THE PRECURSORS OF COOK 375 



Bougainville was trying to get round the immense Cape 

 chain of islets, reefs, and shoals that makes the Eastern 

 tail of New Guinea. At last he succeeded. " The Cape 

 which we had so long wished for " he named " Cape 

 Deliverance," and the Gulf of which it formed the Eastern 

 point " Gulf of the Louisiade." " I think," he justly adds, 

 " we have well acquired the right of naming these parts." 

 Earlier navigators had " all followed the same track ; 

 we opened a new one and paid dear for the honour of 

 the first discovery." 



firnf.&J&m* 



PART OF MAP IN BOUGAINVILLE'S Voyage autour du Monde. (Paris, 1771.) 



Bougainville's aim now was to round the North of New Solomons 

 Britain. A glance at the map shows that it was very 

 likely that he would come to the North-West Islands 

 of the Solomons. We remember that Carteret had seen 

 some islands of the group the year before, and had not 

 recognised them. Bougainville also had no thought 

 that he was even near them. In the map, which he con- 

 structed, on his return, he placed them in the Latitude 

 of the Equator, and in a Longitude slightly to the West 

 of the Navigator Islands (Samoa) ; and he wrote by them 

 the curious words, "Solomon Islands of which the existence 

 and position are doubtful." His doubtful guess of the 



