South Seas

The Spanish conquistador Vasco Núñez de Balboa coined the term "South Sea" when he traveled across the Isthmus of Panama and reached the Bay of San Miguel, naming the ocean ahead Mar del Sur ("South Sea") due to its location along the southern shore of the isthmus.

[3][4] After he set foot into the ocean, at the opening of the Saban river he declared the South Sea, and all adjoining lands to be property of his king.

Paul Gauguin, a French artist, contributed to the idea of a Garden of Eden by creating paintings of exotic paradises rather than as they really were.

The German writer Erich Scheurmann also utilized this imagery when he created fictional travel reports of a South Seas chief that were published between 1915 and 1920 under the title The Papalagi.

Joseph Banks hired Sydney Parkinson, a nature draftsman, and Alexander Buchan, landscape painter, to accompany James Cook's first expedition to the Pacific (1768 –1771) and to record the discoveries that were made.

He left the island in early 1892 due to health problems and brief difficulties and later returned to Paris to travel to Papeete in September 1895.