The charts produced during the Pacific voyages of Bougainville and cook: a comparison.

Two expeditions set off from Europe in the late 1760s to enter the Pacific and explore that ocean. The first was French, led by Louis-Antoine de Bougainville; the second was British, led by James Cook. History has remembered them very differently. This article discusses the Pacific voyages of Louis-Antoine de Bougainville and James Cook and compares the charts produced from these voyages. It concludes that Bougainville left the map of the Pacific much as he had found it. His voyage may be regarded as one of the last made by a gentleman-amateur explorer. Cook, on the other hand, drew the map of the Pacific as we know it today and his voyage was the first made to the Pacific by a professional hydrographer.

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European voyages to the Pacific in the eighteenth century did not always carry good quality charts, nor did all the voyagers make an effort to improve matters by drawing new ones. However, by the second half of the century, this attitude was changing and the need to possess good and accurate charts had been realised. (1) Able cartographers now accompanied or led many of the voyages, and instruments for making accurate surveys and drawing correct charts had been developed.

Against this background, two expeditions set off from Europe in the late 1760s to enter the Pacific and explore that ocean. The first was French, led by Louis-Antoine de Bougainville; the second was British, led by James Cook. History has remembered them very differently. The name and achievements of Cook are known throughout the world, while the name Bougainville is associated with an island and a colourful tropical flower, Bougainvillea. Few people, though, would be able to explain the reasons for those names, least of all in France where Bougainville is almost forgotten. The cartographic output of the two men and their voyages is one of several reasons for their different standing in history.

At the time the expeditions set out, European knowledge of the Pacific was very limited. Scholars such as Charles de Brosses in France and Alexander Dalrymple in Britain produced volumes that brought together all that was known from earlier voyages. Both expeditions carried a copy of de Brosses' work, which included a copy of Giles Robert de Vaugondy's map of the Pacific (Fig. 1). (2)

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

OBJECTIVES AND INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE TWO VOYAGES

The objectives and instructions issued to the two expeditions were quite different and show clearly the different emphasis given to the production of new charts by the two Governments. The British voyage of 1768 had two broad objectives, namely to transport a party to Tahiti in the Pacific Ocean to observe a transit of Venus expected in 1769, and secondly, the officers of the ship would undertake a search for the Great Southern Continent. Before Cook sailed on this, his first voyage, in 1768 his instructions included prominently:

   You are at all opportunities when the
   Service upon which you are employed will
   admit of it, to make such farther Surveys
   and Plans, and take such Views of the
   Island, its Harbours and Bays, as you
   conceive may be useful to Navigation or
   necessary to give us a more Perfect Idea and
   description than we have hitherto received
   of it. (3)

After he had observed the transit of Venus at Tahiti, Cook opened his secret instructions, which included:

   ... and also surveying and making Charts,
   and taking Views of such Bays, Harbours
   and Parts of the Coast as may be useful to
   navigators. (4)

Cook would receive similar instructions on each of his two later voyages. The British Admiralty had realised the need for good charts and had chosen Cook as leader of the Endeavour voyage largely because of his proven ability to carry out surveys and prepare charts. The Admiralty also ensured that skilled and experienced men assisted Cook by appointing Richard Pickersgill and Robert Molyneux to the Endeavour's crew.

The French had different priorities. Bougainville's voyage originated during the aftermath of the Seven Years' War that had finished in 1763, when France, as the losing nation, had ceded territories such as Canada and India to Britain. It now began looking for new territory to colonise and Bougainville, himself, had been involved in a project concerning the Iles Malouines (Falkland Islands) until Spain objected. As a consolation, Bougainville was offered the opportunity of a round-the-world voyage to look for possible sites for French colonies and opportunities for trade. First, though, he would to have to represent France in the handing over of the Malouines to the Spanish.

The French Marine Ministry drew up instructions for Bougainville but omitted to mention surveys and charts. During October 1766, the Ministry reworked the instructions several times and the French historian, Etienne Taillemite, has summed them up as:

   ... the objectives for the voyage were very
   precise:

1. Discover new land and find propitious locations for future colonies to counterbalance those lost in the Seven Years War.

2. Open up a new route to China to test and develop trade with that country to offset the loss of trade with India.

3. Find a new source of spices for the Ile de France (Mauritius). (5)

Taillemite adds:

   ... none of these objectives was attained, but
   Bougainville was not solely responsible for
   this failure. (6)

Despite charts not being mentioned in the instructions, a cartographer, Charles Routier de Romainville was included in the French party but sailed in the expedition's second ship, the Etoile.

