As the fifth of our Five Voyages, Cook's first expedition receives detailed attention later, but several points are worth stressing here.
First, Cook's rank of Lieutenant was the lowest at which command of one of His Majesty's ships was possible. Combine that with Cook's unimpeachable background as a marine surveyor, and you have a perfect cover story for a supposedly scientific expedition with no other agenda. (fn)
(fn: Or so it would seem. Interestingly, the Portuguese governor-general of Brazil was not taken in at all.)
Second, Cook's appointment to command the expedition got right up the nose of Alexander Dalrymple, an acknowledged and a quite vociferous advocate of Terra Australis Incognita. One suspects that if Dalrymple had received the command he desired, the French would have paid much more attention to Endeavour's supposedly scientific mission.
Third, the Admiralty were not having any more of Foulweather Jack's wilful inattention to his orders. Cook's secret orders contained specific directives regarding Terra Australis Incognita and New Zealand. His 'discovery' of Australia's east coast resulted from a workplace health and safety decision on the way to investigate an interesting conundrum.
Fourth, while Cook's first voyage finishes off the rough outline of the North Queensland and Australian coasts, it did not quite kill off notions of Terra Australis Incognita. However, his second voyage did, and the third solved most of the remaining questions about non-polar waters.
Finally, we have some historiographical issues. Reading around Cook's life, his times and his achievements, I think it is possible to identify at least three 'historical' 'James Cooks' and an additional 'Indigenous' figure.
All are arguably quite distinct from the man himself.
One is the 'founder of Australia'. That would have received much more attention and sparked significant debate if the COVID-19 pandemic hadn't coincided with the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of his voyage along the east coast.
Another is the 'national hero': 'one of the great Englishmen'. That one may not sit quite comfortably beside 'James Cook: Australian icon'.
Then there is 'the historian's Cook'.
That returns us to the points made earlier about history as a whole.
As one reads the material, the figure that emerges varies from reader to reader.
Two possibilities appear above. Any number of others are possible, depending on the reader's reaction to the content or the narratives different authors extract from the same string of events and the same body of available evidence.
For the record, as seen from the Little House of Concrete, James Cook emerges as an extraordinary figure, an ambitious man with a remarkable ability to find patrons who will advance his career.
Finally, in passing, one notes an 'ahistorical' Indigenous 'Captain Cook' who becomes a cypher for the first European arrivals in different parts of Australia. The author respectfully suggests that calling those first arrivals 'Captain Cook' rather than a local identity allows a storyteller to mention matters he or she might otherwise avoid.