The
first voyage of James Cook was a combined
Royal Navy and
Royal Society expedition to the south Pacific Ocean aboard
HMS Endeavour, from 1768 to 1771. It was the first of three Pacific voyages of which Cook was the commander. The aims of this first expedition were to observe the 1769
transit of Venus across the Sun (3–4 June of that year), and to seek evidence of the postulated
Terra Australis Incognita or "unknown southern land".