New Zealand was the last land on Earth in being inhabitated by humans. It did not happen until 1250, when several groups of Polinesian people reached the northern island and developed the Maori culture (whose maybe more famous symbols are the tribal tattoos and the haka or warrior’s dance). You can learn more in this NZMedia video (5 minutes).
Traditionally,
it is though the first European people (Pakeha
in Maori) to have confirmed encounter with the Maori was the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman in 1642...
...but what
if Tasman was not the first white man in reaching New Zealand? According to the
historians Ross Wiseman and Winston
Cowie a “lost” Spanish or Portuguese ship may have reached New Zealand a
century earlier that the official reccordings!.
There are
three hypothesis:
- The
Loaísa expedition (1525-27). García de Loaísa
and Elcano started a new expedition to settle and colonise the Molucas
islands. The travel was quite disastreous: most part of the staff
(including both captains) died and the only remaining vessel (Caravel San
Lesmes) got lost and sinked in an unknown place which could be identified
with NZ.
- Captain Juan Fernández, a very skilled
sailor, could reached NZ by navigating West from Chile in 1576.
- The lost expedition of Alvaro de Mendaña de Neyra in
1595.
Which one
do you think is the most historically plausible?
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