As captain on three voyages of discovery in the late eighteenth century, James Cook became the first European to define the outline of New Zealand. Thanks to Cook’s detailed charts, and his gentlemen passengers’ scientific and artistic documentation, accurate knowledge of New Zealand was available in Europe for the first time from the 1770s.
James cook is not a New Zealander he is an Englishman but he did discover New Zealand he is our founder. James Cook was born in 1728 at Marton-in-Cleveland, Yorkshire, England. In 1746 he moved to the port of Whitby, where he was apprenticed to a shipowner and coal shipper. As a sailor in the North Sea coal trade the young Cook familiarised himself with the type of vessel which, years later, he would employ on his epic voyages of discovery.
And instead of finding a great land mass to balance those of the northern hemisphere, Cook initiated the first Māori-European interaction since Abel Tasman’s brief encounter in 1642. In his remarkably accurate charting of New Zealand and his dealings with Māori, Cook displayed his excellence as a navigator and his essential humanity.
As you can see James cook is a very big part of New Zealand history, It he didn’t find New Zealand then we may not be here today.
By Brook
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