XVI INTRODUCTION. 



a part of a Southern continent, running North and South, 

 horn the 33° to the 64* of South latitude, and its Northern 

 coafl, firetching crofs the South Pacific to an immenfe 

 diftance, where its Eaftern boundary had been feen by 

 Juan Fernandez, half a century before. .Captain Cook's 

 voyage in the Endeavour, has totally deftroyed this fiippofi- 

 tion. Though Tafman mud ftill have the credit of having 

 firft feen New Zealand; to Captain Cook folely belongs tliat 

 of having really explored it. He fpent near fix months 

 upon its coafis in 1769 and 1770*, circumnavigated it com- 

 pletely, and afcertained its extent and divifion into two 

 iflandsf. Repeated vifits fince that, have perfecfled this im- 

 portant difcovery, which, though now known to be no part 

 of a Southern continent, will, probably, in all future charts 

 of the world, be diftinguiflied as the largefl iflands that 

 exift in that part of the Southern hemifphere. 



5. Whether New Holland did or did not join to New 

 Quinea, was a queftion involved in much doubt and uncer- 

 tainty, before Captain Cook's failing between them, through 

 Endeavour Strait, decided it. We will not hefitate to call 

 this an important acquifition to geography. For though 

 the great fagacity and extenfive reading of Mr. Dalrymple, 

 had difcovered fome traces of fuch a pafi^age having been 

 found before:]:, yet thefe traces were fo obfcure, and fo little 

 known in the prefent age, that they had not generally re- 

 gulated the conftrucflion of our charts j the Prefident De 



* From October 6, 1769, to March 31, 1770. 



t Its Southern extremity nearly in latitude 47% and its Northern in 35°!. See 

 Captain Cook's chart, in Hawkefworth, Vol. ii. p. 281. 



t See the track of Torre, in one of Qiiiros's fhips, in 1606, between New Hol- 

 land and New Guinea, «pon Mr. Dalrymple's Chart of Difcoveries in the South 

 Pacific Ocean, before 1764. 



BrofTes, 



