1769 Transit of Venus observed from Tahiti search for the alleged southern continent. HMS Bark "Endeavour" was chosen to take the astronomers and other scientists to Tahiti. James Cook was commissioned as Lieutenant and appointed to command the vessel. Cook was the obvious choice as he was an outstanding seaman with navigational qualifications, a capable astronomer and had observed a 1766 annular eclipse in Newfoundland that was communicated to the Royal Society by John Bevis. Once the "Endeavour" arrived on the island, Cook decided to set up the Venus transit observatory on shore. He required a completely stable platform which the ship could not provide and plenty
Tahiti explorer Juan Fernández in his expedition of 1576–1577. The next European visitors arrived during the period of intense Anglo-French rivalry that filled the twelve years between the Seven Years' War and the American Revolutionary War . The first European to have visited Tahiti according to existing records was lieutenant Samuel Wallis, who was circumnavigating the globe in , sighting the island on 18 June 1767, and eventually harbouring in Matavai Bay. This bay was situated on the territory of the chiefdom of Pare-Arue, governed by Tu (Tu-nui-e-a'a-i-te-Atua) and his regent Tutaha, and the chiefdom of Ha'apape, governed by Amo and