A Voyage Round The World Performed By Order Of His Most Christian Majesty In The Years 1766 1767 1768 And 1769 By Lewis De Bougainville Translated From The French By John Reinhold Forster Fas

Author : comte Louis-Antoine de Bougainville
Publisher : Library of Alexandria
ISBN 13 : 1465542558
Total Pages : 302 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (655 download)

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Download or read book A Voyage Round the World written by comte Louis-Antoine de Bougainville and published by Library of Alexandria. This book was released on with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 of Peru 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 sickness at the Isle of Mauritius; Schouten returned to his country; the Concord and Horn came back in two years and ten days.