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 the French 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 round the 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.