Rarotonga is the most-populated of the group of Pacific Islands named for which explorer?
"now commonly known as New Caledonia and the Loyalty Islands around 1500 BC. The Lapita were highly skilled navigators and agriculturists with influence over a large area of the Pacific. From about the 11th century Polynesians also arrived and mixed with the populations of the archipelago. Europeans first sighted New Caledonia and the Loyalty Islands in the late 18th century. The British explorer James Cook sighted Grande Terre in 1774 and named it ""New Caledonia"", Caledonia being the Latin name for Scotland. During the same voyage he also named the islands to the north of New Caledonia the New Hebrides"
"Rarotonga Rarotonga is the most populous island of the Cook Islands, with a population of 10,572 (census 2011), out of the country's total resident population of 14,974. Captain John Dibbs, master of the colonial brig ""Endeavour"", is credited as the European discoverer on 25 July 1823, while transporting the missionary Rev. John Williams. The Cook Islands' Parliament buildings and international airport are on Rarotonga. Because it is the most populous island, Cook Islanders may often be referred to as Rarotongan, but they may come from one of the other 14 islands in the group, such as Aitutaki or Mangaia. Rarotonga"
"and Virgin Australia (3). Air Tahiti operates one or two flights per week direct to and from Papeete, depending on the season. Rarotonga Rarotonga is the most populous island of the Cook Islands, with a population of 10,572 (census 2011), out of the country's total resident population of 14,974. Captain John Dibbs, master of the colonial brig ""Endeavour"", is credited as the European discoverer on 25 July 1823, while transporting the missionary Rev. John Williams. The Cook Islands' Parliament buildings and international airport are on Rarotonga. Because it is the most populous island, Cook Islanders may often be referred to"
"exploration into the Pacific around 1480, reportedly visiting islands he called ""Nina Chumpi"" (""fire belt"") and ""Hawa Chumpi"" (""outer belt"", also spelled ""Avachumpi, Hahua chumpi""). The voyage is mentioned in the ""History of the Incas"" by Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa in 1572. Pedro Sarmiento described the expedition as follows: Many historians are skeptical that the voyage ever took place. Supporters have usually identified the islands with the Galápagos Islands. It has also been suggested that one of the islands was Easter Island, where oral traditions have claimed that a group of long-eared ""hanau eepe"" came to the island from an"
"island of Rarotonga in 1839 and is still there. Mrs. Williams died in June 1852. She is buried with their son Rev Samuel Tamatoa Williams, who was born in the New Hebrides, at the old Cedar Circle in London's Abney Park Cemetery; the name of her husband and the record of his death were placed on the most prominent side of the stone monument. The LMS successively operated seven missionary ships in the Pacific which were named after John Williams. They were funded by donations from children. The first, ""John Williams"", was launched in 1844, and the last, ""John Williams"
"of the group. Surprisingly, Cook never sighted the largest island, Rarotonga, and the only island that he personally set foot on was tiny, uninhabited Palmerston Atoll. The first recorded landing by Europeans was in 1814 by the Cumberland; trouble broke out between the sailors and the Islanders and many were killed on both sides. The islands saw no more Europeans until missionaries arrived from England in 1821. Christianity quickly took hold in the culture and remains the predominant religion today. In 1823, Captain John Dibbs of the colonial barque Endeavour made the first official sighting of the island Rarotonga. The"
"Kon-Tiki expedition The ""Kon-Tiki"" expedition was a 1947 journey by raft across the Pacific Ocean from South America to the Polynesian islands, led by Norwegian explorer and writer Thor Heyerdahl. The raft was named ""Kon-Tiki"" after the Inca sun god, Viracocha, for whom ""Kon-Tiki"" was said to be an old name. """" is also the name of Heyerdahl's book; the Academy Award-winning documentary film chronicling his adventures; and the 2012 dramatized feature film nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Heyerdahl believed that people from South America could have settled Polynesia in pre-Columbian times. His aim in"
"named the island of Manuae ""Hervey Island"". Later, the name ""Hervey Islands"" came to be applied to the entire southern group; the name ""Cook Islands"", in honour of Cook, first appeared on a Russian naval chart published in the 1820s. In 1813 John Williams, a missionary on the ""Endeavour"" (not the same ship as Cook's) made the first recorded sighting of Rarotonga. The first recorded landing on Rarotonga by Europeans was in 1814 by the ""Cumberland""; trouble broke out between the sailors and the Islanders and many were killed on both sides. The islands saw no more Europeans until missionaries"
