I N T R O D U ,C T I d N. xis 



to arrive at Otaheite time enough to obfervc the tranfit of 

 Venus, put it out of liis power to deviate from his dire(5t 

 track, in fcarch of unknown lands that might lie to the 

 South Eaft of that ifland. By this unavoidable attention to 

 his duty, a very confiderable part of the South Pacific, and 

 that part where the richeft mine of difcovery was fuppofed 

 to exift, remained unvifited and unexplored, during that 

 voyage in the Endeavour. To remedy this, and to clear up 

 a point, which, though many of the learned were confident 

 of, upon principles of fpcculative reafoning, and many of 

 the unlearned admitted, upon what they thought to be cre- 

 dible teflimony, was flill held to be very problematical, if 

 not abfolutely groundlefs, by others v/ho were lefs fanguine 

 or more incredulous ; his Majeily, always ready to forward 

 every inquiry that can add to the flock of interefting know- 

 ledge in every branch, ordered another expedition to be un- 

 dertaken. The fignal fervices performed by Captain Cook, 

 during his firfl voyage, of which we have given the out- 

 lines, marked him as the fitteft perfon to finifh an examina- 

 tion which he had already fo IkilfuUy executed in part. Ac- 

 cordingly, he was fenc out in 1772, with two fhips, the Re- 

 folmion and Adventure, upon the moft enlarged plan of 

 difcovery known in the annals of navigation. For he was 

 inilru(5ted not only to circumnavigate the whole globe, but 

 to circumnavigate it in high Southern latitudes, making 

 fuch traverfes, from time to time, into every corner of the. 

 Pacific Ocean not before examined, as might finally and ef- 

 fedlually refolve the much agitated queftion about the exift- 

 ence of a Southern continent, in any part of the Southern 

 hemifphere accefTible by navigation. 



The ample acceflions to geography, by the difcovery of 

 many iflands within the Tropic in the Pacific Ocean, in the 



c 2 courfe 



