INTRODUCTION.

I think it would be of use to give, at the head of my relation, an account of all the voyages that ever were performed round the world, and of the different discoveries which have hitherto been made in the South Sea or Pacific Ocean.

Ferdinand Magalhaens, a Portuguese, commanding five Spanish ships, left Seville in 1519, discovered the straits which bear his name, and through them he came into the Pacific Ocean, where he first discovered two little desart isles, on the south side of the Line, afterwards the Ladrones, and last of all the Philippines. His ship, called la Victoria, was the only one out of the five that returned to Spain by the Cape of Good Hope: On her return she was carried on shore at Seville, and set up as a monument of this expedition, which was the boldest that had hitherto been undertaken by men. Thus it was for the first time physically demonstrated, that the earth was of a spherical figure, and its circumference ascertained.

Sir Francis Drake, an Englishman, set sail from Plymouth, with five ships, the 15th of September, 1577, and returned thither with only one, the 3d of November,1580. He was the second that sailed round the world. Queen Elizabeth dined on board his ship, called the Pelican, which was afterwards preserved in a dock at Deptford, with a very honourable inscription on the main-mast. The discoveries attributed to Drake are very precarious. The charts of the South Seas contain a coast which is placed below the polar circle, some isles to the north of the Line, and likewise New Albion to the north.

Sir Thomas Cavendish, an Englishman, left Plymouth the 21st of July, 1586, with three ships, and returned with two on 9th of September, 1588. This voyage, which was the third round the world, was productive of no new discoveries.

Oliver Van Noort, a Dutchman, sailed from Rotterdam the 2d of July, 1598, with four ships, passed through the straits of Magalhaens, sailed along the western coasts of America, from whence he went to the Ladrones, the Philippines, the Moluccas, the Cape of Good Hope, and returned to Rotterdam with one ship the 26th of August, 1601. He made no discoveries in the South Seas.

George Spilberg, a Dutchman, sailed from Zeeland the 8th of August, 1614, with six ships; he lost two ships before he came to the straits of Magalhaens, passed through them, attacked several places on the coasts ofPeru and Mexico; from whence, without discovering any thing on his course, he sailed to the Ladrones and Moluccas. Two of his ships re-entered the ports of Holland, on the first of July, 1617.

James Lemaire and William Cornelius Schouten immortalized their names much about the same time. They sailed from the Texel the 14th of June, 1615, with the ships Concord and Horn, discovered the straits that bear the name of Lemaire, and were the first that ever entered the South Seas by doubling Cape Horn. In that ocean they discovered the Isle of Dogs, in 15° 15′ south latitude, and about 142° west longitude from Paris; the Isle without Bottom (Zonder Grond) in 15° south latitude, one hundred leagues westward: Water Island in 14° 46′ south latitude, and fifteen leagues more to the west; at twenty leagues westward of this, Fly Island, in 16° 10′ south latitude; and between 173° and 175° west longitude from Paris, two isles, which they called Cocos and Traitor’s; fifty leagues more westward, the Isle of Hope; next the Isle of Horn, in 14° 56′ south latitude, and about 179° east longitude from Paris; they then coasted New Guinea, passed between its western extremity and the Isle of Gilolo, and arrived at Batavia in October 1616. George Spilberg stopped them there, and they were sent to Europe, on board the East India company’s ships; Lemaire died of a sicknessat the Isle of Mauritius; Schouten returned to his country; the Concord and Horn came back in two years and ten days.

James l’Hermite, a Dutchman, commanding a fleet of eleven ships, sailed in 1623, with the scheme of making the conquest of Peru; he got into the South Seas round Cape Horn, and harrassed the Spanish coasts, from whence he went to the Ladrones, and thence to Batavia, without making any discoveries in the South Seas. He died, after clearing the straits of Sonda; and his ship, almost the only one of the whole fleet, arrived in the Texel the 9th of July, 1626.

In 1683, Cowley, an Englishman, sailed from Virginia, doubled Cape Horn, made several attacks upon the Spanish coasts, came to the Ladrones, and returned to England by the Cape of Good Hope, where he arrived on the 12th of October, 1686. This navigator has made no discoveries in the South Seas; he pretends to have found out the Isle of Pepis in the North Sea[2], in 47° southern latitude, about eighty leagues from the coast of Patagonia; I have sought it three times, and the English twice, without finding it.