"Pedro Mascarenhas Dom Pedro Mascarenhas (1470 – 16 June 1555) was a Portuguese explorer and colonial administrator. He was the first European to discover the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean in 1512. He also encountered the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius in 1512, although he may not have been the first Portuguese explorer to do so; earlier expeditions by Diogo Dias and Afonso de Albuquerque along with Diogo Fernandes Pereira may have encountered the islands. In 1528 explorer Diogo Rodrigues (after whom the island of Rodrigues is named) named the islands of Réunion, Mauritius, and Rodrigues the"
"The Viracocha expedition In 2000 and 2003, professional explorer Phil Buck led international teams across the Pacific Ocean from South America to Easter Island via two separate ancient style reed rafts. Both vessels were constructed in their entirety from only four Andean materials; totora reeds, natural fiber rope, cotton sails and wood. No one in recorded history has been able to reach the most isolated populated island in the world aboard an any ancient style vessel of any kind. The ""Viracocha"" expeditions proved that ancient South American mariners could have been the first to discover Easter Island. Who first reached"
"Thor Heyerdahl Thor Heyerdahl (; October 6, 1914 – April 18, 2002) was a Norwegian adventurer and ethnographer with a background in zoology, botany, and geography. He became notable for his ""Kon-Tiki"" expedition in 1947, in which he sailed 8,000 km (5,000 mi) across the Pacific Ocean in a hand-built raft from South America to the Tuamotu Islands. The expedition was designed to demonstrate that ancient people could have made long sea voyages, creating contacts between separate cultures. This was linked to a diffusionist model of cultural development. Heyerdahl subsequently made other voyages designed to demonstrate the possibility of contact"
"Manihiki Manihiki is an island in the northern group of the Cook Islands known informally as the ""Island of Pearls"". It is approximately north of the capital island of Rarotonga, making it one of the most remote inhabitations in the Pacific Ocean. Its name has two possible meanings: It's believed that the original name of the island was Manuhiki, inspired by the aboriginal discovers ""Manu"" coming from the word Rua Manu (a kind of canoe) and ""Hiki"" meaning ""ashore"", so the literal translation would be ""canoe carried ashore"". The second interpretation is that the original discoverers were from Manihi, an"
"number of the Polynesian island chains, sometimes with Mr and Mrs Ellis and other London Missionary Society representatives. Landing on Aitutaki in 1821, they used Tahitian converts to carry their message to the Cook islanders. One island in this group, Rarotonga (discovered by Captain John Dabs of the colonial schooner ""Endeavour"" in August 1823, with Rev. Williams on board), rises out of the sea as jungle-covered mountains of orange soil ringed by coral reef and turquoise lagoon; Williams became fascinated by it. John and Mary had ten children, but only three survived to adulthood. The Williamses became the first missionary"
"explored by British and Spanish expeditions in the late 18th century. It was named ""Quadra's and Vancouver's Island"" in commemoration of the friendly negotiations held in 1792 by Spanish commander of the Nootka Sound settlement, Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra, and by British naval captain George Vancouver, during the Nootka Crisis. Bodega y Quadra's name was eventually dropped from the name. It is one of several North American locations named after George Vancouver, who explored the Pacific Northwest coast between 1791 and 1794. Vancouver Island is the world's 43rd largest island, Canada's 11th largest island, and Canada's second"
"George Vancouver Captain George Vancouver (22 June 1757 – 10 May 1798) was a British officer of the Royal Navy, best known for his 1791–95 expedition, which explored and charted North America's northwestern Pacific Coast regions, including the coasts of contemporary British Columbia, Canada and Alaska, Washington, and Oregon, United States. He also explored the Hawaiian Islands and the southwest coast of Australia. Vancouver Island and the city of Vancouver, British Columbia are named for him, as is Vancouver, Washington. Mount Vancouver of Yukon and Alaska, on the Canadian-American border and New Zealand's sixth highest mountain, are also named for"
"single island. Ra'iātea is both the largest and most populated island in the Leeward Islands, with a land area of and a total population of 12,024 inhabitants at the August 2007 census. The population density is 72 inhabitants per km². The largest commune of Ra'iātea is 'Uturoa on the north side of Ra'iātea and has a population of nearly 10,000. The first European to record sighting Ra'iātea was Pedro Fernandes de Queirós in 1606; it was charted as ""La Fugitiva"". The Polynesian navigator, Tupaia, who sailed with explorer James Cook, was born in Ra'iātea around 1725. Cook visited Raiatea in"
