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
).