Discovering History
So we have discovered most of New Zealands history in class by now. Thinking that we know now how everything started there with the Polynesian settlers and later on, with the first European navigators discovering the island.
Today (actually it would be tomorrow for us here in Germany, the kiwis are about 10 hours ahead of us – quite confusing sometimes) there was an article on the website of the NZ Herald revealing some still mostly unknown knowledge.
The New Zealander Winston Cowie released a book in July ‘15 called ‘Conquistador Puzzle Trail’, which is about him explaining that the first Europeans who discovered New Zealand were likely to be Portugese or Spanish.
Until this day Abel Tasman was known as the first conquerer of the island in 1642. In his book Cowie shows the reader step by step that the Portugese already found New Zealand in 1520–1524. Even the Spanish are supposed to have been there between 1576–1578.
Obviously we did not know everything about New Zealands history yet, and I hardly doubt that we do so know, but it is exciting to think about what will be discovered next.
For everyone who wants to have a closer look on the matter:
