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:
“Being human signifies, for each one of us, belonging to a class, a society, a country, a continent and a civilization; and for us European earth-dwellers, the adventure played out in the heart of the New World signifies in the first place that it was not our world and that we bear responsibility for the crime of its destruction.”
—Claude Lévi-Strauss (b. 1908)
“... it is nearly impossible to understand those who are beyond our sight, who are not explained to us by ties of birth or the contact of the flesh.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)