First Fleet
Reporter: Lady Olivia sullivan
Voyage to "Terra Australis Incognita" The search for the Unknown Southern Land
Captain James Cook has been ordered by the British Government to observe the Transit of Venus through Tahiti, but he also had another very secret mission. That was to discover the "unkown Southern Land" called Terra Australis.
So, on 26 August 1768 James, Sir Joseph Banks, Daniel Solander, two astrologers, a Botanist, artist and a full crew boarded the Endevour and sailed for Tahiti.
James knew the importance of good food, and if he kept his crew supplied with citrus food so his crew would not suffer from the plague called "scurvy." So he stopped at Rio de Janeiro, Verde and Canary Islands for supplies. He sailed through to Tahiti to see Venus transit on the 3 June.
Then it was onto New Zealand, which James had already been to before. That was when the expadition really began. Captain James Cook and the Endevour sailed west from New Zealand and found the east coast of "Terra Austalis."
James spent a long time chartering the East Coast. Approximatley 3200km. Plant samples were collected and detailed pictures were made of this unexplored land.
The Endevour then returned back to the mother land "England" with all of his discoveries in 1771.