Free Celebrated Travels and Travellers / Part 2. The Great Navigators of the Eighteenth Century by Jules Verne Page A

to continue her voyage.
    Upon the 9th of May, 1766, the Dauphin anchored in the Downs, after a voyage round the world which had lasted for twenty-three months.
    This was the most fortunate of all the circumnavigation voyages undertaken by the English. Up to this date, no purely scientific voyage had been attempted. If it was less fruitful of results than had been anticipated, the fault lay not so much with the captain as with the Lords of the Admiralty. They were not sufficiently accurate in their instructions, and had not taken the trouble (as was done in later voyages) of sending special professors of the various branches of science with the expedition.
    Full justice, however, was paid to Byron. The title of Admiral was conferred on him, and an important command in the East Indies was entrusted to him. But we have no interest in the latter part of his life, which ended in 1786, and to that, therefore, we need not allude.

    II.
Wallis and Carteret—Preparations for the Expedition—Difficult navigation of the Strait of Magellan—Separation of the Dauphin and the Swallow —Whitsunday Island—Queen Charlotte's Island—Cumberland, Henry Islands, &c.—Tahiti—Howe, Boscawen, and Keppel Islands—Wallis Island—Batavia—The Cape—The Downs—Discovery of Pitcairn, Osnaburgh, and Gloucester Islands by Carteret—Santa Cruz Archipelago—Solomon Islands—St. George's canal and New Ireland, Portland and Admiralty Islands—Batavia and Macassar—Meeting with Bougainville in the Atlantic.

    The impulse once given, England inaugurated the series of scientific expeditions which were to prove so fruitful of results, and to raise her naval reputation to such a height.
    Admirable indeed is the training acquired in these voyages round the world. In them the crew, the officers, and sailors, are constantly brought face to face with unforeseen difficulties and dangers, which call forth the best qualities of the sailor, the soldier, and the man!
    If France succumbed to the naval superiority of Great Britain during the revolutionary and imperial wars, was it not fully as much owing to this stern training of the British seaman, as to the internal dissensions which deprived France of the services of the greater part of her naval staff?
    Be this as it may, the English Admiralty, shortly after Byron's return, organized a new expedition. Their preparations appear to have been far too hasty. The Dauphin only anchored in the Downs at the beginning of May, and six weeks later, on the 19th of June, Captain Samuel Wallis received the command.
    This officer, after attaining the highest rank in the military marine service, had been entrusted with an important command in Canada, and had assisted in the capture of Louisburgh. We cannot tell what qualities commended him to the Admiralty in preference to his companions in arms, but in any case, the noble lords had no reason to regret their decision. Wallis hastened the needful preparations on board the Dauphin , and on the 21st of August (less than a month after receiving his commission), he joined the sloop Swallow and the Prince Frederick in Plymouth Harbour.
    The latter was in charge of Lieutenant Brine, the former was commanded by Philip Carteret. Both were most distinguished officers who had just returned from a voyage round the world with Commodore Byron, and whose reputation was destined to be increased by their second voyage.
    The Swallow , unfortunately, appears to have been quite unfit for the service demanded of her. Having already been thirty years in service, the sheathing was very much worn, and her keel was not studded with nails, which might have served instead of sheathing to protect her from parasites. Again the provisions and marketable commodities were so unequally divided, that the Swallow received much less than the Dauphin . Carteret begged in vain for a rope yarn, a forge, and various things which his experience told him would be indispensable.
    This rebuff confirmed Carteret