I saw my self this morning a little way from the ship one of the Animals before spoke off, it was of a light Mouse colour … with a long tail which it carried like a grey hound, in short I should have taken it for a wild dog, but for its walking or runing in which it jump’d like a Hare or a deer.                                                                              —James Cook, Journals, 1770 In the first episode of the 1986 Australian mini-series Captain James Cook, a twelve-inch astronomical quadrant, designed by John Bird, is stolen from the Endeavour by Tahitian islanders. As the…