10 



AUSTRALASIA. 



group discovered by Mendana de Neyra. Its very existence was questioned, and 

 the Spanish sailor's account Avas attributed to fantastic apparitions, clouds on the 

 horizon simulating the outlines of reefs, coastlands, forests, or villages. On the 

 other hand, other groups became decomposed, and the same island was sighted in 

 apparently different jDlaces, thus receiving several names from successive observers. 

 At last the application of astronomical jjrocesses put an end to this bewildering 

 fluctuation iu the oceanic insular regions. 



Cook's Voyages. 



The epoch of methodic exploration iu the South Sea, begun by ^Yallis, may be 

 said to have closed in 1827 with the discovery of the two great Fijian islands by 



Fig. 4. — FiEST Circumnavigation of the Globe from West to East and East to West. 



Scale 1 : 450,000,000. 





n° Meridian oF Greenw.cK 



\S0' 



(J,OOU Miles. 



Dumont d'TJrville. During the intervening sixty years, rendered memorable by 

 the voyages of Carteret, de Bougainville, Cook, Vancouver, and Laperouse, the 

 geographical work of oceanic research was completed in all its main features. 

 Thenceforth nothing remained and nothing still remains to be done, except to fix 

 more accurately the position of the island groups, to trace their outlines more 

 carefully, indicate all the reefs, survey the doubtful landmarks, and efface those 

 that had been erroneously inserted on the official charts. 



Amongst the explorers of the last century, the first place belongs unquestion- 

 ably to Cook. The year 1769, when the illustrious navigator began his net- 

 work of researches in the Pacific, may be said to rank next to 1521, date of 

 Magellan's voyage, as the chief turning-point in the histoiy of oceanic discovery. 

 Landing at Tahiti, Cook began his gigantic labours with his memorable observa- 



