TAKING POSSESSION FOR THE KING. 455 



invitation being politely declined, accompanied them with cere- 

 mony to the shore. 



Bougainville, with three of his officers, spent some hours in 

 taking soundings near Cape Froward. Perceiving a small flat 

 rock, which barely afforded them standing-room, they mounted 



BOUGAINVILLE IN MAGELLAN'S STRAIT. 



upon it, hoisted their colors, and shouted Vive le Roi ! The 

 coast now resounded for the first time, says Bougainville, with 

 this compliment to his majesty. Upon which an English com- 

 mentator remarks "that it is a striking instance of the vanity 

 by which the French nation is distinguished." The vessels, 

 being retarded by constant head-winds and harassed by violent 

 storms, occupied fifty-two days in threading the channel, and 

 the month of January, 1768, was well advanced before they 

 discovered the boundless expanse of the Pacific. 



Sailing to the northwest, they passed several low, half-drowned 

 islands, one of which Bougainville called Harp Island. A 

 cluster of reefs he called the Dangerous Archipelago. Sore 



