INTRODUCTION. xvii 
fatisfy himfelf about them; and Monf. de Bougainville, in 
1768, who had ventured to fall in with the South coalf of 
New Guinea, near ninety leagues to the Welfward of its 
South Eaft point, chofe rather to work thofe ninety leagues 
directly to windward, at a time when his people were in 
fuch diftrefs for provifions as to eat the feal-fkins from off 
the yards and rigging, than to run the rifk of finding a paf- 
fage, of the exiftence of which he entertained the ftrongeffc 
doubts, by perfevering in his Wefterly courfe *. Captain 
Cook therefore in this part of his voyage (though he mo~ 
deftly difclaims all merit t), has eftablifhed, beyond future 
controverfy, a fa6t of effential fervice to navigation, by 
opening if not a new, at leaft an unfrequented and for¬ 
gotten communication between the South Pacific and In¬ 
dian Oceans. 
6. One more difcovery, for which we are indebted to 
Captain Carteret, as fimilar in fome degree to that laft 
mentioned, may properly fucceed it, in this enumeration. 
Dampier, in failing round what was fuppofed to be part of 
the coaft of New Guinea, difcovered it to belong to a fepa- 
rate ifland, to which he gave the name of New Britain. 
But that the land which he named New Britain, fliould be 
fub-divided again into two feparate large iflands, with many 
fmaller intervening, is a point of geographical information, 
which, if ever traced by any of the earliefl navigators of 
the South Pacific, had not been handed down to the prefent 
age: and its having been afcertained by Captain Carteret, 
* “ Le trifle etat ou nous etions reduits, ne nous permettoit de chercher en faifant 
« route a l’oueft, un paflage au fud de la Nouvelle Guinee, qui nous frayat par le Golfe 
tc de la Carpenterie une route nouvelle et courte aux iles Moluques. Rien n’etoit a la 
“ write plus problematique que Vexijlence de ce pajfage.” Voyage autour du Monde, p. 259. 
f Hawkefworth, Vol. iii. p. 660. 
VOL. I. C 
deferves 
