Perspectives
I started Mapping The North by looking at the voyages that delivered an outline of the northern coastline before Arthur Philip and the First Fleet arrived at Botany Bay. When I did, I realised that none of the half-dozen voyagers who arrived off northern shores were there by accident. They were all looking for something, although the particular something varied.
It was reasonably clear that James Cook's passage along Australia's east coast marked the culmination of an unfolding process that began in Portugal three hundred and fifty years earlier. Cook's second voyage underlined the main point. While there was still plenty of blank space on the navigators' maps and charts, no significant discoveries could be made outside the polar regions. That lengthy process began in the fifteenth century, but notions of what might lie in the southern hemisphere can be traced back to ancient Greece. Although each voyage is significant from a Northern perspective, their significance varies when placed in a broader Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, or English context.
I have tried to resolve some of these issues by fitting what I've termed The View From Here into The Big Picture and, where there is a broader narrative, providing both A Condensed Version and The Whole Story.
Missing links:
Botany Bay
