ABSTRACT
Bernard Cohen has suggested that Europe has discovered two 'new worlds' —the Americas, at the end of the fifteenth century, and interstellar space, at the beginning of the seventeenth century; and presumably this is an uncontroversial suggestion. More controversial would be the idea that the Pacific Ocean discovered and reported in the second half of the eighteenth century has also been a 'new world'. The British interest in the Pacific Ocean in the 1770's and 1780's was as immediate. Shortly after the Endeavour's return, Lady Mary Coke reported that amongst her circle 'the people who are most talk'd of at present are mr Banks and doctor Solander'; and she regretted that she had not yet herself heard them discuss their voyage. The larger pattern of Cook's second voyage, to the point of his deciding to cross the Pacific by following in Quiros's path, is England southward to Antarctic seas, eastwards to the mid-Pacific, then northwards to the Equator.
