xviii INTRODUCTION. 



fmaller intervening, is a point of geographical information;, 

 which, if ever traced by any of the earhefi; navigators of 

 the South Pacific, had not been handed down to the prefenc 

 age : and its having been afcertained by Captain Carteret, 

 deferves to be mentioned as a difcovery, in the flrifteft fenfe 

 of the word ; a difcovery of the utmoft importance to na- 

 vigation. St. George's Channel, through which his fhip 

 found a way, between New Britain and New heland, from 

 the Pacific into the Indian Ocean, to ufe the Captain^s own 

 •words*, " is a much better and fliorter palTage, whether 

 from the Eaflward or Weflward, than round all the iflands: 

 and lands to the Northward f.'* 



V. 



The voyages of Byron, Wallis, and Carteret were prin- 

 cipally confined to a favourite objedl of difcovery in the 

 South Atlantic, and though acceffions to geography were 

 procured by them in the South Pacific, they could do but 

 little toward giving the world a complete view of the con- 

 tents of that immenfeexpanfe of ocean, through which they 

 only held a diredl track, on their v/ay homeward by the 

 Eaft-Indies. Cook, indeed, who was appointed to the 

 condud of the fucceeding voyage, had a more accurate ex- 

 amination of the South Pacific intruded to him. But as the 

 improvement of aftronomy went hand in hand, in his in- 

 flrudtions, v/ith that of geography, the Captain's folicitude 



* Hawkefworth, Vol. i. p. 563. 



f The pofition of the Solomon Iflands, Mendana'S celebrated djfcovery, will no 

 longer remain a matter in debate amongft geographers, Mr. Dalrymple having, on 

 the moft fatisfadory evidence, proved, that they are the clufter of iflands which com- 

 prizes what has fince been called New Britain, New Ireland^ &c. The great light 

 thrown on that clufter by Captain Carteret's difcovery, is a ftrong confirmation of 

 this. See Mr. Dali'ymple's Colledion of Voyages, Vol, i. p. i6~2i. 



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