Cook Arrives at Tahiti

April 13, 1769

Endeavour dropped anchor in Matavai Bay. Banks bought provisions with nails; the sailors traded for sex and warnings about theft. On June 3 they observed the Venus transit through scattered cloud. Cook ordered a fort built - Fort Venus - and wrote the first serious European ethnography of Polynesia. His detailed observations of Tahitian society, navigation, and religion set a new standard for scientific exploration.