Australia was
uninhabited until stone-culture peoples arrived, perhaps by boat across
the waters separating the island from the Indonesia archipelago more
than 40,000 years ago. Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, and English
explorers observed the island before 1770, when Captain Cook explored
the east coast and claimed it for Great Britain (three American
colonists were crew members aboard Cook’s ship, the Endeavour).
On January 26, 1788 (now celebrated as Australia Day), the
First Fleet under Capt. Arthur Phillip landed at Sydney, and formal
proclamation of the establishment of the Colony of New South Wales
followed on February 7. Many but by no means all of the first settlers
were