Tupaia sailed with Captain Cook from Tahiti, piloted the Endeavour about the South Pacific and was the ship’s translator. Lauded by Europeans as an “‘'extraordinary genius,”“ Tupaia was also a master navigator, a brilliant orator and a most devious politician. Being highly skilled in astronomy, navigation, and meteorology, and an expert in the geography of the Pacific, he was able to name directional stars and predict landfalls and weather throughout the voyage from Tahiti to Java.Though, like all Polynesians, he had no previous knowledge of writing or mapmaking, Tupaia drew a chart of the Pacific that encompassed every major group in Polynesia and extended more than 4000 kilometres from the Marquesas to Rotuma and Fiji.Tupaia became one of the ship’s important artists, drawing lively pictures to illustrate what he described, and he could justly be called the Pacific’s first anthropologist. Despite all this, Tupaia has never been part of the popular Captain Cook legend.In Tupaia, Captain Cook’s Polynesian Navigator Joan Druett brings this ”“extraordinary genius”“ to life.WINNER OF THE NEW ZEALAND POST GENERAL NON-FICTION PRIZE ”“It isn’t easy to meld a raw jumble of research material into a cohesive and lively narrative but Druett has managed it with both 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”“ Joan Curry, Christchurch Press, reviewing Tupaia. ”“Druett’s biography restores Tupaia’s place in Pacific history and defines his role on the Endeavour… This reflects the originality and talent of one of New Zealand’s most gifted authors”“ - John Dunmore, The Listener. ”“Druett’s astute portrait vitally contributes to annals of exploration and cultural contact”“ -Gilbert Taylor, Booklist, reviewing the U.S. edition of Tupaia.