Woodes Rogers, an Englishman, left Bristol the 2d of August, 1708, doubled Cape Horn, attacked the Spanish coast up to California, from whence he took the same course which had already been taken several times before him, went to the Ladrones, Moluccas, Batavia, and doubling the Cape of Good Hope, he arrived in the Downs the first of October, 1711.

Ten years after, Roggewein, a Dutchman, left the Texel, with three ships; he came into the South Seas round Cape Horn, fought for Davis’s Land without finding it; discovered to the south of the Tropic of Capricorn, an isle which he called Easter Island, the latitude of which is uncertain; then, between 15° and 16° south latitude, the Pernicious Isles, where he lost one of his ships; afterwards, much about the same latitude, the isles Aurora, Vesper, the Labyrinth composed of six islands, and Recreation Island, where he touched at. He next discovered three isles in 12° south, which he called the Bauman’s Isles; and lastly, in 11° south, the Isles of Tienhoven and Groningen; then sailing along New Guinea and Papua, he came at length to Batavia, where his ships were confiscated. Admiral Roggewein returned to Holland, on board a Dutch India-man, and arrived in the Texel the 11th of July, 1723, six hundred and eighty days after his departure from the same port.

The taste for great navigations seemed entirely extinct, when, in 1741, Admiral Anson made a voyage round the world, the excellent account of which is in every body’s hands, and has made no new improvement in geography.

After this voyage of Lord Anson’s, there was no considerable one undertaken for above twenty years. The spirit of discovery seems to have been but lately revived. Commodore Byron sailed from the Downs the 20th of June, 1764, passed through the straits of Magalhaens; discovered some isles in the South Sea, sailing almost due north-west, arrived at Batavia the 28th of November, 1765, at the Cape the 24th of February, 1766, and in the Downs the 9th of May, having been out upon this voyage six hundred and forty-eight days.

Two months after commodore Byron’s return, captain Wallace sailed from England, with the Dolphin and Swallow sloops; he went through the straits of Magalhaens, and as he entered the South Seas, he was separated from the Swallow, commanded by captain Carteret; he discovered an isle in about 18°, some time in August, 1767: he sailed up to the Line, passed near Papua, arrived at Batavia in January, 1768, touched at the Cape of Good Hope, and returned to England in May the same year.

His companion Carteret, after having suffered many misfortunes in the South Sea, and lost almost all his crew, came to Macassar in March 1768, to Batavia the 15th of September, and to the Cape of Good Hope towards the end of December. It will appear in the sequel, that I overtook him on the 18th of February, 1769, in 11° north latitude. He arrived in England in June.

It appears, that of these thirteen voyages which have been made round the world[3], none belongs to theFrench nation, and that only six of them have been made with the spirit of discovery; viz. those of Magalhaens, Drake, Le Maire, Roggewein, Byron, and Wallace; the other navigators, who had no other view than to enrich themselves by their attacks upon the Spaniards, followed the known tracks, without increasing the knowledge of geography.

In 1714, a Frenchman, called la Barbinais le Gentil, sailed, on board a private merchant ship, in order to carry on an illicit trade, upon the coast of Chili and Peru. From thence he went to China, where, after staying some time in various factories, he embarked in another ship than that which had brought him, and returned to Europe, having indeed gone in person roundthe world, though that cannot be considered as a circumnavigation by the French nation[4].

Let us now speak of those who going out either from Europe, or from the western coasts of South-America, or from the East-Indies, have made discoveries in the South Seas, without sailing round the world.

It appears that one Paulmier de Gonneville, a Frenchman, was the first who discovered any thing that way, in 1503 and 1504. The countries which he visited are not known; he brought however with him a native of one of them, whom the government did not send back, for which reason, Gonneville, thinking himself personally engaged, gave him his heiress in marriage.

Alfonzo de Salazar, a Spaniard, discovered in 1525 the Isle of St. Bartholomew, in 14° north latitude, and 158° east longitude from Paris.

