458 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 



the forgotten discoveries of early voyages, connect things 

 new and old, and get material for a full and exact map 

 of the Pacific. 



The rivalry And there was another motive in mind, about which 

 and Britain. ^ ess was sa ^> but which was perhaps even more compelling 

 than the " curiosity " of the Royal Society. French 

 men of science were as curious about the Pacific as British 

 men of science. Bougainville had successors. Surville 

 rediscovered New Zealand two months after Cook, and 

 French and British navigators were on the New Zealand 

 coast at the same time, though neither, it seems, was 

 aware of the other's voyage. 1 Bougainville, after enter- 

 taining Aotanrou at Paris for eleven months, put him on 

 board a ship for the Isle of France, with instructions 

 that he was to be sent to Tahiti in a ship towards the 

 equipment of which the chivalrous Frenchman had con- 

 tributed one third of his whole fortune. The ship was 

 to take tools, seed, and cattle ; and the plan evidently 

 was to form a French settlement in the beautiful island 

 an island discovered and annexed by Wallis ! The 

 French would probably take Tasman's route, make for 

 New Zealand, and annex also those islands. Meanwhile 

 in 1771 the French Captain Marion had sailed to the 

 Pacific to search for the Southern Continent, still identified 

 with the land of Gonneville. -And, in the same year, another 

 French Captain, Kerguelen, also sailed on the same quest. 

 The British Government had no hot desire to annex 

 the Pacific, but was determined that the French should 

 not do so. 2 



1 The subject has been studied in the most complete and exact way 

 by M'Nab, who comes to the conclusion that " during the next few 

 days Cook and De Surville were within a few miles of one another, 

 but neither was aware of the other's presence " (M'Nab's From Tasman 

 to Marsden, pp. 46, 47. Cf. Forster, vol. i. p. 235, Historical Records 

 of New Zealand, vol. ii. p. 266, and Kitson, p. 155). 



2 The Spaniards also regarded the British intrusion in the Pacific 

 Ocean their Ocean ! with bitter jealousy. Their feelings are illu- 

 strated in a very curious way in documents which have been edited 

 for the Hakluyt Society by Mr. C. Corney in The Voyage of Captain 

 Felipe Gonzalez, and The Quest and Occupation of Tahiti by Missionaries 

 of Spain, during the years 7772-7776. The Spaniards were thrown into 

 panic by the news of Byron's voyage. They suspected that the British 



