Voyages of Discovery

Rob Iliffe Geopolitics • 7 Years War (1756-63) between British and French empires left Britain controlling what is now Canada and some of India. • ‘Defensive imperialism’ saw Britain and France compete for remaining land and ocean, including domains held by Spain. • Pacific Ocean became the chief location for competition between these three nations, and then Russia and US. • Britain sought new colonial outposts following the loss of American colonies in 1783, • and they competed for territory with an equally aggressive French empire. Pacific Ocean The Scientific Background • In mid-eighteenth century, Europeans were increasingly fascinated by exotic flora and fauna, especially to acquire them for gardens or museums • and of knowing other peoples (ethnography/ethnology). • The British East India Company and Dutch/ French equivalents were chief means by which botanical and other information travelled from periphery to European centres. • Astronomers and military forces were interested in acquiring ‘useful’ information, particularly, via surveys, strategic cartographic and geodesic information (latitude and longitude). James Cook’s First Voyage (1768-1771)

• Voyage was partly scientific and partly strategic, setting a pattern for all major expeditions in next four decades • Left Plymouth in Aug. 1768 to observe the Transit of Venus in the newly-discovered island of Tahiti; arrived via Cape Horn early 1769. • Observed Transit in summer 1769 and then reached New Zealand (Aotearoa) in September, • with the priest Tupaia (from Ra’iatea in what Europeans called the Society Islands) as expert mapmaker, navigator and translator. • Tupaia was able to converse with New Zealand Maori (which seemed extraordinary to Cook) and remains famous among Maori. • The vast extent of Polynesia was perhaps Cook’s greatest discovery, indicating tremendous navigation skills.

James Cook (1728-79)

Australia

• Spent half a year charting New Zealand coastline before heading West for Van Dieman’s land (Tasmania), known from previous Dutch visits • But ‘discovered’ what is now Australia (Apr. 1770). • Landed at place later known as Botanists Bay • Naturalists Joseph Banks, and Linnaeus’s students Herman Spoering and Daniel Solander collected numerous flora/fauna. • Almost came to disaster while surveying the Great Barrier Reef. Cook and Longitude

• Determining longitude (position East-West) was of vital importance for accurate navigation the late Eighteenth Century • Cook did not have John Harrison’s recently invented chronometer on board Endeavour. • Harrison’s H4 was only one then in existence and it was considered too fragile and risky to send it on the voyage. • Cook used the method of lunar distances by measuring the angular distances of stars from the Moon. • The measurements of angular distance to determine latitude (the height of the mid-day sun) were made with a sextant. Sextant used by Cook on third voyage, built in 1772 by Jesse Ramsden

Route Impact of Voyage • Extraordinarily popular across Europe, thanks to John Hawkesworth’s Account of the Voyages (1773) • This was a hybrid of previous voyages as well as journals of Cook and Banks. • An important account of novel flora and fauna (platypuses, kangaroos and black swans), and peoples of south Pacific. • Work deeply influential on Europeans’ views of tropical paradises and ideal of the ‘Noble Savage’, • uncorrupted by the deleterious effects of civilization.

Cook’s Second Voyage (1772-5) • Designed to find terra australis and claim it for Britain. • Larcum Kendall chronometer (K1), a copy of John Harrison’s H4, was tested by astronomer William Wales; • Performed impressively, giving an accurate account of longitude • Under Cook, HMS Resolution became one of first ships to cross Antarctic Circle (66o33’ S). • Ship’s naturalists were the student of Linnaeus, Johann Reinhold Forster, and son Georg; artist was William Hodges. • The voyage lost no one to scurvy and disproved existence of giant landmass in habitable zone Larcum Kendall’s K1 (a copy of H4), used on Cook’s second and third voyages

The Third Voyage (1776-80)

• Focus now on northern Pacific, specifically (and secretly) to find alleged NW Passage, but • Was ostensibly to return Tahitian, Omai, to his homeland. • Though ‘retired’, Cook volunteered; Resolution left Plymouth 12 July 1776 (a few days after American Declaration of Independence). • Rounded Cape of Good Hope, arriving at Tasmania, NZ and Tahiti. • First Europeans to see/ visit Hawaii in Jan. 1778, after which they travelled to American coast. • Surveyed Oregon to Northern Alaska, improving on Russian and Spanish maps, but found no passage.

Cook’s Death

• Cook returned to Hawaii in November 1778, • Landing at Kealakekua Bay on the Big Island on 17 Jan. 1779. • Hawaiians accompanied the vessel on its circuit around the island and feted Cook when he came ashore. • Historians are divided over whether the Hawaiians believed he was reincarnation of god Lono. • Resolution was forced to return to Kealakekua Bay having left, and a disagreement over stolen property led to conflict and Cook’s death on 14 February.

