killed at Kealakekua Bay in 1779. Navigator of rare brilliance and advance scout of colonization — both truths are his.
James Cook was among the finest navigators who ever lived — and almost nowhere he charted was empty. The peoples of the Pacific had lived on those coasts for centuries, in Australia for tens of thousands of years; what Cook did was draw them, with startling accuracy, onto the European map. Behind that map came the settlers, missionaries, and disease, so the same voyages that advanced science were the advance scouts of dispossession.