Major explorations continued
after the Age of Discovery. By the early seventeenth century, vessels were sufficiently well built and their navigators competent enough to travel to virtually anywhere on the planet by sea. In the 17th century Dutch explorers such as
Willem Jansz and
Abel Tasman explored the coasts of
Australia. Spanish expeditions from Peru explored the
South Pacific and discovered archipelagos such as
Vanuatu and the
Pitcairn Islands.
Luis Vaez de Torres chartered the coasts of
New Guinea and the
Solomon Islands, and discovered the
strait that bears his name. European naval exploration mapped the western and northern coasts of Australia, but the east coast had to wait for over a century. Eighteenth century British explorer
James Cook mapped much of
Polynesia and traveled as far as
Alaska. In the later 18th century the Pacific became a focus of renewed interest, with
Spanish expeditions, followed by Northern European ones, reaching the coasts of northern British Columbia and Alaska.