THE EXPEDITION LEADERS

James Cook and Louis-Antoine de Bougainville were born a year apart, in 1728 and 1729 respectively, and later led expeditions that circumnavigated the world in the late 1760s. There, however, the similarities end and their backgrounds, their achievements and their places in history have been very different. Cook was born in humble, rural conditions in North Eastern England, received basic schooling and was destined for an ordinary life. (7) In contrast, Bougainville was born into the semi-noble family of a Paris notary, which had close connections to the Court. (8) An uncle was a confidante of Madame de Pompadour. Bougainville was a gifted student, versed in the classics and attended the University of Paris, where he is believed to have studied law. However, he excelled in mathematics and received special tuition from d'Alembert, later one of the editors of the Encyclopedie. At the age of 28, Bougainville wrote a treatise on calculus that led to his being elected a member of the Royal Society in London. A polymath, Bougainville excelled at most things.

Cook, meanwhile, had become a seaman in the coal trade operating between Newcastle and London down the North Sea coast of England. For eight years he applied himself, learning seamanship and navigational skills in ships working in some of the worst sailing conditions possible. Through his ability, Cook impressed his employers so much that he was promoted and was on the point of being offered the captaincy of his own ship when he astounded everyone by enlisting as an able seaman in the Royal Navy in 1755.

Over the next 12 years, Cook added to his skills including, in 1758, learning to survey and draw charts and plans while on Cape Breton Island. From 1759 to 1762, he developed these skills by charting in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and in Halifax Harbour. Cook then accompanied the British when they retook Newfoundland in late 1762 (Fig. 2). For five summers from 1763 to 1767, Cook, who had been given his first command, a small schooner named the Grenville, surveyed the long and intricate coastline of Newfoundland. He returned to Britain each fall to draw up his results. Cook's reputation for diligent and accurate charts gradually led to his becoming known to senior officers at the Admiralty in London.

[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]

Cook even added astronomy to his skills and successfully observed a solar eclipse on the south coast of Newfoundland in 1766. He forwarded a record of the eclipse to the Royal Society in London, thus bringing himself to the attention of that body. When, in early 1768, the Admiralty wanted a commander for its expedition to the Pacific to observe the transit of Venus, Cook was the obvious choice and one acceptable to the Royal Society, cosponsors of the expedition.

In the meantime, Bougainville had not been idle. In 1756, he travelled to Canada as Aide-de-Camp to Montcalm, the leader of the French army in its war with Britain in North America. Bougainville remained in Canada until the French surrendered in 1760 (Bougainville, who was fluent in English, even negotiated on behalf of the French with General Amherst, the British leader). Cook and Bougainville were on opposing sides at the Battle of Quebec in 1759, though there is no evidence that they ever met.

Bougainville was bitter towards the British when he returned to France as a prisoner of war on parole and he began formulating plans for France to regain some of its glory by making new settlements overseas. His brother had introduced him to the ideas of Pierre de Maupertuis and the writings of Charles de Brosses, concerning the possibilities of continents in the South Pacific waiting to be discovered and exploited. Bougainville put forward a plan to colonise California and to use the Iles Malouines as a staging post. He received the backing of the Duc de Choiseul, the French Marine Minister, and, from 1763 until 1766, Bougainville was involved in establishing a settlement in the Malouines. His hopes were shattered when France acceded to Spanish demands and agreed to withdraw from the islands. Bougainville had sailed twice to the South Atlantic. The voyages had introduced him to a naval life and he was quickly becoming a sailor with an appetite for exploration.

Cook's personality and background ensured that he always strove to carry out his instructions and his skills in leadership, seamanship, astronomy and navigation ensured that he was able to do so with a high degree of success. He could not afford to fail, however, for his lack of social standing meant he had nothing to fall back on. His determination, especially on his second voyage, amazed his colleagues and crew and led to his failing health and, ultimately, to his death on the third.

He criss-crossed the Pacific during his three voyages, laying to rest the idea of the Great Southern Continent, and delineated the map of the Pacific as we know it.

   Cook's chart legacy, and the painstaking
   method by which he achieved it, placed
   maritime exploration and surveying on a
   new footing. Cook built up his coastal
   outlines from running surveys but his base
   line was now established by astronomical
   observation. (9)

As much as Cook would have preferred to continue the surveying himself, he realised that he must increasingly delegate the practical work to members of his crews while he carried out the duties of captaining the ships. Fortunately, there were competent men on all three voyages, allowing him to do this. Cook further added to the pool of competent cartographers by instigating a regimen of training for his junior officers and midshipmen in surveying and cartography. To begin with, these young men were employed to copy charts; eventually, as their skills improved, they were given responsibility for preparing original charts. In later voyages, Cook's role changed from hands-on to that of an overseer, safe in the knowledge that his men were more than capable of producing acceptable charts.

