en there was not one of the
ships in sight. About one o'clock in the afternoon, died our first
lieutenant, Mr Hicks, and in the evening we committed his body to the
sea, with the usual ceremonies. The disease of which he died was a
consumption, and as he was not free from it when we sailed from England,
it may truly be said that he was dying during the whole voyage, though
his decline was very gradual till we came to Batavia: The next day I
gave Mr Charles Clerk an order to act as lieutenant in his room, a young
man who was extremely well qualified for that station.

Our rigging and sails were now become so bad, that something was giving
way every day. We continued our course, however, in safety till the 10th
of June, when land, which proved to be the Lizard, was discovered by
Nicholas Young, the same boy that first saw New Zealand; on the 11th we
run up the Channel, at six in the morning of the 12th we passed Beachy
Head, at noon we were abreast of Dover, and about three came to an
anchor in the Downs, and went ashore at Deal.

APPENDIX.

_An Abstract of the_ VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD, _performed by_ LEWIS DE
BOUGAINVILLE, _Colonel of Foot, and Commander of the Expedition, in the
Frigate_La Boudeuse, _and the Store-ship_ L'Etoile, _in the Years_
1766-7-8 _and_ 9. (_Drawn up expressly for this Work_.)

The restitution of the Falkland Islands to the Spaniards was the first
object of this voyage. So early as February 1764, France had commenced a
settlement on them, and in all probability would have ensured its
prosperity; but the property was claimed by Spain, in virtue of the old
and at best imaginary rights conferred on that power by the Pope to the
lands of the western hemisphere, of which they were held to be a part.
It is sometimes more politic, and perhaps almost always more convenient,
to avoid war, by the display of generosity in concession, than to run
the hazard of expensive contension, and an unprofitable issue, by the
obstinate maintenance of dubious advantages. Such seems to have been the
opinion of the French king, in this instance. He acknowledged the claim
of the Spaniards, and accordingly gave orders for the delivering up of
the settlement. In this determination, it is probable, he was
strengthened by the apprehension of the difficulties of supporting and
defending an establishment, at so great a distance from his dominions.
M. Bougainville, the person who had proposed the settlement, and in a
co