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Captain's Cook's original mission was to observe the transit of Venus from the vantage point of Tahiti.

He was then under orders to try to find the great unknown southern continent, and claim it for Britain. The British sought to expand their empire, and to ensure that the French did not gain a foothold in that region of the Pacific. Cook charted the eastern coastline of what he called "New South Wales" (now Australia), making extensive notes on the people, flora, fauna and prospective suitability for colonisation, and reported back to England.

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15y ago

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