Captain James Cook (1728 - 1779)
His ship leaves the harbour in 1768 by Thomas Luny
Cook lands at Botany Bay, Australia in 1770 - by E. Phillips Fox
August 26th 1768: Captain Cook’s first voyage
On this day in 1768, Captain James Cook departed from Plymouth, England for his first voyage aboard the HMS Endeavour. The expedition to the south Pacific was commissioned by King George III to claim lands for Great Britain. The ship reached many Pacific islands and New Zealand, but is best known as the first time Europeans reached Australia. Cook landed at Botany Bay, in modern day Sydney, on the 29th April 1770. Botany Bay was initially called ‘Sting Ray Harbour’ by Cook due to the stingrays they caught there, but he later named it Botany Bay due to the vast quantity of plants there; it was later the site of the arrival of the First Fleet from Europe in 1788. Cook claimed the land for Great Britain, thus setting the stage for exploration and settlement of Australia - initially as a penal colony - which decimated the indigenous population. Cook returned to Britain in July 1771, and after his seminal voyage to Australia, continued his travels and undertook three voyages in total. On the third voyage, Cook landed in Hawaii where the indigenous islanders allegedly initially worshiped him as a god, as his arrival fit the story of the return of their deity Lono. However, relations soon soured, and Cook was eventually killed by native Hawaiians in 1779.
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