Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
of discovery ever made and one of the greatest circumnavigations.
What it did for later sailors was to free them from the land. It estab-
lished that going eastabout in the Roaring Forties was the best way
of circuiting the globe. This meant longer periods at sea than earli-
er captains had cared to embark upon but Cook had now shown that
it could be done. With no more medical knowledge than that avail-
able to all other naval officers, he had kept his crew fit and healthy
in the most trying conditions that any group of sailors had ever en-
countered. In addition to all this, he had taken up the challenge of
the Antarctic. It was inevitable that others would follow him. For, like
every great pioneer, he both opened up the way and inspired others
to follow it.
*
Equivalent to £1 million in modern currency.
*
Bougainville took him to Paris where for some months he was the sensation
of society. Then he sent the young Polynesian on a ship bound for IÎle de France, to-
gether with precise instructions for finding Tahiti, in the hope that he would find
a captain able and willing to return him to his people. Whether or not he regained
his native land is unknown.
