li JNTRODrcTION TO THE 



trated into the obscurest recesses of the South Pacific 

 Ocean, will appear from the following enumeration 

 of their various and very extensive operations, which 

 have drawn up the veil that had hitherto been thrown 

 over the geography of so great a proportion of the 

 globe. 



1. The several lands, of which any account had 

 been given, as seen by any of the preceding naviga- 

 tors, Spanish or Dutch, have been carefully looked 

 for; and most of them (at least such as seemed to 

 be of any consequence) found out and visited ; and 

 not visited in a cursory manner, but every means 

 used to correct former mistakes, and to supply former 

 deficiencies, by making accurate inquiries ashore, 

 and taking skilful surveys of their coasts, by sailing 

 round them. Who has not heard, or read, of the 

 boasted Tierra Australia del Espiritu Santo of Quiros? 

 But its bold pretensions to be a part of a southern 

 continent, could not stand Captain Cook's examin- 

 ation, who sailed round it, and assigned it its true 

 position and moderate bounds, in the Archipelago of 

 the New Hebrides.* 



2. Besides perfecting many of the discoveries of 

 their predecessors, our late navigators have enriched 

 geographical knowledge with a long catalogue of 

 their own. The Pacific Ocean, within the South 

 tropic, repeatedly traversed, in every direction, was 

 found to swarm with a seemingly endless profusion 

 of habitable spots of land. Islands, scattered through 

 the amazing space of near fourscore degrees of lon- 

 gitude, separated at various distances, or grouped in 

 numerous clusters, have, at their approach, as it 

 were, started into existence ; and such ample ac- 

 counts have been brought home concerning them 

 and their inhabitants, as may serve every useful pur- 



* Bougainville, in 1768, did no more than discover that the 

 land here was not connected but composed of islands. Caplain 

 Cook, in 1774?, explored the whole group. See vol. iv. p. 88. 



