A brief note from the author. All of the expeditions cited
below actually took place and on the dates indicated. Only the
dates of contact with Pan are fictional.
It is impossible to say when Pan and Europeans first became aware of one another. It was not a direct contact but occured through mutual trading partners during the early part of the 16th century. Magellan's famous voyage took him thousands of miles south of Pan and there is no record to indicate the intrepid voyager ever heard of the island.
The first European contact with Japan, in 1543, provided a
catalyst for another form of indirect contact. It was that
contact that provided Japan with its first guns, soon it would
produce some of the most advanced guns in the world before giving
up guns in 1637. A Pani trader, sources vary as to his
ethnicity, bought a small number of the weapons in 1549 and
brought them back to Pan. In an effort to secure a wide market,
he offered them both to the Nowans and to the Mr�. The
total
number acquired by each was certainly less than 10, perhaps only
5 or 6. It was enough. In both nations, skilled craftsmen were
set to work copying them and within a decade, could muster large
brigades of gun carrying troops. How fortuitous these
circumstances were was only revealed a few years later.
The Spanish Expeditions
The Spanish had sent several expeditions westward in search
of
trade routes to the spice islands. One of these, the Villalobos
expedition of 1542, actually hoped to make contact with Pan but
as it was only a secondary goal, they spent little time actually
searching for it and contact was not made. Twenty-two years
later that would change.
In November of 1564, an expedition consisting of 5 ships and 400 men set sail from Navidad, Mexico, under the command of Miguel L�pez de Legaspi. At dawn, on Christmas Eve, the ships sighted the southern coast of Pan. Their first landing was at a small coastal city Hakstoker, part of the Mr� Empire. It was fortunate that the city was defended by a small gun armed contingent. Although ordered by Philip II to claim all lands for Spain, the outnumbered and outgunned Spaniards yielded to the better part of valor, not pressing such claims with the Mr�. After a brief exchange of gifts, Legaspi was invited to the city of Tosh to meet the Admiral in charge of Mr�'s navy. His visit was kept brief, but was sufficient to impress upon him the strength, wealth, and modernity of the Empire.
His reports filtered back to Spain and a few trading
expeditions were made but the unsettled nature of politics on the
island kept those brief throughout the 16th century. Spanish
trade with Mr� would briefly blossom during the first half
of the 17th century but the fall of Mr� in 1640 would
change all of that. It would be another 50 years before trade
with the outside world would again be an important factor in
Nowapan's relationships.
James Cook's voyage to Nowapan.
Cook's third voyage of discovery in the Pacific was the only
one to take him to Pan. Sailing north from Hawaii, he arrived
upon the western side of the Cape of Storms on Jan 29, 1778. He
mapped the cape as he worked his way around it to the south and
then north, eventually discovering and charting Cook's Bay. As
he
exited Cook's Bay, he turned back east and resumed his search for
the Northwest passage along the shores of North America.
Arriving as he did at a time when Nowapan was rather xenophobic,
his reception was cool at best and probably played a role in his
decision to limit his contacts with inhabitants. This factor may
have contributed to his death. When he turned south for the
winter in early 1779, he rejected suggestions that they turn in
to Nowapan and continued on to Hawaii where he was killed.
La P�rouse's Voyage to the East Coast of Pan
The illfated voyage of Comte de Jean Francois de Galaup La
P�rouse began on August 1, 1785, when he sailed from
Brest,
France. He was ordered to continue the explorations of Capt.
James Cook. Striking a northerly course, La P�rouse's two
ships, the La Boussole and L'Astrolabe, reached the eastern
coast of Nowapan on April 18, 1786. This area of Pan was then as
now, sparsely populated and although firmly under Imperial
control, it was not particularly noteworthy that his first visit
was to a fishing village that lacked a royal garrison. Scholars
continue to argue which village was his first place of contact.
La P�rouse did not record its name but his description of
the inhabitants closely matches the Tzakatl people.
For most of the next month, his expedition would work its way north along the coast. A sudden storm resulted in a broken mast for L'Astrolabe and he put in at a bay on the easternmost lobe of Nordland, now called in English, La Perouseland. For several weeks while repairs were made, he and his crews explored the coast and the dense forests behind it. He traded with several of the coastal peoples and made the first European maps of the area. Repairs complete, he sailed on to Alaska, reaching Mt. St. Elias on June 23, 1786.
La P�rouse would not again touch the shores of Pan,
sailing westwards, he explored the northernmost reaches of the
Pacific. Eventually turning south, he and his ships would
disappear with all hands somewhere near the Santa Cruz islands in
1788. His dispatches remain the earliest non-Pani descriptions
of the east coast of Pan.