'Over Cooked': Is Captain Cook the source of British sovereignty in Australia?
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The story of Lieutenant James Cook and British Sovereignty over Australia has been overcooked. At no time on any of Cook's three voyages to the Pacific was he intending to go anywhere near New Holland. He did chart the east coast of New Holland in 1770, but that was not part of his Instructions. The whole story about Cook and his association with the claim of British Sovereignty over the lands now known as Australia is retrospective, rather than consistent with the events of the time. Cook's initial "mission" was to get to Tahiti to study the Transit of Venus, and to then look for the fabled Great Southern Land, Terra Australis.
