Background:
The first printed chart of New Zealand.
New Zealand (or Aotearoa, as the Maori call it) had been first encountered by Europeans in the early 1640s, when Dutch explorer Abel Tasman named the land Nieuw Zeeland after the Dutch province. Importantly, Tasman only sailed up the west coast of the North Island and had little notion as to the nature of the islands or their broader geographical context. A small number of Tasmans place names were preserved by Cook (and remain in place to this day), including Cape Maria van Diemen (the northernmost point of the North Island) and the Three Kings islets, where Cook and his men celebrated the Christmas of 1769-the first Europeans to visit the islands for nearly 130 years.
Captain James Cook (1728-1779) is considered to be the greatest explorer of the eighteenth century and was the finest maritime cartographer of the Age of Enlightenment. Having first worked on coal colliers and then distinguished himself as a surveyor in Eastern Canada, in 1768 he became the British Admiraltys choice to lead an unprecedented voyage of discovery. The central impetus for the expedition was to observe the Transit of Venus from Tahiti and then to proceed to explore Terra Australis Incognita, the supposedly rich southern continent. Whereas the first part of the voyage was to be conducted under the auspices of international scientific cooperation, the second part was entirely clandestine and was only communicated to Cook via Secret Instructions to be opened once at sea.
Cooks party left Plymouth in August 1768 aboard the converted coal collier HMS Endeavor and proceeded to Tahiti by way of Cape Horn. They arrived in time to observe the Transit of Venus, which occurred June 3, 1769. Cook then proceeded towards New Zealand, to the coordinates recorded by Tasman. As New Zealand was quite conceivably part of Terra Australis, it was Cooks intention to carefully explore and map the region.
On October 6, 1769, the Endeavor sighted the North Island (Te Ika a Maui) at Turanga Nui, which Cook renamed Poverty Bay. He and his crew had arrived on the opposite shore to where Tasman had met the island. Cook proceeded to the South Island (Te Wai Pounamu), carefully mapping both landmasses with a running survey. He used soundings, visual observations, and triangulation regulated by astronomical observations to create his manuscript charts.
Despite being constantly buffeted by wind and rain, and after having some hostile relations with the Maori that resulted in Maori deaths, Cook and his crew managed to circumnavigate both the North and South Islands, proving that they were separate islands divided by the Cook Strait. They also proved the islands were not connected to any southern continent. On March 31, 1770, Cook wrote in his journal that the Endeavours voyage:
…must be allowed to have set a side the most, if not all, the arguments and proofs that have been advanced by different Authors to prove that there must be a Southern Continent; I mean to the northward of 40 degrees South, for what may lay to the Southward of that Latitude I know not (Cook, Journals I, 290).
The Endeavor left New Zealand at Cape Farewell, sailing west towards Australia, where Cooks crew would become the first Europeans to explore that region. In total, they had surveyed over 2,400 miles of New Zealand coastline in six months.
Upon the Endeavours return to England in July 1771, Cook became a national hero. He would go on to lead two further voyages that would succeed in illuminating most of the Pacific Ocean to European eyes. On the second expedition, Cook would put to rest the myth of a southern continent. On the third, he kick started the fur trade in the Pacific Northwest of North America while searching for the Northwest Passage. He was killed by Hawaiians at Kealakekua Bay in 1779.

The chart and its publication
Cook returned to England with over 300 manuscript charts and coastal views. The original manuscript chart of New Zealand is now held by the British Library (Add MS 7085, f. 16-7). The chart was drawn, at least in part, by Isaac Smith (1752-1831), a draftsman of considerable skill who worked with Cook in Newfoundland, sailed on the Endeavour and Cooks second voyage, and was related to Cooks wife. Of the New Zealand chart, Cook wrote:
The Chart which I have drawn will best point out the figure and extent of these Islands…beginning at Cape Palliser and proceed round Aehei no mouwe (North Island) by the East Cape &ca. The Coast between these two Capes I believe to be laid down pretty accurate both in its figure and the Course and distance from point to point. The oppertunities I had and the methods I made use on to obtain these requesites were such as could hardly admit of an error… some few places however must be excepted and these are very doubtfull …(Cook, Journals I, 275-6)
The overall delineation is impressively accurate, correctly capturing many of the bays and promontories, and making insightful observations of the interior. Many of the names given by Cook survive to this day, including the Alps, (the great mountain chain of the South Island), Mount Egmont (the volcano on the North Island, also known as Mount Taranaki), the Bay of Islands, the Bay of Plenty, Hawkes Bay, and most intriguingly, Cape Kidnappers (a point on the North Island where Maori warriors attempted to abduct a member of the Endeavors crew).
There are a few errors, conspicuous only because of the otherwise superb accuracy of the chart. Notably, Cooks Bankes Island is in fact a peninsula, part of the South Island. Further south, what looks like a possible peninsula is actually Stewart Island, with the Isle Solander to the west. Also, some portions of coast line remain un-surveyed due to adverse conditions or distraction. For example, the portion of coastline near Bankes Island is but a dotted line because Lieutenant Gore had thought he sighted land to the southeast. Upon sailing toward it, the promontory proved to be clouds. Despite such mistakes, the chart is remarkably thorough.
The present chart was printed as part of the official account of Cooks first voyage, which was edited by the literary critic John Hawkesworth and underwritten by the British Admiralty. An Account of the Voyages undertaken by the order of His Present Majesty for making Discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere… (London: W. Strahan and T. Cadell, 1773) recounted the voyages not only of Cook, but of Byron, Wallis, and Carteret who had also ventured to the Pacific for the Royal Navy earlier in the 1760s. It was engraved by John Abraham Bayly (fl. 1755-1794), a London-based engraver who specialized in cartographic work.
In 1816, the British Hydrographic Office began to reprint the map for its vessels. The chart was continuously consulted into the twentieth century. Due to this longevity, its extraordinary origins, and its important place in the founding of New Zealand as a British colony, Cooks chart is considered to be the most important single map in the history of New Zealand. Due to the complexity of the assignment and the great accuracy of the survey, it is also considered to be one of Cooks very finest maps, and one of the truly great achievements of Enlightenment cartography.

