Download or read book Tupaia written by Joan Druett and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "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 4,000 kilometres from the Marquesas to Rotuma and Fiji."--Back cover.