Carteret.
1766.
Bougainville.
They proceeded together, till they came to the weft end
of the Straits o f Magalhaens, and the Great South Sea in
fight, where they were feparated.
Captain Wallis directed his courfe more wefterly than
any navigator had done before him in fo high a latitude ;
but met with no land till he got within the tropic, where he
difcovered the Iflands Whitfunday ;— Queen Charlotte ;—
Egmont ;— Duke o f Gloucefter ;— Duke ofCumberland ;—
Maitea;— Otaheite ;— Eimeo; — Tapamanou;— How ;■—
Scilly;— Bofcawen ;— Keppel;— and Wallis, and returned
to England in May 1768.
His companion Captain Carteret kept a different route;
in which he difcovered the Iflands Ofnaburg;— Gloucefter;
—■ -Queen Charlotte’s Ifles;— Carteret’s Gower’s;— and
the Strait between New Britain and New Ireland; and returned
to England in March 1 769.
In November 1766, Commodore Bougainville failed
from France, in the frigate La Boudeufe, with the ft ore-
fhip L ’Etoile. After fpending fome time on the coaft of
Brazil, and at Falkland Iflands, he got into the Pacific
Sea, by the Straits of Magalhaens, in January 1768.
In this ocean he difcovered the Four Facardines;— -the Ifle
of Landers;— and Harpe I Aland, which I take to be the
fame that I afterwards named Lagoon;— ThrumCap,-—and
Bow Ifland. About twenty leagues farther to the Weft
he
G E N E R A L I N T R O D U C T I O N . XIX
he difcovered four other iflands;— afterwards fell in with
Maitea;— Otaheite;— Ifles o f Navigators;— and Forlorn
Hope; which to him were new difcoveries. He then
pafled through between the Hebrides;— difcovered the Shoal
of Diana; and fome others;— the land o f Cape Deliverance;
— feveral iflands more to the North;— paffed to the North
o f New Ireland; touched at Batavia; and arrived in France
in March j 769.
This year was rendered remarkable by the tranfit o f the
planet Venus over the fun’s difc; a phenomenon o f great
importance to aftronomy ; and which every where engaged
the attention of the learned in that fcience.
In the beginning o f the year 1768, the Royal Society
prefented a memorial to his Majefty, fetting forth the advantages
to be derived from accurate obfervations o f this
tranfit in different parts of the world; particularly from a
fet of fuch obfervations made in a fouthern latitude, between
the 14.0th and 180th degrees of longitude, weft
from the Royal Obfervatory at Greenwich; and that
veffels, properly equipped, would be neceflary ito convey the
obfervers to their deftined ftations; but, that the Society
were in no condition to defray the expence of fuch an
undertaking.
In confequence of this memorial, the Admiralty were
directed by his Majefty to provide proper veffels for this
b 2 purpofe.