Alvaro de Saavedra, left one of the ports of Mexico in 1526, discovered, between 9° and 10° north, a heap of isles, which he called the King’s Isles, much about the same longitude with the Isle St. Bartholomew; he then went to the Philippines, and to the Moluccas, andon his return to Mexico, he was the first that had any knowledge of New Guinea and Papua. He discovered likewise, in twelve degrees north, about eighty leagues east of the King’s Isles, a chain of low islands, which he called Islas de los Barbudos.

Diego Hurtado and Hernando de Grijalva, who sailed from Mexico in 1533, to search the South Seas, discovered only one isle, situated in 20° 30′ north latitude, and about 100° west longitude from Paris; they called it St. Thomas Island.

Juan Gaëtan sailed from Mexico in 1542, and likewise kept to the north of the æquator. He there discovered, between 20° and 9° in various longitudes, several isles; viz. Rocca Partida, the Coral Isles, the Garden Isles, the Sailor Isles, the Isle of Arezisa, and at last he touched at New Guinea, or rather, according to his report, at the isles that were afterwards called New Britain; but Dampier had not yet discovered the passage which bears his name.

The following voyage is more famous than all the preceding ones.

Alvaro de Mendoça and Mindaña, leaving Peru in 1567, discovered those celebrated isles, which obtained the name of Solomon’s Islands, on account of their riches; but supposing that the accounts we have of the riches of these isles be not fabulous, yet their situationis not known, and they have been sought for since without any success. It appears only, that they are on the south side of the Line, between 8° and 12°. The Isle Isabella, and the land of Guadalcanal, which those voyages mention, are not better known.

In 1595, Alvaro de Mindaña, the companion of Mendoça, in the preceding voyage, sailed again from Peru, with four ships, in search of the Solomon’s Isles: he had with him Fernando de Quiros, who afterwards became celebrated by his own discoveries. Mindaña discovered between 9° and 11° south latitude, about 108° west from Paris, the isles of San Pedro, Magdalena, Dominica St. Christina, all which he calledlas Marquesas de Mendoça, in honour of Donna Isabella de Mendoça, who made the voyage with him: about twenty-four degrees more to the westward, he discovered the Isle of San Bernardo; almost two hundred leagues to the west of that, the Solitary Isle; and lastly, the Isle of Santa Cruz, situated nearly in 140° east longitude from Paris. The fleet sailed from thence to the Ladrones, and lastly to the Philippines, where general Mindaña did not arrive, nor did any one know since what became of him.

Fernando de Quiros, the companion of the unhappy Mindaña, brought Donna Isabella back to Peru. He sailed from thence again with two ships, on the 21st of December, 1605, and steered his course almost west-south-west.He discovered at first a little isle, in about 25° south latitude, and about 124° west longitude from Paris; then, between 18° and 19° south, seven or eight low, and almost inundated islands, which bear his name, and in 13° south lat. about 157° west from Paris, the isle which he called Isle of Beautiful People. Afterwards he sought in vain for the Isle of Santa Cruz, which he had seen on his first voyage, but discovered, in 13° south lat. and near 176° east longitude from Paris, the Isle of Taumaco; likewise, about a hundred leagues west of that isle, in 15° south lat. a great continent, which he calledTierra austral del Espiritù Santoand which has been differently placed by the several geographers. There he ceased to go westward, and sailed towards Mexico, where he arrived at the end of the year 1606, having again unsuccessfully sought the Isle of Santa Cruz.

Abel Tasman sailed from Batavia the 14th of August, 1642, discovered land in 42° south latitude, and about 155° east longitude from Paris, which he called Van Diemen’s land: he sailed from thence to the eastward, and in about 160° of our east longitude, he discovered New Zeeland, in 42° 10′ south. He coasted it till to 34° south lat. from whence he sailed N. E. and discovered, in 22° 35′ south lat. and nearly 174° east of Paris, the Isles of Pylstaart, Amsterdam, and Rotterdam.He did not extend his researches any farther, and returned to Batavia, sailing between New Guinea and Gilolo.

