Note 3 — INTRODUCTION.
Johann Reinhold Forster translation
Dom Pernetty, in his Dissertation upon America, speaks of a voyage round the world, in 1719, by captain Shelvock; I have no knowledge of this voyage. Note of Mr. de B.
As M. de Bougainville’s list of circumnavigators is very imperfect, we will endeavour to give a more compleat one in few words.
1. Fernando Magalhaens, 1519.
2. Sir Francis Drake sailed from Plymouth the 15th of November, 1577, but was obliged to put back on account of a storm; after which, he set sail again the 13th of December, and returned the 16th of September, 1580.
3. Sir Thomas Cavendish, 1586-88.
4. Simon de Cordes, a Dutchman, sailed in 1598-1600.
5. Oliver Van Noort sailed the 13th of September, 1598, and returned the 22nd of August, 1601.
6. George Spielbergen, a German in the Dutch service, 1614-1617.
7. William Cornelius Schouten with Jacob Le Maire, 1615-1617.
8. Jacob l’Hermite with John Hugo Schapenham sailed from Goeree, in the province of Holland, the 29th of April, 1623, and arrived in the Texel the 9th of July, 1626.
9. Henry Brouwer, a Dutchman, in 1643.
10. Cowley, in 1683-1686.
11. William Dampier, an Englishman, sailed in 1689, and returned 1691. He has been omitted by M. de Bougainville in the list of circumnavigators, because he did not go round the world in one and the same ship.
12. Beauchesne Gouin, in 1699.
13. Edward Cooke, an Englishman, made the voyage in the years 1708 and 1711. 14. Woodes Rogers, an Englishman, sailed from Bristol, June 15th, 1708, and returned 1711.
15. Clipperton and Shelvocke, two Englishmen, sailed the 13th of February, 1719, and returned in 1722; the former to Galway in Ireland, in the beginning of June, the latter to London, on the first of August.
16. Roggewein, a Mecklenburger, in the Dutch service, sailed the 16th of July, 1721, and returned the 11th of July, 1723.
17. Lord Anson, 1740-1744.
18. Commodore Byron, 1764-1766.
19. The Dolphin and Swallow sloops. The first 1766-1768. The second 1766-1769.
20. M. de Bougainville, 1766-1769.
21. The Endeavour sloop, captain Cooke, which sailed in August, 1768, to observe the transit of Venus, came to Batavia the latter end of 1770, and returned to England in July 1771.
From this list, it appears that the English have undertaken the greatest number of voyages, with a design to make discoveries, unattended by that selfishness with which most of the Dutch voyages were entered upon, merely with a view to promote the knowledge of geography, to make navigation more safe, and likewise to throw further lights on the study of nature. F.