The Great Southern Land
Sep. 11th, 2013 08:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
khiemtranFollowing our secret orders, we've headed south from Tahiti, looking for the Great Southern Land, postulated since the days of Ptolemy and Aristotle.
Modern scientists as distinguished as Alexander Dalrymple have argued that a southern continent must exist to balance out the northern hemisphere, but the question is where is it? We search southwards in vain, then turn west, guided by Tupaia as we visit (and in many cases claim for the crown) island groups such as Fiji, Samoa and Tonga. At last we reach New Zealand, discovered by Abel Tasman a hundred years earlier and unvisited by Europeans ever since. There we spend time mapping and exploring (and the commander incidentally adds the country to King George's possessions along the way). Tupaia finds he can communicate with the Maoris and we spend six months charting the new-found islands.
Below, you can see a sounding lead, used for measuring the depth of water under the ship. The hollow base would be filled with tallow, so that the nature of the seabed - sandy, rocky or covered in vegetation - could be determined.
Despite the excitement of the discovery, it soon becomes clear that the islands of New Zealand are not the great continent we have been seeking. The question now is what to do next. One option is to double back across the Pacific and head back around Cape Horn. This will let us search the very bottom of the Pacific, in case the Great Southern Land is there. However, the southern latitudes are dangerous and it will mean crossing them in winter. The commander is worried that the ship is not in a suitable condition to make the return trip without heading back via the milder latitudes we have already explored.
Alternatively, we could head south and west and return home via the Cape of Good Hope. This has the same problem in terms of braving the southern latitudes, plus the Dutch have already explored that route, and we know there's no missing continent there.
We do know that the Dutch have discovered the west coastline of what they call New Holland south of the East Indies, and so the commander makes up his mind. We will sail west from New Zealand and try to find the other side of New Holland.
In just a matter of weeks, we find a new and previously uncharted coastline. We have seen the eastern coastline of the land that will one day be called Australia. The second-in-command, Zachary Hicks, is the first man to sight land.
From there, we follow the coast north, charting as we go, until eventually we find a suitable harbour, which Cook initially names Stingray Bay. (The picture below is from Cape Solander, named after the Swedish naturalist, just outside the bay.)
There, the crew of the Endeavour meet the Gweagal people for the first time, on the rocks shown below. This time Tupaia finds he cannot communicate with them, and no-one at first knows the meaning of the first words spoken to the new arrivals - Warra warra wai!, "Go away now!"
In the end, we need gunfire in order to get ashore safely, and the Gweagal eventually retreat. Later, Cook finds some children near a stream and offers them some beads as gifts.
The new land is filled with unexpected fauna and flora, much to the delight of the scientific party, and the bay is quickly renamed Botany Bay.
One of the crew, Forby Sutherland, dies of tuberculosis while we are anchored in the bay, becoming the first British subject to die in the new land. Meanwhile Cook and Banks write enthusiastically of the suitability of the bay for a new British colony.
From here, we head north, charting the coastline as we go. We don't know it yet, but the Endeavour is about to face its most serious test of the entire voyage.
Onwards to Part Four...
Modern scientists as distinguished as Alexander Dalrymple have argued that a southern continent must exist to balance out the northern hemisphere, but the question is where is it? We search southwards in vain, then turn west, guided by Tupaia as we visit (and in many cases claim for the crown) island groups such as Fiji, Samoa and Tonga. At last we reach New Zealand, discovered by Abel Tasman a hundred years earlier and unvisited by Europeans ever since. There we spend time mapping and exploring (and the commander incidentally adds the country to King George's possessions along the way). Tupaia finds he can communicate with the Maoris and we spend six months charting the new-found islands.
Below, you can see a sounding lead, used for measuring the depth of water under the ship. The hollow base would be filled with tallow, so that the nature of the seabed - sandy, rocky or covered in vegetation - could be determined.
Despite the excitement of the discovery, it soon becomes clear that the islands of New Zealand are not the great continent we have been seeking. The question now is what to do next. One option is to double back across the Pacific and head back around Cape Horn. This will let us search the very bottom of the Pacific, in case the Great Southern Land is there. However, the southern latitudes are dangerous and it will mean crossing them in winter. The commander is worried that the ship is not in a suitable condition to make the return trip without heading back via the milder latitudes we have already explored.
Alternatively, we could head south and west and return home via the Cape of Good Hope. This has the same problem in terms of braving the southern latitudes, plus the Dutch have already explored that route, and we know there's no missing continent there.
We do know that the Dutch have discovered the west coastline of what they call New Holland south of the East Indies, and so the commander makes up his mind. We will sail west from New Zealand and try to find the other side of New Holland.
In just a matter of weeks, we find a new and previously uncharted coastline. We have seen the eastern coastline of the land that will one day be called Australia. The second-in-command, Zachary Hicks, is the first man to sight land.
From there, we follow the coast north, charting as we go, until eventually we find a suitable harbour, which Cook initially names Stingray Bay. (The picture below is from Cape Solander, named after the Swedish naturalist, just outside the bay.)
There, the crew of the Endeavour meet the Gweagal people for the first time, on the rocks shown below. This time Tupaia finds he cannot communicate with them, and no-one at first knows the meaning of the first words spoken to the new arrivals - Warra warra wai!, "Go away now!"
In the end, we need gunfire in order to get ashore safely, and the Gweagal eventually retreat. Later, Cook finds some children near a stream and offers them some beads as gifts.
The new land is filled with unexpected fauna and flora, much to the delight of the scientific party, and the bay is quickly renamed Botany Bay.
One of the crew, Forby Sutherland, dies of tuberculosis while we are anchored in the bay, becoming the first British subject to die in the new land. Meanwhile Cook and Banks write enthusiastically of the suitability of the bay for a new British colony.
From here, we head north, charting the coastline as we go. We don't know it yet, but the Endeavour is about to face its most serious test of the entire voyage.
Onwards to Part Four...
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no subject
Date: 2013-09-11 12:49 pm (UTC)And Australia's birds really are special and different-seeming, from a North American perspective as well. I loved sitting in the nature park at Darwin, watching the unfamiliar birds.
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Date: 2013-09-11 07:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-11 07:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-12 08:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-12 09:52 am (UTC)