Passages on the painting
The Admiralty’s sealed orders directed Lieutenant Cook to proceed to Tahiti “to observe the passage of the planet Venus over the Disc of the Sun on the 3rd of June 1769…..” “When this service is perform’d, you are to put to Sea without Loss of Time, and carry onto execution the additional Instructions contained in the enclosed Sealed Packet.”
Additional Instructions: “You are therefore in Pursuance of His Majesty’s Pleasure hereby requir’d and directed to put to sea with the Bark you command so soon as the Observation of the Transit of the Planet Venus shall be finished and observe the following Instructions . You are to proceed to the southward in order to make discovery of the Continent above-mentioned until you arrive in the Latitude of 40°, unless you sooner fall in with it. But not having discover’d it or any Evident signs of it in that Run, you are to proceed in search of it to the Westward between the Latitude before mentioned and the Latitude of 35°until you discover it , or fall in with the Eastern side of the Land discover’d by Tasman and now called New Zeland.”