THE PRECURSORS OF COOK 369 



saw her again. Wallis's chief discovery was Tahiti, which Tahiti, 

 he named " King George the Third's Island." Then, 

 like Byron, he took the well-worn route to the Ladrones 

 and Java, and came home in 1768. It was a quick voyage, 

 only six hundred and thirty-seven days, but unsatisfying 

 to curiosity. 



Meanwhile Carteret, in his rotten little ship, was making carteret's 



a brave voyage. He came to Pitcairn Island, touched voyage 



1766 1760 

 the Southern groups of the Society Islands, and sailing 



thence on a course Southward of that taken by Byron 

 and Wallis, he rediscovered Santa Cruz and the Solomon 

 Islands. Two hundred years had passed since Mendana 

 had left these islands. No other European, so far as we 

 know, had visited them ; no one knew where they were, 

 and some doubted their existence. Tasman thought 

 he was among them when, in reality, he was among the 

 Fijis. Carteret rediscovered them, but did not recognise Solomons 

 them. Thence, compelled by extreme distress to abandon u p re cog- 

 his desire to make discoveries in the unknown South, 

 he sailed for New Britain, discovered the strait between 

 that island and New Ireland, sailed through it, and dis- 

 covered the Admiralty Islands. Bougainville overtook 

 him as he neared home. " His ship," wrote the Frenchman, 

 " was very small, went very ill, and when we took leave 

 of him, he remained as it were at anchor. How much 

 he must have suffered, in so bad a vessel, may well be 

 conceived." Carteret came home in March 1769, nearly 

 a year after Wallis's return. 



If Englishmen sailed the Pacific, Frenchmen must do Bougain- 



the same, and must do it better. In November 1766 vllle>s 



voyage, 

 three months after Wallis and Carteret had sailed 1766-1769. 



Bougainville also sailed with two ships, the Boudeuse 

 and the Etoile. His orders were " to proceed to the East 

 Indies by crossing the South Seas between the Tropics." 

 On his way he was to give the Falklands to France's ally 

 Spain, who claimed them as belonging to South America. 

 This business delayed him ; it was not till December 

 1767 that he entered the straits, a year behind the English- 

 men, whose initials and names he found cut on Patagonian 



W.A. , 2 A 



