French Polynesia island of Rekareka to the southeast of Tahiti. Over a century later, British explorer Samuel Wallis visited Tahiti in 1767. French explorer Louis Antoine de Bougainville also visited Tahiti in 1768, while British explorer James Cook arrived in 1769. In 1772, the Spanish Viceroy of Peru Don Manuel de Amat ordered a number of expeditions to Tahiti under the command of Domingo de Bonechea who was the first European to explore all of the main islands beyond Tahiti. A short-lived Spanish settlement was created in 1774, and for a time some maps bore the name "Isla de Amat" after Viceroy
1769 Transit of Venus observed from Tahiti collected from the transit and Cook's report. The Tahiti observers had trouble with the timing of the stages and their drawings were inconsistent. They later found out that this was also true with the observers at the other locations. Observers from all over noted a haze or "black drop" that seemed to follow Venus making it very difficult to record time entry point on the sun and the exit from the sun. For what they believed to be a failure in the observation, The Royal Society decided to blame Green who died on the voyage back to England. Cook's rebuke