"Palmerston Island Palmerston Island is a coral atoll in the Cook Islands in the Pacific Ocean about 500 km northwest of Rarotonga. It was discovered by James Cook on 16 June 1774. A true atoll, Palmerston Island consists of a number of sandy islets on a continuous ring of coral reef enclosing a lagoon. The largest of the islets include Palmerston, North Island, Lee To Us, Leicester, Primrose, Toms, and Cooks. The total land area of the islets is approximately . The coral reef covers about . The lagoon is some across, covering an area of . There are several"
"Vasco Núñez de Balboa Vasco Núñez de Balboa (; c. 1475around January 12–21, 1519) was a Spanish explorer, governor, and conquistador. He is best known for having crossed the Isthmus of Panama to the Pacific Ocean in 1513, becoming the first European to lead an expedition to have seen or reached the Pacific from the New World. He traveled to the New World in 1500 and, after some exploration, settled on the island of Hispaniola. He founded the settlement of Santa María la Antigua del Darién in present-day Panama in 1510, which was the first permanent European settlement on the"
"Fred Noonan Frederick Joseph ""Fred"" Noonan (born April 4, 1893; declared missing July 2, 1937 and dead June 20, 1938), was an American flight navigator, sea captain and aviation pioneer who first charted many commercial airline routes across the Pacific Ocean during the 1930s. He was last seen in Lae, New Guinea, on July 2, 1937, on the last land stop with famed aviator Amelia Earhart (1897-1937), as her navigator when they disappeared somewhere over the Central Pacific Ocean during one of the last legs of their attempted pioneering round-the-world flight. Fred Noonan was born in Cook County, Illinois (the"
"1568, when Spaniard Mendana was commanded to explore the South Pacific, he sailed between the Line Islands and the Phoenix Islands without sighting land, ultimately discovering ""Isla de Jesus"", probably amongst the Ellice group. While early 19th-century whalers were responsible for discovering most of Kiribati in the modern era, conflicting reports, inaccurate mapping and duplication of islands makes it almost impossible to confirm exactly who discovered each of the islands. Jeremiah N. Reynolds's 1828 report to the American Navy recommended an exploring expedition to the Pacific as """"the English charts, and those of other countries are as yet very imperfect."
"Walker sighted the island in 1813 on the ship ""Endeavour"". The first recorded landing by a European was Captain Philip Goodenough with William Wentworth in 1814 on the schooner ""Cumberland"". On 30 May 1965, five sounding rockets were launched from Rarotonga for studying a solar eclipse. Rarotonga is divided into three main districts or ""vaka"" (tribes). Te Au O Tonga on the northern side of the island (Avarua is the capital), Takitumu on the eastern and southern side and Puaikura on the western side. On the other hand, the island is also divided into five Land Districts. The Land District"
"Ruy López de Villalobos Ruy López de Villalobos (; ca. 1500 – April 4, 1544) was a Spanish explorer who sailed the Pacific from Mexico to establish a permanent foothold for Spain in the East Indies, which was near the Line of Demarcation between Spain and Portugal according to the Treaty of Zaragoza in 1529. Villalobos gave the Philippines their name, after calling them ""Las Islas Filipinas"" in honor of Philip of Austria, the Prince of Asturias at the time, who later became Philip II of Spain. In 1542 he also discovered a Pacific group of islands, most likely Hawaii,"
"North Pacific Exploring and Surveying Expedition The North Pacific Exploring and Surveying Expedition, also known as the Rodgers-Ringgold Expedition was a United States scientific and exploring project from 1853 to 1856. Commander Cadwalader Ringgold (1802–1867) led the expedition until he was relieved of command in Hong Kong by a commission convened by Commodore Matthew Perry. Lt. John Rodgers (1812–1882) then commanded the expedition until its conclusion. Ringgold sailed on USS ""Porpoise"", a ship he had commanded during the U.S. Exploring Expedition years before. USS ""John Hancock"", commanded by Lt. John Rodgers and three other vessels including USS ""Vincennes"" would be"
"Cyrille Pierre Théodore Laplace Cyrille Pierre Théodore Laplace (7 November 1793 – 24 January 1875) was a French navigator famous for his circumnavigation of the globe on board ""La Favorite"". He was pivotal in the opening of French trade in the Pacific and was instrumental in the establishment of the Hawaiian Catholic Church. He achieved the rank of captain. Laplace was born at sea on 7 November 1793. He joined the French Navy and fought in the Indian and Atlantic Oceans, along with battles in the West Indies. He was promoted from Aspirant to Ship-of-the-Line Lieutenant in 1823, and to"
"first explored by Europeans from the 16th century onwards. Portuguese navigators, between 1512 and 1526, reached the Moluccas (by António de Abreu and Francisco Serrão in 1512), Timor, the Aru Islands (Martim A. Melo Coutinho), the Tanimbar Islands, some of the Caroline Islands (by Gomes de Sequeira in 1525), and west Papua New Guinea (by Jorge de Menezes in 1526). In 1519 a Castilian ('Spanish') expedition led by Ferdinand Magellan sailed down the east coast of South America, found and sailed through the strait that bears his name and on 28 November 1520 entered the ocean which he named ""Pacific""."
