ON   August 26, 1768, HMS Endeavour departed England on a Royal Society of London mission to Tahiti to calculate the earth's proximity to the sun, in what was set to become James Cook's most famous voyage.
Under the captaincy of Lieutenant James Cook, an astronomer and crew of more than 90 set sail for the South Seas to track Venus's movement across the sun, equipped with the latest technology including lunar prediction tables, nautical almanac and sextants to calculate the position at sea by the lunar distance method.
After the crew collated its scientific data in   June 1769, Cook continued his voyage south under a secret mission from the British Admiralty in search of the southern continent.
Capt Cook arrived at New Zealand in   October 1769, charted the two islands and reported on the people and their way of life.
He then sailed east to then New Holland, Australia, and headed north charting the unknown east coast for the first time.
The Endeavour hit a reef south of modern-day Cooktown and took about seven weeks to repair.
In this time, Capt Cook reported on his experience with the indigenous people of the Guugu Yimithirr community.
"They may appear to some to be the most wretched people on earth but in reality they are far happier than we Europeans. They live in tranquillity which is not disturbed by the inequality of condition. The earth and sea of their own accord furnish them with all the things necessary for life," he wrote.Before setting sail back to England, Capt Cook took possession of the eastern portion of Australia in the name of King George III.