Captain James Cook explored the islands in the Pacific Ocean in the 18th century, and made some important scientific discoveries.
On his first voyage to the island of Tahiti, his first goal was to establish an observatory at Tahiti to record the transit of Venus, when that planet passed between the Earth and the Sun, on 3rd June 1769.
The second aim of the expedition was to record the natural history of the island. This was done by 25-year-old Joseph Banks. Banks brought back to England many unusual specimens of butterflies and plants for further studies.
Cook’s second voyage aimed to establish whether there was an inhabited southern continent in what we now know as Antarctica. He also made some important astronomical observations. Cook’s third and final Pacific voyage was significant for the exploration of the North Pacific and the discovery of the Hawaiian Islands in January 1778.
