XIV 
INTRODUCTION. 
to ufe Captain Cook’s words, who bore fo confiderable a 
fhare in thole dilcoveries, have left little more to be done in 
that part *. 
3. Byron, Wallis, and Carteret, had each of them con¬ 
tributed toward increaling our knowledge of the illands 
that exift in the Pacific Ocean, within the limits of the 
Southern tropic ; but how far that ocean reached to the 
Weft, what lands bounded it on that fide, and the connec¬ 
tion of thofe lands with the di&overies of former naviga¬ 
tors, was ftill the reproach of geographers, and remained 
abfolutely unknown, till Captain Cook, during his firft 
voyage in 1770 t, brought back the mot fatisfactory deci- 
fion of this important queftion. With a wonderful per- 
feverance, and confummate lldll, amidft an uncommon 
combination of perplexities and dangers, he traced this 
coaft near two thoufand miles, from the 38° of South lati¬ 
tude, crofs the tropic, to its Northern extremity, within 
io° \ of the equinoctial, where it was found to join the lands 
already explored by the Dutch, in feveral voyages from 
their Aftatic fettlements, and to which they have given the 
name of New Holland. Thofe difcoveries made in the laft 
century, before Tafman’s voyage, had traced the North 
and the Weft coafts of this land; and Captain Cook, by 
his extenfive operations on its Eaft fide, left little to be 
done toward completing the full circuit of it. Between 
Cape Hicks, in latitude 38°, where his examination of this 
coaft began, and that part of Van Diemen’s Land, from 
whence Tafman took his departure, was not above fifty- 
five leagues. It was highly probable, therefore, that they 
were connected; though Captain Cook cautioufly fays, that 
he could not determine whether his New South Wales, that is, 
* Cook’s Voyage, Vol. ii. p. 239. f See Hawkefvvorth’s Collection, Vol. iii. 
the 
