European Contact
William R. Broughton landed on 29 November 1791, and claimed possession of the islands for Great Britain, naming them after his ship, HMS Chatham. Sealers and whalers soon made the islands a centre of their activities, competing for resources with the native population. Between 10% and 20% of Moriori soon died from imported diseases.
Read more about this topic: Moriori People
Famous quotes containing the words european and/or contact:
“No European spring had shown him the same intermixture of delicate grace and passionate depravity that marked the Maryland May.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)
“To write weekly, to write daily, to write shortly, to write for busy people catching trains in the morning or for tired people coming home in the evening, is a heartbreaking task for men who know good writing from bad. They do it, but instinctively draw out of harm’s way anything precious that might be damaged by contact with the public, or anything sharp that might irritate its skin.”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)