Summary of Richard Holmes's The Age of Wonder

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 Joseph Banks, official botanist to HM Bark Endeavour, first clapped eyes on the island of Tahiti, 17 degrees South, 149 degrees West. He had been told that this was the location of Paradise: a wonderful idea, although he did not quite believe it.

#2 When the British landed on King George the Third’s Island, they were met by some hundreds of the inhabitants, who gave them a green bough as a sign of peace. They then set up camp.

#3 The first European ship to land in Tahiti was the HMS Endeavour, commanded by Lieutenant James Cook. He was very skeptical about the island’s reputation as a sexual paradise, and had every member of his crew examined for venereal infections four weeks before landing.

#4 The Endeavour expedition was sent to Tahiti to observe a Transit of Venus across the face of the sun. The solar parallax depended on observing the exact timing at which the silhouette of Venus first entered, and then exited from, the sun’s disc.

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E-bog: 5. juni 2022