Portal:Oceania/Selected article/July, 2006

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Captain James Cook, FRS (October 27, 1728 (O.S.) – February 14, 1779) was a British explorer, navigator and cartographer. He made three voyages to the Pacific Ocean, accurately charting many areas and recording several islands and coastlines on European maps for the first time.

His most notable accomplishments were the British 'discovery' and claiming of the east coast of Australia; the European 'discovery' of the Hawaiian Islands; and the first recorded circumnavigation and mapping of Newfoundland and New Zealand.

Ever the observer, Cook was the first European to have extensive contact with various people of the Pacific. He sailed to many islands near the Philippines and even to smaller, more remote islands in the South Pacific. He correctly concluded there was a relationship among all the people in the Pacific, despite their being separated by thousands of miles of ocean (see Malayo-Polynesian languages).