Captain Cook was not a conqueror.

CAPTAIN James Cook, that greatest of Yorkshiremen, is again under attack from politically correct distorters of history, in Australia, who incorrectly claim our Marton-born celebrity to be a conqueror.

Just because an old African coin, allegedly dropped by Portuguese sailors, has been found on the Wessel Islands, off the north of Australia (The Gazette, 14.05.19), doesn't mean that Cook's accomplishments have been diminished.

It's irrelevant which Europeans first set foot on the beaches of the antipodes. The important thing about Cook was that he put those far-flung shores on the map through his skills as a navigator and cartographer. Cook accurately charted the coast of New Zealand and Australia's Great Barrier Reef, doing more to map the globe than any other explorer.

It's ironic that the anti-Cook brigade uses the Portuguese to attempt to rubbish our hero, for, amongst European colonists, Portugal's treatment of indigenous people was the worst! STEVE KAY, Redcar & Cleveland Councillor