every person entering into the service of his majesty's navy should be held attached to that service, and be entitled to the pay, maintenance, or emoluments belonging to his station, until such time as he should be regularly discharged by an order of the Admiralty or of his superior officer."*

Burney, Chron. Hist. Discov. vol. ii. pp. 127, 128. We have now to take leave of this valuable and important work, and cannot do so without an acknowledgment of the great assistance which it has afforded us.

CHAPTER VI.

Circumnavigations of Byron, Wallis, and Carteret. Voyage of Byron-Its Objects-Vain Search for Pepys' IslandDiscovery of the Islands of Disappointment, King George, Prince of Wales, Danger, and Duke of York-Circumnavigations of Wallis and Carteret Their Separation-Wallis discovers the Islands of Whitsunday, Queen Charlotte, Egmont, Cumberland, and Osnaburg-Arrives at Otaheite-Transactions there-Sails for Tinian-Carteret discovers Pitcairn's Island-Santa Cruz or Queen Charlotte's Islands-The Solomons-St George's Channel and New Ireland-New Hanover-Arrives at Spithead.

ENGLAND had hitherto held only a secondary place in the annals of maritime enterprise. Spain and Portugal, which first occupied the field, had achieved the great discoveries of the American continent, the Pacific Ocean, and the passage to India by the Cape of Good Hope. At the end of the sixteenth century, the empire of the deep passed to Holland. After a short and brilliant career, the spirit of adventure began to languish, and continued nearly 100 years almost entirely dormant, when it again broke forth in Britain with a strength and lustre which have procured for our country, as the liberal promoter of geographical science, an equal, if not superior rank to any nation of ancient or of modern times.

We have now arrived at the reign of George III., -a period which will ever be memorable for the value and extent of its discoveries, effected, as has been

justly remarked, "not with a view to the acquisition of treasure, or the extent of dominion, but the improvement of commerce and the increase and diffusion of knowledge." The love of science, and the geographical learning which the young monarch himself possessed, secured a favourable hearing to every undertaking for exploring new lands; and the design which for this purpose he had formed immediately after his accession, he proceeded to put in execution so soon as the peace of 1763 left his mind free from the cares of war. The views which were entertained in the equipment of his first expedition are briefly expressed in the instructions delivered to the commodore, a document which deserves to be quoted for its elevated sentiments :-" Whereas nothing can redound more to the honour of this nation, as a maritime power, to the dignity of the crown of Great Britain, and to the advancement of the trade and navigation thereof, than to make discoveries of countries hitherto unknown; and whereas there is reason to believe that lands and islands of great extent, hitherto unvisited by any European power, may be found in the Atlantic Ocean, between the Cape of Good Hope and the Magellanic Streight, within the latitudes convenient for navigation, and in climates adapted to the produce of commodities useful in commerce; and whereas his majesty's islands called Pepys' Island and Falkland's Islands, lying within the said tract, notwithstanding their having been first discovered and visited by British navigators, have never yet been so sufficiently surveyed, as that an accurate judgment may be formed of their coasts and product; his majesty, taking the premises into consideration, and conceiving no conjuncture so

proper for an enterprise of this nature as a time of profound peace, which his kingdoms at present happily enjoy, has thought fit that it should now be undertaken." "'*

These instructions were dated the 17th of June 1764, and on the 3d of July the squadron sailed from Plymouth. It consisted of two ships,-the Dolphin of twenty-four guns, manned by 150 men and forty-one officers; and the Tamar, carrying sixteen guns, with a crew of ninety seamen and twenty-six officers. The first of these vessels was sheathed with copper, the better to prepare her for the voyage, and is said to have been the first ship so furnished in the British navy. The command of the expedition was intrusted to the Honourable John Byron, whose sufferings, when a midshipman on board of the Wager, have been already alluded to. From that disastrous enterprise he returned to his native country at the age of twenty-two, and having gone through the various steps of promotion, had now attained the rank of post-captain. The greatest secrecy was preserved as to the precise object in view;

*An Account of the Voyages undertaken by the order of his present Majesty for making Discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere. Drawn up from the Journals of the Commanders, and from the Papers of Joseph Banks, Esq. By John Hawkesworth, LL.D. London, 1773. 3 vols 4to. General Introduction, pp. i, ii. This work is the chief authority for the three voyages narrated in the present chapter. Its publication was fatal to the author's character. The dangerous tendency of his views on religion, the gratuitous lubricity of his descriptions, and his gross and slovenly inaccuracy, at once excited a storm of popular indignation, in which perished all the honour and reputation gained by his previous writings. He was ambitious to make his book "another Anson's Voyage;" but he has imitated that lively and spirited narrative in no respect but in inattention to the strictness of truth. He was engaged to undertake the work by Lord Sandwich, the first lord of the Admiralty, and his services were remunerated by the munificent sum of £6000.

and so far was this carried, that the seamen were engaged to sail for the East Indies. They were not undeceived as to their real destination until the 22d of October, when, after leaving Rio Janeiro, they were called on deck and informed that they were bound on a voyage of discovery, in consequence of which they were all to be allowed double pay. This intelligence was received with the greatest joy imaginable, and their course was shaped towards the coast of Patagonia. They arrived at Port Desire on the 21st of November, and remained there until the 5th of the next month, when, having completed their supplies, they sailed in search of Pepys' Island,-one of the chief objects set forth in their instructions. The land, to which this name was given in honour of the celebrated Secretary Pepys, was supposed to have been discovered, as has been already stated, in 1684, by the Buccaneers under Cook, in the latitude of forty-seven degrees and forty minutes. After cruising in search of it six days, Byron, being now certain that no such land existed in the situation laid down by the editor of Cowley's Journal, determined again to return to the American continent, keeping a look-out for the islands of Sibald de Weert, which, by all the charts he had on board, could not be far from his track. The hopes which seem to have been cherished of finding in these regions a mild climate were now dissipated, and it was agreed by all, that, except in the length of the day, there was no difference between the height of summer here and the depth of winter in England. After a storm, which, the commodore declares, surpassed any he expe

*

* See above, p. 151. + Hawkesworth's Coll. vol. i. p. 25.