Summary of Nicholas Thomas's Voyagers

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 For over two hundred and fifty years, Europeans knew of the Pacific, but knew nothing about it. In September 1513, the Spanish conquistador Vasco Núñez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama, sighting the sea from high ground. #2 The Spanish showed little interest in the Chamorro people, but a different traveler, William Dampier, was interested in their culture. He wrote about the coconut fiber used to make rope, and how it was used to make cables. #3 The 1760s and 1770s were extraordinary years for Islanders and Europeans. The voyages of Captain James Cook and his immediate British, French, and Spanish predecessors generated new engagement and understanding. #4 Cook’s first Pacific voyage, in a single ship, the Endeavour, departed from England in August 1768. Its declared purpose was the observation of the Transit of Venus from the island of Tahiti, which had then recently been discovered by Cook’s predecessor Samuel Wallis.