CHAPTER XXI 



The rivalry 

 of France 

 and Britain 

 in Atlantic 

 and Pacific. 



The 



chivalry of 

 Bougainville 



THE PRECURSORS OF COOK 



AUTHORITIES : 



BOUGAINVILLE'S Voyage autour du Monde. 

 HAWKESWORTH'S Voyages. 



IN the Seven Years' War (1756-1763) Great Britain and 

 France fought their long fight in America to an end. But 

 the spirit of fight in them was stronger than ever, and 

 it seemed possible that the new battlefield would be Austra- 

 lasia. Neither country greatly desired supremacy in the 

 Pacific, but neither country was willing that the other 

 should attain it. There are curious personal links connect- 

 ing the fight that had ended in Canada and the fight 

 that seemed likely to begin in the Pacific. Bougainville, 

 who nearly discovered Eastern Australia in 1768, had been 

 the favoured and brilliant Aide-de-Camp of Montcalm. 1 

 Cook, who actually discovered it in 1770, had sounded 

 the St. Lawrence while Bougainville fought on its banks. 

 The war ended in 1763. In the same year the French 

 government determined to form that settlement on the 

 Falkland Islands which, according both to French and 

 English geographers, would give supremacy in the South 

 Sea. The chivalrous Bougainville, representative of quali- 

 ties that have made French soldiers loved even while 

 feared, offered to found the settlement at his own expense. 

 " He has talent," Montcalm had written to his wife, " a 

 warm head and a warm heart. He will ripen in time." 

 Bougainville had ripened. He had fought the Canadian 

 fight to an end ; a bitter end made sweet by brave sacrifice. 



1 See Parkman's Wolfe and Montcalm. 

 366 