Comté Jean- Francois Galaup de Lapérouse (1741-c.88) Lapérouse’s early career • Entered naval college at Brest at 15, and saw action against Britain in Seven Years War and American War of Independence. • Appointed by Louis XVI to lead scientific voyage around world in 1785, in imitation of Cook’s aims and methods • Sailed in l’Astrolabe, accompanied by La Boussole; • Apart from scientific and economic aims, the strategic goal was partnership with Spanish in Philippines, and possibly colonizing Eastern Australia. • Lapérouse sent the engineer Paul Monneron to London to learn how to counter scurvy and also to buy best British scientific instruments. Banks lent him two compasses used by Cook.

The Lapérouse Voyage

• Expedition sailed to Chile via Cape Horn, and then to Hawai’i via Easter Island. In summer of 1786 he sailed down west coast of North America, becoming first non-Spanish European visitor to California for 100 years. • Then travelled to Macau, and in April 1787 to Manila, following which he visited Korea, Japan, and the Kamchatka Peninsula, where he received orders to travel to New South Wales. • As near as possible Lapérouse’s team followed technical methods used by Cook’s astronomers to find longitude and latitude, • used both precision chronometer and lunar distance methods. • However, his expedition was last heard of in Botany Bay in March 1788, some relics of his team being found three decades later in Solomon Islands. Map Lapérouse expedition

Alessandro Malaspina (1754-1810)

• Malaspina was a Tuscan nobleman who organised voyages for Spanish monarchy. • After amassing considerable experience in Pacific Ocean navigation, especially around the Philippines, • He circumnavigated globe 1786-8 on behalf of the Philippines Co. • During this expedition he appealed to Spanish monarch Charles III to undertake voyage similar to Lapérouse and Cook • Alarmed by Russian activity in the Kamchatka and threats by British and Russians (the Mulovsky expedition) to claim Nootka Sound (on what is now Vancouver Island), Charles III supported his plan.

Malaspina Expedition (1789-94)

• The expedition, led by Malaspina on the Descubierta mimicked Cook’s as an explicitly political/scientific exercise. • Accompanied by Jose de Bustamente y Guerra in the Atrevida. • Moving slowly, the expedition made exceptional observations of West Coast of S. and N. America, as far north as Alaska, • having been given new instructions to look for a North-West passage. • Made important ethnographic observations and then went across to Philippines and then to Australia. • Malaspina made greatest collection of natural history specimens before Darwin, though scientific materials were rediscovered and published only later in C19. Imperial Navigation

• By August 1792 George Vancouver was negotiating with Spanish commander Juan Francisco Bodega y Quadra over the fate of Nootka Sound, near what is now Vancouver Island in Canada. • and over next year he carefully surveyed coastline from southern Alaska to Baja (Lower) California, naming many natural features after friends (e.g. Mt. St. Helens). • Aside from efforts to locate a North-West passage, Britain was now competing with US vessels over surveying and naming activities in what are now the states of Oregon and Washington. • Strategically important in terms of relations with indigenous peoples. Curiosity, Interest and the Pursuit of Knowledge

• Science was a central part of a battery of ‘rational’ techniques such as navigating and surveying aimed at simultaneously understanding and colonising other peoples and lands, • And also for competing with other nations as part of ‘defensive’ or more aggressive imperialism. • The great voyages of the British, French and Spanish had to balance the pursuit of knowledge that would benefit empire, • and knowledge that had no obvious imperial or commercial benefit. • Yet there was always overlap between the ‘curious’, the commercial and imperial-strategic elements Conclusion

• Following loss of American colonies and the French Revolution (1789), • British scientific prowess was crucial to efforts to locate new trading routes and to colonise the Indian Ocean World and Australasia. • And was integral to spectacularly unsuccessful efforts to engage in trade and conduct meaningful exchanges with the Chinese (Qing) empire in the case of McCartney expedition to China of 1792-3. • Following these major ’voyages’, European and now American powers sought in different ways to increase knowledge of various territories – • Notably in the work of Alexander Mackenzie, Alexander von Humboldt, Mungo Park, and the Americans Lewis Meriweather and William Clark.

Map of Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1804-6

Antoine Raymond Joseph de Bruni d’Entrecasteaux (1791-93) • D’Entrecasteaux appointed Governor of Île de France (now Mauritius) in 1786 • National Assembly decided in 1791 to send an expedition to locate Lapérouse. • D’E. commanded the frigate Recherche, accompanied by L’Esperance. • Following information gained from a British sailor in Cape Town, d’Entrecasteaux sailed via Van Dieman’s Land (Tasmania) for the Admiralty Islands (now part of PNG). • Expedition ended in disaster but made unprecedented and highly precise charting of waters around Tasmania and S. West Australia.

Route of Second Voyage George Vancouver (1757-98)

• Joined RN aged 13 and served as midshipman on Resolution on Cook’s second voyage, and also travelled on Cook’s third voyage. • Following ending of Nootka Sound ‘crisis’ in 1790, Vancouver was put in charge of HMS Discovery (a new vessel) charged with taking possession of Nootka Sound and North-West Pacific coast, • and also to survey the area as far as Alaska for possible signs of an inlet that would permit a North-West passage. • Vessel left Chatham 1791 travelling Westward via Cape Town, Australia, new Zealand and Tahiti, entering Strait of Juan de Fuca at the end of April 1792. Vancouver, Coast of N. America