XIV 



INTRODUCTION. 



of near fourfcore degrees of longitude, feparated at various 

 diftances, or grouped in numerous cluflers, have, at their 

 approach, as it were, flarted into exiftence j and fuch ample 

 accounts have been brought home concerning them and 

 their inhabitants, as may ferve every ufeful purpofe of in- 

 quiry; and, to ufe Captain Cook's words, who bore fo con- 

 siderable a fhare in thofe difcoveries, have left little more to he 

 done in that part *. 



3. Byron, Wallis, and Carteret, had each of them contri- 

 buted toward increafmg our knowledge of the iflands that 

 exift in the Pacific Ocean, within the limits of the Southern 

 tropic ; but how far that ocean reached to the Weft, what 

 lands bounded it on that fide, and the conne(5lion of thofe 

 lands with the difcoveries of former navigators, was ftill 

 the reproach of geographers, and remained abfolutely un- 

 known, till Captain Cook, during his firft voyage in 1770!, 

 brought back the moft Satisfactory decifion of this import- 

 ant queftion. With a wonderful perfeverance, and confum- 

 mate fkill, amidft an uncommon combination of perplexi- 

 ties and dangers, he traced this coaft near two thoufand 

 miles from the 38° of South latitude, crofs the tropic, to its 

 Northern extremity, within lo"! of the equinodlial, where 

 it was found to join the lands already explored by the 

 Dutch, in Several voyages from their Afiatic Settlements, and 

 to which they have given the name of New Holland. 

 Thofe difcoveries made in the laft century, before Tafman's 

 voyage, had traced the North and the Weft coafts of this 

 land; and Captain Cook, by his extenfive operations on its 

 Eaft fide, left little to be done toward completing the full 

 circuit of it. Between Cape Hicks, in latitude 38°, where 

 his examination of this coaft began ; and that part of Van 



• Cook's Voyage, Vol. ii. p. 239. f See Hawkefworth's Collcdion, Vol. iii 



4 ' Diemen's 



