BEFORE THE GREAT VOYAGE 33 



by their discoveries of the Society Islands, the 

 Queen Charlotte group, and of several lesser 

 archipelagoes. 



In 1766 the intrepid Bougainville, vs^ho had 

 been Montcalm's lieutenant in Canada, left 

 France in the frigate La Boudeuse, and, having 

 remained for some time on the coast of Brazil 

 and in the Falkland Islands, entered the Pacific 

 through the Straits of Magellan in January 

 1768. 



In the course of his voyage, which proved 

 fertile in discoveries, Bougainville passed 

 through the New Hebrides, then to the north- 

 ward of New Ireland. He called at Batavia 

 and arrived in France in March 1769. As the 

 Dutch had put a spoke in the Spanish wheel, so 

 French and English were about to put a stop to 

 Dutch expansion in the Pacific. 



On February 15th, 1768, the Royal Society of 

 London presented a memorial to His Britannic 

 Majesty, King George III. It was set forth in 

 this memorial that the transit of Venus across 

 the sun's disc, which was to take place in 1769, 

 could advantageously be observed in the South- 

 ern Seas, either in the Marquesas, or on one of 

 the islands which Tasman had named Amster- 

 dam, Rotterdam, and Middelburg. His Maj- 

 esty was petitioned to "equip, at the nation's 

 expense, a vessel to carry the astronomers who 



