ABSTRACT
The drive to greater wealth through increased trade and commerce was the main incentive for Europeans to send ships to far destinations, but European curiosity ensured that the simple urge to explore and scientific inquiry were never entirely absent. From the fifteenth century onwards those voyaging to the Far East went from Europe via the Cape of Good Hope and the Indian ocean to India or China; the Portuguese led the way to be followed by the Dutch, English, French and others. The average voyage from the south of England to Tahiti took about six months provided that the ship stopped only once en route, usually at the Canary Islands for water and fresh food, and then had no landfall save when Horn. The man who initiated the voyage – Sir Joseph Banks – had sailed with Cook on his first voyage to the Pacific and to Tahiti aboard the Endeavour during 1768–71.
