8.31 The pacific: a.d. 1701 to 1800  (Page 2/2)

Captain James Cook left England on the first of his three Pacific voyages in 1768, supposedly on a scientific mission at the instance of the Royal Society. Cook circumnavigated New Zealand and came upon the eastern shore of mainland New Holland in April, 1770 and at extreme peril spent 4 months exploring the seaboard inside the Great Barrier Reef. He called this land "New South Wales". Almost simultaneously with Cook's first Pacific trip, Captain Louis Antoine de Bougainville (for whom the flower is named) took possession of the Society Islands of Polynesia for France. He was one of the few explorers who was good to the natives, gaining their conf idence. He introduced turkeys to the islands and may have tried to grow wheat. De Bougainville then sailed on west to the Samoas, New Hebrides and the Solomons. (Ref. 222 ) When the Europeans arrived in Australia there were some 300,000 aborigines living in about 500 tribal territories. One of their food delicacies was the bogang moth. On New Zealand there were between 100,000 and 250,000 Maoris living a hunting-farming life style. (Ref. 8 ) Additional Notes

Cook's second voyage starting in 1773 took him twice deep into the Antarctic Ocean and to many new islands, including the New Hebrides, where he first saw the Melanesians, realizing that they were much different from the Polynesians seen on the other islands. By using citrus fruits, Cook had prevented all scurvy on this trip. His third Pacific trip was to find the much desired Northwest Passage to China through North America, - seeking it from the Pacific side. It was in 1778 on that trip that he discovered the Hawaiian Islands, where he was originally mistaken for a white, fair-haired ancestor god, Rono (Lono), but in 1779, when they found he was not, they killed him. In Hawaiian folklore, the blond god Lono was associated with navigation in boats made of reeds and wickerwork. Throughout Polynesia, Cook was deluged with sweet potatoes and he found various gourds used as water vessels and utensils. (Ref. 95 ) It should be noted that he originally named the Hawaiian group "The Sandwich Islands" after John Montague, the 4th Earl of Sandwich. (Ref. 222 ) Additional Notes

In 1787 the British government decided to send a penal colony (not a settlement colony) to Botany Bay in Australia. The exact number of convicts sent is still in some dispute, but it approximated 700 plus, of which about 150 were women. Actually they skipped Botany Bay and settled in the great harbor area to be named Sydney, after a Lord of that name, and Captain Arthur Phillip set up an autocratic government. (Ref. 76 )

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