improving the knowledge of the longitude, and of the variation of the
compass; and for discovering the unknown lands supposed to lie in the
southern part of the Atlantic Ocean. In this voyage he determined the
longitude of several places; and, after his return, constructed his
variation-chart, and proposed a method of observing the longitude at sea,
by means of the appulses and occultations of the fixed stars. But, though
he so successfully attended to the two first articles of his instructions,
he did not find any unknown southern land.[8]

The Dutch, in 1721, fitted out three ships to make discoveries in the South
Pacific Ocean, under the command of Admiral Roggewein. He left the Texel on
the 21st of August, and arriving in that ocean, by going round Cape Horn,
discovered Easter Island, probably seen before, though not visited, by
Davies;[9] then between 14° 41' and 15° 47' S. latitude, and between the
longitude of 142° and 150° W., fell in with several other islands, which I
take to be some of those seen by the late English navigators. He next
discovered two islands in latitude 15° S., longitude 170° W., which he
called Baumen's Islands; and, lastly, Single Island, in latitude 13° 41'
S., longitude 171° 30' W. These three islands are, undoubtedly, the same
that Bougainville calls the Isles of Navigators.[10]

In 1738, the French East India Company sent Lozier Bouvet with two ships,
the Eagle and Mary, to make discoveries in the South Atlantic Ocean. He
sailed from Port L'Orient on the 19th of July in that year; touched at the
island of St Catherine; and from thence shaped his course towards the
south-east.

On the 1st of January, 1739, he discovered land, or what he judged to be
land, in latitude 54° S., longitude 11° E. It will appear in the course of
the following narrative, that we made several attempts to find this land