8 INDEX TO THE PACIFIC ISLANDS. 



the principal languages of Europe were the most popular reading of the period, and to 

 this day the}' are a mine of information concerning the people then dwelling in the 

 islands of the great Pacific Ocean. The transit of Venus excited the greatest interest 

 among the astronomers of that day and the Royal Society prevailed upon the Govern- 

 ment to send an expedition to the "South Sea" to make suitable observations. Tahiti 

 was selected as the most desirable place, and a young lieutenant, James Cook, who had 

 distinguished himself at Quebec and in the service generally, was put in command of 

 the Endeavor and sailed for the little known island. After exploring the group, which 

 he named "Society Islands" in honor of the Royal Society, he surveyed New Zealand 

 and the east coast of Australia with an accuracy which left little for his successors, 

 then sailed for home through Torres Strait. Brief must be the account in this place 

 of Cook's voyages, but it may be stated that on the second, when the main object was 

 to explore the antarctic region, he sailed in the Resolution (460 tons) and discovered 

 New Caledonia and several islands of the New Hebrides. This time he sailed as Cap- 

 tain, and on his return he was appointed Captain of Greenwich hospital with the rank of 

 post-captain. This honorable sinecure he left to command the Resolution and Dis- 

 covery on a voyage to discover the "Northwest Passage". Wintering in the Friendly 

 Islands, lie discovered the Hervey Group, often called Cook's Islands, and on his way 

 north found the Sandwich Islands, which his countrymen have hardly yet learned to 

 call Hawaiian. It was on his return from an unsuccessful search for the passage be- 

 tween the Pacific and Atlantic that he died at the hands of the Hawaiians at Keala- 

 kekua Bay. 



Cook's example stimulated the French to renewed efforts, and the accomplished 

 Jean Francois Galaup de la Perouse was sent in 1785 to search for the delusive passage. 

 He was in command of the Boussole and, with his assistant De Langle on the Astrolabe, 

 sailed to the coast of Alaska. The same icy wall blocked their way that had turned Cook 

 back, but on the north-east coast of Asia they made some discoveries. In December, 

 17SS, De Langle, Lamonon the naturalist, and ten of the crew of the Astrolabe were 

 massacred on Tutuila of the Samoan Group (named Navigator Islands by Bougain- 

 ville), but the rest of the expedition reached Botany Bay in January, 1788, and was 

 not heard from after leaving that port. 



In 1 79 1 D'Entrecasteaux was sent in search of La Perouse. He surveyed the 

 Louisiade Archipelago and made some interesting discoveries in that region but died 

 on board Jul v 20, 1793, still ignorant of the fate of his countrymen. Only in 1828 

 Peter Dillon found the remains of the wrecked vessels on the island of Vanikoro in 

 the New Hebrides. 



Lieutenant Bligh, in the Bounty, was at Tahiti in 1788, and six months after 

 the famous mutiny broke out and the commander was set adrift in an open boat. In 



this he made his adventurous vovage to Timor discovering the Banks Islands on the 



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