James Cook was a great English sailor who discovered many new lands and gave them English names. James Cook was born in a small village near the sea. At thirteen he left school and helped his father on the farm. When the boy was seventeen, he found work in a shop. At that time James decided to be a sailor. He went to a small town in the south of England, got work there on a ship and learned his profession.
After he worked for some years on different ships, James Cook joined the navy and began to learn astronomy. He explored the coasts of England, crossed the Atlantic Ocean and explored some rivers in Canada.
In 1768 Captain Cook sailed from England to the Pacific Ocean. The ship was small. For many months the sailors did not see land. One day they came near some islands. They were the islands of New Zealand. Captain Cook found a strait between the two islands. Some years later it was called “Cook Strait”. The sailors did not stop in New Zealand, but sailed to find new lands.
In April 1771 the sailors saw land and found a place where they could stop. It was Australia. The sailors saw many different trees and beautiful flowers on the coast. And that part of Australia was named New South Wales as it was very much like Wales in Britain. Captain Cook put up the English flag there.
The ship visited the island of New Guinea and in 1771 came back to England.
Captain Cook sailed to the South Seas again and in 1779 died on the Hawaiian Islands.
