xviii 
INTRODUCTION. 
deferves to be mentioned as a difcovery, in the ftfi&eft ferife 
of the word; a difcovery of the utmoft importance to na¬ 
vigation. St. George’s Channel, through which his fhip 
found a way, between New Britain and New Ireland, from 
the Pacific into the Indian Ocean, to rife the Captain’s own 
words *, “ is a much better and fhorter pafiage, whether 
from the E aft ward or Weft ward, than round all the iflands 
and lands to the Northward t.” 
v 
V. 
The voyages of Byron, Wallis, and Carteret were prin¬ 
cipally confined to a favourite object of difcovery in the 
South Atlantic; and though acceflions to geography were 
procured by them in the South Pacific, they could do but 
little toward giving the world a complete view of the con¬ 
tents of that immenfe expanfe of ocean, through which they 
only held a direct track, on their way homeward by the 
Eaft-Indies. Cook, indeed, who was appointed to the con¬ 
duct of the fucceeding voyage, had a more accurate exa¬ 
mination of the South Pacific intrufted to him. But as the 
improvement of aftronomy went hand in hand, in his 3 n- 
ftrudlions, with that of geography, the Captain’s folicitude 
to arrive at Otaheite time enough to obferve the tranfit of 
Venus, put it out of his power to deviate from his diredf 
track, in fearch of unknown lands that might lie to the 
* Hawkefworth, Vol. i. p. 563. 
f The pofition of the Solomon Iflands, Mendana’s celebrated difcovery, will no longer 
remain a matter in debate amongft geographers, Mr. Dalrymple having, on the mod fa- 
tisfaCtory evidence, proved, that they are the duller of iflands which comprizes what has 
fmce been called New Britain, New Ireland, &c. The great light thrown on that duller 
by Captain Carteret’s difcovery, is a ftrong confirmation of this. See Mr. Dalrymple’s 
Collection of Voyages, Vol. i. p. 16—21. 
3 
A 
South 