The general name of New Holland has been given to a great extent of continent, or chain of islands, reaching from 6° to 34° south lat. between 105° and 140° east longitude from Paris. It was reasonable to give it the name of New Holland, because the different parts of it have chiefly been discovered by Dutch navigators. The first land which was found in these parts, was called the Land of Eendraght, from the person[5]that discovered it in 1616, in 24° and 25° south latitude. In 1618, another part of this coast, situated nearly in 15° south, was discovered by Zeachen, who gave it the name of Arnhem and Diemen; though this is not the same with that which Tasman called Diemen’s land afterwards. In 1619, Jan van Edels gave his name to a southern part of New Holland. Another part, situated between 30° and 33°, received the name of Leuwen. Peter van Nuitz communicated his name in 1627 to a coast which makes as it were a continuation of Leuwen’s land to the westward. William de Witts called a part of the western coast, near the tropic of Capricorn, after his own name, though it should have born that of captain Viane, a Dutchman, who paid dear for thediscovery of this coast in 1628, by the loss of his ship, and of all his riches.

In the same year 1628, Peter Carpenter, a Dutchman, discovered the great Gulph of Carpentaria, between 10° and 20° south latitude, and the Dutch have often since sent ships to reconnoitre that coast.

Dampier, an Englishman, setting out from the great Timor Isle, made his first voyage in 1687, along the coasts of New Holland; and touched between the land of Arnhem and of Diemen: this short expedition was productive of no discovery. In 1699 he left England, with an express intention of visiting all that region, concerning which, the Dutch would not publish the accounts they had of it. He sailed along the western coast of it, from 28° to 15°. He saw the land of Eendraght, and of De Witt, and conjectured that there might exist a passage to the south of Carpentaria. He then returned to Timor, from whence he went out again, examined the Isles of Papua, coasted New Guinea, discovered the passage that bears his name, called a great isle which forms this passage or strait on the east side, New Britain, and sailed back to Timor along New Guinea. This is the same Dampier who between 1683 and 1691, partly as a free-booter or privateer, and partly as a trader, sailed round the world, by changing his ships.

This is the short abstract of the several voyages round the world, and of the various discoveries made in that vast Pacific Ocean before our departure from France[6]. Before I begin the narrative of the expedition, with which I was charged, I must beg leave to mention, that this relation ought not to be looked upon as a work of amusement; it has chiefly been written for seamen. Besides, this long navigation round the globe does not offer such striking and interesting scenes to the polite world, as a voyage made in time of war. Happy, if by being used to composition, I could have learnt to counterbalance, the dulness of the subject by elegance of stile! But, though I was acquainted with the sciences from my very youth, when the lessons which M. d’Alembert was so kind to give me, enabled me to offer to the indulgent public, a work upon geometry, yet I am now far from the sanctuary of science and learning; the rambling and savage life I have led for these twelve years past, have had too great an effect upon my ideas and my stile. One does not become a good writer in the woods of Canada, or on the seas, and I have losta brother, whose productions were admired by the public, and who might have assisted me in that respect.

Lastly, I neither quote nor contradict any body, and much less do I pretend to establish or to overthrow any hypothesis; and supposing that the great differences which I have remarked in the various countries where I have touched at, had not been able to prevent my embracing that spirit of system-making, so peculiar in our present age, and however so incompatible with true philosophy, how could I have expected that my whim, whatever appearance of probability I could give it, should meet with success in the world? I am a voyager and a seaman; that is, a liar and a stupid fellow, in the eyes of that class of indolent haughty writers, who in their closets reason ininfinitumon the world and its inhabitants, and with an air of superiority, confine nature within the limits of their own invention. This way of proceeding appears very singular and inconceivable, on the part of persons who have observed nothing themselves, and only write and reason upon the observations which they have borrowed from those same travellers in whom they deny the faculty of seeing and thinking.

I shall conclude this preliminary discourse by doing justice to the zeal, courage, and unwearied patience ofthe officers and crew of my two ships[7]. It has not been necessary to animate them by any extraordinary incitement, such as the English thought it necessary to grant to the crew of commodore Byron. Their constancy has stood the test of the most critical situations, and their good will has not one moment abated. But the French nation is capable of conquering the greatest difficulties, and nothing is impossible to their efforts, as often as she will think herself equal at least to any nation in the world[8].

CHARTshewing the Track roundthe Worldof theBoudeuseandEtoileunder the CommandOFM. de Bougainville1766-1769

AVOYAGEROUND THEWORLD.

VOYAGE

ROUND THE

WORLD.

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