HI163 - Galleons and Caravans

Wednesday 25 April 2018

Exploration and Knowledge of the World

Tutor: Maxine Berg

1. Discovering the World: Asia and the Americas

- Introduction

- The Venetian Marco Polo travelled to China (1275-92) and writes Il Milione.

- Other European travelers to Asia:

- Ibn Battuta starts his Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca in 1325. He travels across most of Asia. But his travel diary is not published until the nineteenth century.

- Columbus, De Gama and Diaz explore the Atlantic and America at the end of the fifteenth century

- Exploring North America:

  • Giovanni Caboto, c.1450 – c.1508 and Sebastian Cabot, c.1474-1557
  • Samuel de Champlain (c. 1580-1635) and Robert de LaSalle (1643-1687)
  • John White (c. 1540 – c.1593) in North Carolina

2. Discovering the World: The Pacific

- Ferdinand Magellan (Fernão de Magalhães c. 1480 -1521) round the world

- The Manila Trade

- Samuel Wallis (1728-95)

‘…The country hade the most Beautiful appearance … from the shore side one two and three miles Back there is a fine Leavel country that appears to be all laid out in plantations, and the regular built Houses seems to be without number, all allong the Coast, they appeared lyke long Farmers Barns and seemd to be all very neatly thatched, with Great Numbers of Coca Nut Trees and several oyr trees that we could not know the name of all allong the shore – the Interior part of the country is very Mountainous but there is beautiful valeys between the Mountains – from the foot of the Mountains half way up the Country appears to be all fine pasture land, except a few places which seemd to be plowed or dug up for planting or sowing some sort of seed – from that to the very topes of the Mountains is all full of tall trees but what sort they are I know not but the whole was Green. This appears to be the most populoss country I ever saw, the whole shore side was lined with men, women and children all the way that we Saild allong.’

George Robinson, The Discovery of Tahiti; A Journal of the Second Voyage of H.M.S. Dolphin Round the World, under the Commmand of Captain Wallis, R. N., in the Years 1766, 1767 and 1768.

- Louis Antoine de Bougainville (1729-1811)

3. Australiasia, the Arctic and the Antarctic

- Cook (1728-79) and his three voyages

3a. Cook’s First Voyage, 1768-71

- The Royal Society Mission

- Endeavour’s Human Cargo: Joseph Banks

- The myth of Australia: Abel Janszoon Tasman (1603 –59)

- The Journey: Tahiti

‘No Sort of Iron, or any thing that is made of Iron, or any sort of Cloth or other usefull or necessary articles are to be given in exchange for any thing but provisions’.

‘we must not hastily conclude that theft is a testimony of the same depravity in them than it is in us’. ‘ an Indian among penny knives, and beads, or even nails and broken glass, is in the same state of trial with the meanest servant in Europe among unlocked coffers of jewels and gold’.

- The Unknown

- The Reef Disaster

‘A Reef such as is here spoke of is scarcely known in Europe… it is a wall of Coral Rock rising all most perpendicular out of the unfathomable Ocean… the large waves of the vast Ocean meeting with so sudden a resistance make a most terrible surf breaking mountains high especially as in our case when the general trade wind blowes directly upon it.’

Attitudes to the Aboriginals

‘Their skins were so uniformly covered with dirt, that is was very difficult to ascertain their true colour: we made several attempts, by wetting our fingers and rubbing it, to remove the incrustations, but with very little effect. With the dirt they appear nearly as black as a Negroe; and according to our best discoveries, the skin itself is of the colour of wood foot, or what is commonly called chocolate colour. Their features are far from being disagreeable, their noses are not flat, nor are their lips thick; their teeth are white and even, and their hart naturally long and black…’

- Joseph Banks (1743-1820)

3b. Cook’s Second Voyage, 1772-75

- Two ships: Resolution and Adventure

- Another Continent: Antarctica

- William Hodges and his drawings

- Cook’s reward and Omai’s fame

3c. Cook’s Third Voyage, 1776-80

- The search for the northern passage

-Cook’s route

- The voyage

-Arrival at Nootka Sound

The sea otter fur trade to China

Geo-political factors – Russia, Spain, Britain

Travel to the Arctic circle – search for the Northwest Passage

Other expeditions: Captain Vancouver (Britain), Malaspina (Spain), La Pérouse (France)

- Mapping North America

- Captain Cook’s death

Conclusion