James Cook

On his third voyage (1776-79), Cook paid a last visit to New Zealand.

died Kealakekua Bay, Hawaii, on 14 February 1779.

Equally important, Cook explored and mapped out New Zealand, , Tahiti, New Hebrides, Hawaii and the Cook Islands. Again paving the way for colonization

First captain to circumnavigate Antarctica

He mapped the coast of Australia, paving the way for British colonization and also paving the way for the near destruction of aboriginal peoples and their culture. Cook's voyages to Australia remade the biological landscape.

He introduced sheep, which paved the way for Australia's huge wool industry. Right, there was a penal colony established in Australia; but the real story of Australia is its success as a colony. Within 80 years, Australia went from a 1,000 Anglo-Australians to 1.2 million.

So Captain Cook was born in 1728. He was a sailor and eventually a British Naval Officer, who is best known for his three voyages of exploration and scientific discovery that took place in the Pacific Ocean.

The first was between 1768 and 1771, the second between 1772 and 1775, and the third between 1776 and 1780. Although on the last one, Cook's journey ended in 1779 because he died.

In 1768 Cook sailed west to discover and chart the eastern coast of Australia. He reached Batavia (Jakarta) on 11 October and returned to England, having circumnavigated the globe, on 13 July 1771.

there still remained unexplored ocean to the east of New Zealand, where a great continent could lie. On his second voyage (1772-75) Cook used New Zealand as a base for probes south and east, which finally proved there was no such continent.