32 CAPTAIN COOK 



his name; John Cook, and a few others who find 

 place in the history of corsairs rather than of 

 navigators. In spite of these expeditions, the 

 star of England did not shine in the southern 

 firmament before the second half of the eigh- 

 teenth century. 



The Spaniards, to whom Magellan had shown 

 the way in 15 19, considered the great ocean as 

 their own property. Their enterprising sailors, 

 Ponce de Leon, Don Garcia, Jofre de Loyasa, 

 Juan Fernandez, Alvaro Mendana de Neyra, 

 Pedro Fernandes de Quiros and Luiz-Vaez de 

 Torres, exhibited the standard of His Most 

 Catholic Majesty for over a century in the 

 southern seas. They made discovery after dis- 

 covery, and it seemed that Spain was destined 

 to remain for ever Mistress of the Pacific. 

 However, in the seventeenth century, the Dutch, 

 whose naval power had reached formidable 

 dimensions, began to explore the new ocean. 

 They sent there Le Maire, Schouten and Tas- 

 man, who, setting sail from Batavia in 1642, 

 discovered Van Diemen's land, part of the west- 

 ern coast of New Zealand and the Friendly Isles. 

 The Dutch empire spread, while the sun of 

 Spain declined. 



Between 1764 and 1769, three Englishmen, 

 Commodore Byron, Captain Wallis and Cap- 

 tain Carteret, added to the chart of the Pacific 



