I hadn't picked that up from what you wrote. You know, Abel Tasman made his voyages of exploration in the 1640's. Given that the Dutch had not come to stay by 1788, i think it unlikely that they would have later, and for the same reason that it is unlikely the French would have. After 1789, the French weren't doing a lot of colonization outside Europe, but in the 1790's, Holland was one of their first projects. I think it likely that absent "the fatal shore," the Poms would have been first in in any event.
Hmmm - yes, Cook casually claimed it, in the manner of the day - but whether they would have wanted to use it - well.....who knows.
'Tis fun to think of us as a French, or Dutch, colony though.
Probably more fun, come to think, as a French colony...
The fun would have gone right out of it in 1942, however . . .
After James Cooke was killed by the Hawaiians, his sailing Master, William Bligh, brought the expedition safely home. I have always wondered why he held on for Timor rather than land on the Australian coast when he came to the Barrier Reef in 1789 with the open boat. Given the reception that Australian explorers got when going overland, especially on the shores of the Gulf of Carpenteria, it was probably for the best
Hmmm - I doubt Oz would still have been a colony by then! And the Germans would have had to come a fair way to make their point.
LOl! Long and untracked blurry way for Bligh et al to Botany Bay. Which was, I believe, near to starvation in 1789.
Indeed, the passengers in Bounty's boat would not necessarily been better off. Bligh was seemingly a magnet for mutiny. He apparently did have a healthy regard for the likely hostility of the darker tenants of that real estate. After passing the reef (through what is known to this day as the Bligh Boat channel), they kept on to the north toward the Torres Straits, because they continued to see smoke on the horizon of the mainland. When they finally found islands which were out of sight of the land, they quickly stripped the area of shellfish--previously Bligh had kept them strictly to a ration of one musket ball's weight of salt pork (spoiling daily in that climate) and three pistol balls weight of ships bread per day. Within two days, the crews fell to fighting among themselves, and Mr. Fry, the original sailing master, challenged Bligh's authority. Bligh got them back on the boat, and made good sail for Timor. He lost only a single man who sold his life in the "Friendly Islands" to allow Bligh to escape with his navigational instruments as the local islanders were closing in on them. At Timor, two men died within a month of their arrival, but it was still one of the most remarkable feats of seamanship and command in the history of the sea--particularly in that not only was there no hint of cannibalism, the topic was apparently never mooted. When the remaining crew (about 20 men in all) were sufficiently healthy, Bligh purchased a sloop on the authority of the Admiralty, and set out for Batavia. Fry attempted another mutiny. When Bligh was returned to active service during the Wars of the French Revolution, there was a mutiny aboard his ship at the Nore--althoug in fairness, his was not the only ship's complement to rebel. I'm sure you know the story of Bligh and the "Rum Corps." Odd and interesting man--magnificent in adversity, a disaster in smooth waters.
