"Tupaia sailed with Captain Cook from Tahiti, piloted the Endeavour about the South Pacific, and interceded with Maori in NZ. Tupaia, a gifted linguist, a brilliant orator, and a most devious politician,was highly skilled in astronomy, navigation, and meteorology. 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. He was also the ship's translator, able to communicate with all the Polynesian people they met. As a man of high social ranking, Tupaia performed as an ntermediary, interpreting local rituals and ceremonies. Not only did Tupaia become one of the ship's artists, drawing lively pictures to illustrate what he described, but he could be called the Pacific's first anthropologist"--Publisher information.