TY - BOOK ID - 143792269 TI - Misadventures in Nature's Paradise : Australia's Cocos (Keeling) Islands and Christmas Island During the Dutch Era. AU - Viduka, Andrew. AU - de Hoop, Robert. AU - Henderson, Graeme. PY - 2022 SN - 1760802565 PB - Perth : UWA Publishing, DB - UniCat KW - Cocos (Keeling) Islands KW - Cocos (Keeling) Islands KW - Christmas Island (Indian Ocean) KW - Christmas Island (Indian Ocean) UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:143792269 AB - Seafarers from Africa, the Middle East and Asia developed trade routes across the northern Indian Ocean. The first Europeans venturing eastward relied on local pilots, some of whom had travelled southward, collecting natural products from uninhabited islands. These pilots told of terrible dangers, including strong ocean currents, and giant birds of prey. Their stories frightened European sailors wrestling with unfamiliar environments and cultures. The Dutch developed shorter trade routes between South Africa and the Indonesian Spice Islands, taking European vessels close to the Christmas and Cocos islands. They produced charts, making voyaging in the southern Indian Ocean safer, but this could not prevent the odd shipwreck disaster. ER -