Chasing a Dream: The exploration of the imaginary Pacific

By John Dunmore

Early Europeans may have believed the world was flat, but by the Middle Ages there was widespread acceptance that it was, in fact, a globe. What remained a mystery, however, was what lay on the "other side". The belief in a vast southern continent went back centuries, and many expeditions set out to find it, sometimes in search of wealth, sometimes to convert its inhabitants to Christianity. This is the story of the voyages into this great unknown, by the Chinese and early Americans, the Dutch, Spanish, French and English, it recounts the exploits of pirates and scientists, and what lead to the debunking of many myths, from the sunken Great Southern Continent, to the idea that in the "antipodes", people walked upside down.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Upstart
• Release date: Jun 9, 2016
• ISBN: 9781927262849

John Dunmore

John Dunmore, CNZM, DLitt, Fellow of the Royal Society of NZ, and holder of two of France’s most prestigious awards, the Chevalier de la Legion d’honneur and the Ordre des Palmes Académiques, has written over 30 books in his stellar career as a Pacific historian. Now in his nineties, this is his second book for Upstart Press. Chasing a Dream: the search for the imaginary Pacific (Upstart, 2016) is John Dunmore’s highly readable account of mankind’s obsession with what lay on the “other side” of the world, and how a few brave souls from different nations doggedly pursued the dream of finding fame and wealth through the discovery of the Great Southern Continent.