James Cook

This intrepid navigator and explorer would make three extend voyages of discovery.

In 1768 the British Admiralty declared their intention of exploring further the southeastern Pacific, and selected a ship (the Endeavor) and a maestro, James Cook, to undertake the voyage. vindicatory prior to Cooks departure, a ship commanded by a captain named Wallis returned from a two year circumnavigation, a trip plagued by bad luck except for one immensely slap-up stroke: it had discovered Tahiti, which would prove to be the crown of Polynesia.

Tahiti was in every way the paradigm of Paradise: beautiful, abundant in food, exceptional climate, and populated by wondrously attractive brown skinned women of very loving disposition, who wore tattoos on their thighs and flowers in their hair. (And slight else.) Of added significance, its location corresponded exactly to the ideal location which the Royal orderliness had declared for observing the transit of Venus, an infrequent setting the measurement of which would provide much missing information on the size of the earth and the distances of the known universe.



Two strong influences were olibanum to combine in setting Cook loose on a new voyage of discovery: scientific and commercial, the latter(prenominal) having to do with the expectation that the discovery of terra australis incognita would supply millions of new customers for British trade.

Thus was Cook and the Endeavor poised to sail into history, a 368 ton, 106 foot bark with a compliment of 70 men, sixsome carriage guns, 8 swivel guns, and provisions for a year. These include some novel experiments: sauerkraut, portable soup, a tail (for milk) and potions to attend the dreaded scurvy, the English not but fundament to the value of citrus in this disease and not yet therefore assigned the moniker that would eventually identify either English seaman: limey. The ship also brought trinkets which would assemblage to the women of Polynesia: mirrors, colored beads, fish hooks, and scissors.

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