ave left little more to be done in that part_.

3. Byron, Wallis, and Carteret had each of them contributed toward
increasing our knowledge of the islands that exist in the Pacific Ocean,
within the limits of the southern tropic; but how far that ocean reached
to the west, what lands bounded it on that side, and the connection of
those lands with the discoveries of former navigators, was still the
reproach of geographers, and remained absolutely unknown, till Captain
Cook, during his first voyage in 1770, brought back the most
satisfactory decision of this important question. With a wonderful
perseverance, and consummate skill, amidst an uncommon combination of
perplexities and dangers, he traced this coast near two thousand miles,
from the 38 deg. of south latitude, cross the tropic, to its northern
extremity, within 10 deg. 1/2 of the equinoctial, where it was found to join
the lands already explored by the Dutch, in several voyages from their
Asiatic settlements, and to which they have given the name of New
Holland. Those discoveries made in the last century, before Tasman's
voyage, had traced the north and the west coasts of this land; and
Captain Cook, by his extensive operations on its east side, left little
to be done toward completing the full circuit of it. Between Cape Hicks,
in latitude 38 deg., where his examination of this coast began, and that
part of Van Diemen's Land, from whence Tasman took his departure, was
not above fifty-five leagues. It was highly probable, therefore, that
they were connected; though Captain Cook cautiously says, that _he could
not determine whether_ his New South Wales, that is, the east coast of
New Holland, _joins to Van Diemen's Land, or no_. But what was thus left
undetermined by the operations of his first voyage, was, in the course
of his second, soon cleared up; Captain Furneaux, in the Adventure,
during his separation from the Resolution (a fortunate separation as it
thus turned out) in 1773, having explored Van Diemen's Land, from its
southern point, along the east coast, far beyond Tasman's station, and
on to the latitude 38 deg., where Captain Cook's examination of it in 1770
had commenced.

It is no longer, therefore, a doubt, that we have now a full knowledge
of the whole circumference of this vast body of land, this fifth part of
the world (if I may so speak), which our late voyages have discovered to
be of so amazing a magnitude, that, to use Captain Cook's words, _