04 September - British explorer James Cook became the first European in the New Calledonia Islands in 1774

 

 British explorer James Cook became the first European in the New Calledonia Islands

In 1774 the British navigator and explorer James Cook landed at Balade, on the east coast of the mainland, and he named the island New Caledonia for his father’s native Scotland. Cook was followed there by the French navigator Antoine de Bruni, chevalier d’Entrecasteaux, in 1793.