James Cook, who became world famous because of his travels, is known to all of us. You hear about him in history or geography class. Or later you read one of his travel books.

The English captain made three extended voyages between 1769 and 1779 and explored the Pacific like no one before and after him. The one goal that the Royal Society in London set for him at the time was to watch Venus as it crosses the orbit of the sun. On Tahiti was one of the measuring points. With two further, widely spaced points – Norway and Canada – one wanted to measure the distance between the earth and the sun. (This experiment was not successful due to the inadequate instruments at the time). The second goal was that Cook should find the southern continent (Australia) that was suspected to be in this area. Cook also discovered what is now the Cook Islands and New Zealand.

The older Cook got, the more tyrannical he became – towards the crew and the locals. That was his undoing on his last trip to Hawai’i. There it ended up in the saucepan …

PS. When talking about Cook, one mustn’t forget the two locals, Tupaia and Omai, who accompanied him as guides on his expeditions. It was often they who took Cook to the islands, which he then «discovered» …