In 1769, the English explorer Captain James Cook dropped anchor in the Bay of Islands and set the wheels in motion for its settlement by the English. It was Cook who named the place Bay of Islands and it was here that English settlers first set up home in the Land of the Long White Cloud. The birth of New Zealand nationhood is traced back to 1840 Waitangi when Maori tribal leaders and the English colonisers forged a treaty which despite some flaws remains a watershed document for uniting New Zealand's various peoples into one common nation. After the Treaty, the British established Russell as the nation's capital, which later moved south to Auckland, then farther south to Wellington.
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