Johnston, Alexander Keith 1804 – 1871
Johnston was a Scottish geographer and cartographer, born at Kirkhill near Penicuik, south of Edinburgh. He was the son of Andrew Johnston and Isabel Keith. His brother was Thomas Brumby Johnston FRSE.
After an education at the High School and the University of Edinburgh he was apprenticed to the Edinburgh engraver and mapmaker, James Kirkwood. In 1826, he joined his brother William (who would become Sir William Johnston, Lord Provost of Edinburgh) in a printing and engraving business, forming the well-known cartographical firm of W. and A. K. Johnston with offices based at 4 St Andrew Square in Edinburghs New Town (demolished 2016) and their printworks based at Edina Works, off Easter Road. The firm used the clan motto of Ready Aye Ready as their logo. Early hikes in the West Highlands had led Johnston to despair at the accuracy of maps, and inspired a deire to rectify this. The rest of Johnstons life was devoted to geography, his later years to its educational aspects especially. His services were recognised by the leading scientific societies of Europe and America. In October 1849, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, his proposer being Robert Chambers. In 1862 he was a founding member of the Meteorological Society of Scotland. He was awarded an honorary doctorate (LLD) in 1865. His Edinburgh address in later years was 16 Grosvenor Crescent in the affluent West End. He died at Ben Rhydding, Yorkshire, in 1871. He is buried in the north-west section of Grange Cemetery in Edinburgh.
Johnston combined cartography with a painstaking and scholarly approach to map production. He went on to establish a reputation for scope and accuracy. Thematic atlases became the hallmark of the company he had founded and W & A K Johnston were appointed engravers to King William IV in 1834. In 1835 he constructed the first English language physical globe of the world incorporating its geology, hydrography and meteorology.
In 1843 Johnston published The National Atlas of Historical, Commercial and Political Geography. Johnston was the first to bring the study of physical geography into competent notice in England. His attention had been called to the subject by Alexander von Humboldt. In 1848 Johnston published The Physical Atlas, followed by a second and enlarged edition in 1856. The atlas contained maps and descriptive letterpress to illustrates the geology, hydrography, meteorology, botany, zoology, and ethnology of the globe. The Physical Atlas was partly based on Heinrich Berghauss German language Physikalischer Atlas and reflected the increased interest in the mapping of zoological and biological distributions. 18th century thinkers such as Montesquieu had stressed the importance of geography and climate as determining factors in history, and the concept of natural frontiers. The atlas was a visual representation of Humboldtian science, which became popular in the 19th century and was preoccupied with the measurement of environmental parameters on a global scale. Berghaus and Johnston effectively illustrated the text of Humboldts Kosmos and both atlases were subsequently plagiarized and abridged for school editions.
Johnston published a Dictionary of Geography in 1850, with many later editions. The Royal Atlas of Modern Geography was first published in 1855 and served as an atlas of military geography to accompany Alisons History of Europe published in 1848. A variety of other atlases and maps for educational or scientific purposes. In 1856 Johnston published the School Atlas of Astronomy.
In 1861 Johnston published the first edition of the Royal Atlas of Modern Geography with 48 maps. By 1914 the atlas had gone through 12 editions and morphed into the Johnstons Handy Royal Atlas of Modern Geography with 61 colour lithographed maps and an index of 84 pages. While the Bartholomews Citizens Atlas sold more copies, being half the price, the Royal Altlasbecame the standard library atlas throughout the British Empire.
In 1867 Johnston produced a new edition of his School Atlas of Classical Geography. It contained a series of new maps that reflected the results of the most recent research into the classical antiquity. The Map of the Outer Geography of the Odyssey and two maps of ancient Greece were based on the scholarly work of William Ewart Gladstone, who had also revised the map plates and text of the atlas.
In 1871 Johnston published the Half-Crown Atlas of British History for the price sensitive educational market. It was designed as a connected series of maps for teachers and students and illustrated leading events of history.

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