History of the Pacific.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XII, Issue 1221, 7 June 1919, Page 6

History of the Pacific.

| T 1 ;- st'/ry of the Tacilic urnl the | irlar.'is which lie on its '• -'i iF Jiiy of pure romance. Rich I :i . c;;f.:re, with a backbone of i c arid endurance the tals of

!i« il:: - Cf>very and settlement of these I .'ertile Islands reads like a page from ' a iV.iry story. First came the stately

:'»p;i..i h v.arshipa m the sixteenth ?.*•!!tury. Low in the bows, high in i ; ;e f-tern they drifted down among tiie southern Islands of the Blest, rfucct'edins them came sturdy Dutch : raders flat-bottomed and broad-bennu-'d ; then British frigates ; then f iilov cd a motely assortment of oily whalers, rusty merchant ships, and and island traders carrying mixed crews and still more mixed morals.

">o passed three hundred years of

: trnn.re happenings and strange visitors, few of which did much to develop the sleeping islands. The Par;;lc serves as a rich example of the irony of history. The Spaniards,who

v/ore the first to sail into these wat'jis and who discovered everything and claimed everything, to-day enn point to no single island in the vast area as a representative pos-

session. In the name of the King of Castile and Leon Balboa claimed the entire ocean, and. was backed up by the dominion of the Seas which Bpain held. by virtue of the Papal grant. Alvaro de Saavedra :n 1-135 discovered the Marshall Islands and Quiros was the first to visit the New Hebrides.. Believing that these islands formed part of a ,;reat southern continent he gave to them the resounding title of Tierra del Espiritu Santo ; and be established a settlement called Le Nuova Jerusalem on a river which he named Ihc Jordcn. The same able seaman discovered the Tucopi Island and the f3.*:nks group while Mendana in 1595 •..as responsible for the Santa Cruz r;roup. Of all this tangible result of !><ild enterprise and able navigation not one single island to-day flies the Spanish flag. Next came the Dutch, and in the seventeenth century the Ur.% cf Holland was a familiar sight <n V'f. Pacific. This was the time of •.he of the Low Countries .hicit according to Sir Walter Raiejch'r" criticism in 1603 "possessed as many ships as any eleven kinglntns in Christendom, including Eng."ind." In spite of the absolute lcartli of trees in their own country the Dutch, at this time, built 1,000 ships annually. In spite, however, of their success they, like the Spaniards, kept little to mark their early triumphs. Then the French assumed the task of southern discovery and their page is dark with tragedy. La Pcrouse is the most familiar French name in the Pacific and his end was disaster. Commanding two ships, La Boussole and L'Astrolle, he sailed in 1786, touched at Sydney and after that was lost to human knowledge. Both ships were wrecked and the survivors spent ten months on the island of Vanikaro. With great toil they managed to build a small vessel and left the island, but adverse fate was evidently too strong and they were never again heard of. Then came Captain Cook whose stands paramount no less in the Pacific than in Australia. His three voyages—the Endeavour in 1768 ; the Resolution and the Adventure in 1771 ; and the Resolution and the Discovery in 1776 are the last word in skill, endurance and success. Although the history of the Pacific runs into four centuries, its true era of development has only just begun. Recent shipping facilities have linked these fertile lands with the old world centres, and the enterprise of traders and devotion of missionaries has done much to advance British supremacy. But over and above all the British genius for colonisation has been one of the controlling factors that have resulted in the ascendency of the Union Jack in Southern waters.