On August 26, 1768, 250 years ago, Captain James Cook British explorer, surveyor, navigator and cartographer, embarked on his first Pacific voyage, aboard the HMB Endeavour, with instructions to chart the transit of Venus across the sun at the equator. Cook went on to chart New Zealand, before continuing onward to first sight the east coast of Australia at Point Hicks on 20 April 1770. As the Endeavour sailed north, he charted the coast making first landfall at Bay on April 29, 1770.
Cook’s voyage had three aims; to establish an observatory at Tahiti in order to record the transit of Venus (when the planet passed between the earth and the sun), on 3 June 1769. The second aim was to record natural history, led by 25-year-old Joseph Banks. The final secret goal was to continue the search for the Great South Land.
Picture Credit : Google