"of Cabrillo's visit in 1542 aboard the ""San Miguel"". San Miguel is the name George Vancouver gave the island on his 1793 chart. The first European explorer to land was the explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo in 1542, who commanded three Spanish ships that spent several weeks on the island while exploring the Santa Barbara Channel and California Coast. Cabrillo died on the island and is thought by many to have been buried there. The last of the island Chumash were removed to mainland missions and towns in the 1820s, leaving San Miguel largely uninhabited until ranchers raised sheep there from"
"no wonder if at this time it is known over the great part of New Zealand."" Tupaia (navigator) Tupaia (also known as Tupaea or Tupia) (c. 1725 – December, 26 1770) was a Tahitian Polynesian navigator and ""arioi"" (a kind of priest), originally from the island of Ra'iatea in the Pacific Islands group known to Europeans as the Society Islands. His remarkable navigational skills and Pacific geographical knowledge were to be utilised by Lt. James Cook, R.N. when he took him aboard HMS ""Endeavour"" as guide on its voyage of exploration to ""Terra Australis Incognita"". Tupaia travelled with Cook to"
"the Flying Foam massacre, in which between 20 and 150 members of the Yaburara are reported to have been killed. Dampier Archipelago The Dampier Archipelago is a group of islands near Dampier, Western Australia. It is named after William Dampier, an English buccaneer and explorer who visited in 1699. Dampier named one of the islands, Rosemary Island. The largest island (or peninsula) in the group was known as ""Murujuga"" by the earliest inhabitants, the Yaburara (or Jaburara) people. The first British settlers renamed it Dampier Island and it was later officially renamed Burrup Peninsula. Despite being a region through which"
"for China, without finding the passage to the east they were looking for. Some scholars maintain that the name America comes from Richard Amerik, a Bristol merchant and customs officer, who is claimed on very slender evidence to have helped finance the Cabot voyages. Jacques Cartier was a French navigator who first explored and described the Gulf of St-Lawrence and the shores of the Saint Lawrence River, which he named Canada. Juan Fernández was a Spanish explorer and navigator. Probably between 1563 and 1574 he discovered the Juan Fernández Islands west of Valparaíso, Chile. He also discovered the Pacific islands"
"Alessandro Malaspina Alessandro Malaspina (November 5, 1754 – April 9, 1810) was an Italian explorer who spent most of his life as a Spanish naval officer. Under a Spanish royal commission, he undertook a voyage around the world from 1786 to 1788, then, from 1789 to 1794, a scientific expedition (the Malaspina Expedition) throughout the Pacific Ocean, exploring and mapping much of the west coast of the Americas from Cape Horn to the Gulf of Alaska, crossing to Guam and the Philippines, and stopping in New Zealand, Australia, and Tonga. Malaspina was christened ""Alessandro."" He signed his letters in Spanish"
"the tribes subsisted primarily on seafoods such as clams, salmon, and seals, as well as berries. European exploration of the Oregon Coast began in the 18th century as Spanish mariners sailed northward from Mexico to explore and later stake claim to the region, led by explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa's claim of the entire Pacific and shores in the name of the Spanish Crown. The earliest expedition recorded along the Pacific Northwest coast, however, was led by Spaniard Juan José Pérez Hernández aboard the sloop ""Santiago"" in 1774. Pérez's findings were kept a secret and much of the credit for"
"Andrés de Urdaneta Friar Andrés de Urdaneta, OSA, (November 30, 1498 – June 3, 1568) was a Spanish Basque circumnavigator, explorer and Augustinian friar. As a navigator he achieved in 1536 the ""second"" world circumnavigation (after the first one led by Ferdinand Magellan and Juan Sebastián Elcano and their crew in 1522). Urdaneta discovered and plotted a path across the Pacific from the Philippines to Acapulco in the Viceroyalty of New Spain (present day Mexico) used by the Manila galleons, which came to be known as ""Urdaneta's route."" He was considered as ""protector of the Indians"" for his treatment of"
"boobies and the vampire finch. Darwin Island Darwin Island (Spanish: ""Isla Darwin"") is among the smallest in the Galápagos Archipelago with an area of just . It is named in honor of English scientist Charles Darwin. With no dry landing sites, Darwin Island's main attractions are found in the Pacific Ocean, which is teeming with a large variety of marine life. Although the island had been marked on maps and had initially been given the name Culpepper Island on Admiralty charts, the first landing on Darwin Island was not until 1964, by helicopter. The small detached group formed by Darwin"