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Rh the way discovered Ponape of the Caroline Islands, some of which group, however, had been known to the Portuguese as early as 1527. Quires returned to Europe, and, obtaining command of a fleet, made a voyage in 1605-1607 during which he observed some of the Paumotu and Society Islands, and later discovered the small Duff group of the Santa Cruz Islands, passing thence to the main island of the New Hebrides, which he hailed as his objective, the southern continent. One of his commanders, Luis Vaes de Torres, struck off to the north-west, coasted along the south of the Louisiade Archipelago and New Guinea, traversed the strait which bears his name between New Guinea and Australia, and reached the Philippines. In 1615-1617 two Dutchmen, Jacob Lemaire and Willem Cornells Schouten, having in view both the discovery of the southern continent and the possibility of establishing relations with the East Indies from the east, took a course which brought them to the north part of the Paumotu Archipelago, thence to part of the Tonga chain, and ultimately to New Pomerania, after which they reached the East Indies. In 1642-1643 Abel Tasman, working from the east, discovered Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) and the west coast of New Zealand, subsequently reaching the Tonga Islands. Now for a while the tide of discovery slackened. Towards the close of the century the buccaneers extended their activity to the Pacific, but naturally added little to general knowledge. William Dampier, however, making various voyages in 1690-1705, explored the coasts of Australia and New Guinea, and at the opening of the century both the French and the Dutch showed some activity. The Dutchman Jacob Roggeveen, in the course of a voyage round the world in 1721-1722, crossed the Pacific from east to west, and discovered Easter Island, some of the northern islands of the Paumotu Archipelago, and (as is generally supposed) a part of the Samoan group. The voyage of Commodore George (afterwards Lord) Anson in 1740-1744 was for purposes rather of war than of exploration, and Commodore John Byron's voyage in 1765 had little result beyond gaining some additional knowledge of the Paumotu Archipelago.

It is about this time that what may be called the period of rediscovery set in fully. In the ensuing account a constant repetition of the names of the main archipelagoes will be found; it may of course be assumed that each successive voyager added something to the knowledge of them, but on the other hand, as has been said, islands were often rediscovered and renamed in cases where later voyagers took no account of the work of their predecessors, or where the earlier voyagers were unable clearly to define the positions of their discoveries. Moreover, rivalry between contemporary explorers of different nationalities sometimes caused them to ignore each other's work, and added to the confusion of nomenclature among the islands.

In 1767 Samuel Wallis worked through the central part of the Paumotus, and visited Tahiti and the Marianas, while his companion Philip Carteret discovered Pitcairn, and visited Santa Cruz, the Solomons and New Pomerania. The French were now taking a share in the work of discovery, and in 1768 Louis Antoine de Bougainville sailed by way of the central Paumotus, the Society Islands, Samoa, the northern New Hebrides, the south coast of New Guinea and the Louisiade and Bismarck archipelago es. The next voyages in chronological order are those of the celebrated Captain James Cook (q.v.). Within the limits of the area under notice, his first voyage (1769) included visits to Tahiti and the Society group generally, to New Zealand and to the east coast of Australia, his second (1773-1774) to New Zealand, the Paumotu Archipelago, the Society Islands, Tonga and subsequently Easter Island, the Marquesas and the New Hebrides; and his third (1777-1778) to Tonga, the Cook or Norway group, and the Hawaiian Islands, of which, even if they were previously known to the Spaniards, he may be called the discoverer, and where he was subsequently killed. In 1786 Jean Francois Galoup de La Perouse, in the course of the famous voyage from which he never returned, visited Easter Island, Samoa and Tonga. The still more famous voyage of William Bligh of the " Bounty " (1788) was followed by that of Captain Edwards of the " Pandora " (1791), who in the course of his search for Bligh discovered Rotumah and other islands. The Hawaiian Islands came within the purview of George Vancouver, following the course of Cook in 1791. In 1792-1793 Joseph Antoine d'Entrecasteaux, searching for traces of La Perouse, ranged the islands west of Tonga. In 1797 Captain J. Wilson of the missionary ship " Duff " visited the Society groui), Fiji, Tonga and the Marquesas, and added to the knowledge of the Paumotu and Caroline Islands. Another power entered on the field of exploration when the Russians sent Adam Ivan Krusenstern to the Pacific (1803). He was followed by Otto von Kotzebue (1816) and Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen (1819-1821). The work of these three was carried out principally in the easternmost part of Polynesia. In 1818-1819 the French navigator Louis Claude Desaulses de Freycinct ranged from New Guinea through the Marianas to Hawaii. Two of his countrymen followed him in 1823-1829 — Louis Isidore Duperrey and Dumont d'Urville. Kotzebue made a second voyage, accompanied by scientists, in 1823-1826. In 1826-1828 Frederick William Beechey was at work in the middle parts of the ocean, and Feodor Petrovich Count Liitke, the Russian cir cum navigator, in the northern. In 1834 Dr Debell Bennett made scientific researches in the Society, Hawaiian and Marquesas Islands, in 1835 Captain Robert Fitzroy was accompanied by Charles Darwin, and in 1836 sqq., Abel Aubert du Petit-Thouars was carrying on the work of the French in the Pacific. During his voyage of 1837-1840, Dumont d'Urville was again in Polynesia, working westward from the Paumotu and Marquesas Islands by Fiji and the Solomon, Loyalty and Louisiade groups to New Guinea. In 1839 sqq. the first important American expedition was made under Charles Wilkes, who covered a great extent of the ocean from Hawaii to Tonga, Fiji and New Zealand. Among later British explorers may be mentioned Captain J. Elphinstone Erskine (1849) and Captain H. M. Denham, and several important voyages for scientific research were made in the second half of the 19th century, including one from Austria under Captain WuUerstorf Urbair (1858), and one from Italy in the vessel "Magenta" (1865-1868), which was accompanied by the scientist Dr Enrico Giglioli. The celebrated voyage of H.M.S. "Challenger" (1874-1875) and those of the American vessels " Tuscarora " (1873-1876) and " Albatross " (1888-1892) may complete the tale.

Whalers, sealers and traders followed in the wake of explorers, the traders dealing chiefly in copra, trepang, pearls, tortoiseshell, &c. The first actual settlers in the islands were largely men of bad character — deserting sailors, escapers from the penal settlements in Australia and others. It is not to be supposed that there were no orderly colonists, but that the natives suffered much at the hands of Europeans and Americans is only too clear. The class of traders who made a living by disreputable means and attempted to keep a monopoly of the island on which they settled, became notorious under the name of " beachcombers, " and for each of the many dark chapters in Polynesian history there must have been many more unwritten. The kidnapping of natives for the South American and Australian labour markets was common. It cannot be denied that there has been actual deterioration of the native races, and elimination in their numbers, consequent upon contact with Europeans and Americans (see further, Polynesia). The romantic character of island-history has perhaps, however, tended to emphasize its dark side, and it is well to turn from it to recognize the work of the missionaries, who found in the Pacific one of their most extensive and important fields of labour, and have exercised not only a moral, but also a profound political influence in the islands since the London Missionary Society first established its agents in Tahiti in 1797. Many of them, moreover, have added greatly to the scientific knowledge of the islands and their inhabitants. The imposition of strict rules of life upon the natives was in some instances carried too far; in others their conversion to Christianity was little more than nominal, but cases of this sort are overshadowed by the fine work of William Ellis and John Williams (c. 1818) and many of their successors.

The discovery of sandalwood in Fiji in 1804, and the establishment of a trade therein, made that group a centre of interest