   Cook was a seminal figure in British
   hydrography, and the men he trained, such as
   Vancouver and Bligh, shaped a tradition. (10)

Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, on the other hand, was a more traditional commander, typical of the time. He was not a career sailor and had little experience prior to his Pacific voyage. Bougainville led the expedition while his two captains, Duclos-Guyot, on the Boudeuse, and Chesnard de la Giraudais, on the Etoile, were experienced sailors who ran the ships. Bougainville, no doubt, was prepared to include chart-making among the duties of his captains.

Charts do not appear to have been a high priority for Bougainville. Little or no mention is made in his or his officers' journals of people carrying out surveys or drawing charts. Romainville, his cartographer, sailed on Bougainville's second ship, the Etoile, and was thus out of regular contact with the commander. Bougainville rarely showed an inquisitive bent. For example, he sailed past Samoa without attempting to investigate the islands. In a similar position, Cook would have made every effort to land and to delineate the outline of the land sighted.

THE VOYAGES

Bougainville set off on his world voyage in late 1766 but from the beginning fortune was not with him. The precaution of using a second ship, the storeship Etoile, was nullified immediately when that ship was unready to sail and Bougainville set off in November 1766 with just the Boudeuse. The Boudeuse was equipped for a voyage of two years but it took Bougainville over a year just to reach the Pacific. The handing over of the Malouines took longer than anticipated and then linking up with the Etoile forced Bougainville back to Rio de Janeiro. Repairs to the Etoile at Montevideo and Buenos Aires further delayed their progress, as did the need to wait for summer months to negotiate the Strait of Magellan. It was December 1767 when they began a slow passage through the Strait, during which some new inlets were charted.

Finally, on 26 January 1768, Bougainville reached the Pacific. Having already wasted so much time, Bougainville was now under some pressure to make a quick crossing as his whole voyage was supposed to last only two years. He reached Tahiti but was asked by the Tahitians to leave after two weeks. Sailing on, the French passed Samoa, and Wallis and Futuna, without attempting to stop. They arrived next at Vanuatu, previously visited by Quiros, but they stayed for only five days. By now supplies were low and Bougainville felt under a greater imperative to reach the comparative safety of Indonesia than to spend time exploring.

In early June 1768, Bougainville neared the northeast coast of Australia but retreated in the face of outliers of the Great Barrier Reef. He turned north and headed past the Solomon Islands and round the north of New Guinea. In doing so Bougainville passed the island that now carries his name. He made two stops in this region and honoured his two sponsors by naming the anchorages Baye Choiseul (at the western end of the Solomon Island now carrying that name) and Port Praslin (at the southeastern tip of New Ireland). The stops allowed Romainville the opportunity to produce two reasonable small charts of these harbours.

Bougainville brought his ships to safety in Buru, one of the Maluku Islands in Eastern Indonesia, in September 1768. He had put the lives of his crew and the safety of his ships ahead of spending time looking for new lands and producing copious new charts. It could have been a very different story had the expedition not wasted so much time in the Atlantic. In advance of Cook's first voyage by two years when they began, the French carried Philibert Commerson as naturalist, Pierre-Antoine Veron as astronomer and Charles Routier de Romainville as cartographer, so could have claimed their place in history as the first scientific voyage of exploration. As it was, matters were compounded at the Ile de France, where that same naturalist, astronomer and cartographer all disembarked from the expedition.

The Boudeuse departed alone from Ile de France, as the Etoile needed repairs, so Bougainville reached France in March 1769 with only one ship. His reception in France was warm if not enthusiastic. He was received at Court and was the attraction in Paris salons for some time. However, the general population was unaware of the voyage and the thinkers and scientists largely ignored both Bougainville and his voyage. Bougainville set about writing up the narrative of the voyage but it lacked the input of Commerson and Romainville. It was published in 1771, selling sufficiently to go into a second printing and was also translated into several other languages, including an English edition by Johann Reinhold Forster. (11) Forster travelled as naturalist on Cook's second voyage and took the original French edition with them.

James Cook set sail in HM Bark Endeavour, leaving from Plymouth, on the 26 August 1768, on the first of his voyages. The largely unknown Cook, who had been promoted to lieutenant, was soon learning the problems of leadership and diplomacy at Rio de Janeiro, where he encountered a mistrustful Viceroy of Brazil (the same man had been a problem for Bougainville a year earlier). Sailing on, Cook entered the Pacific in January 1769.

Cook reached Tahiti in time to observe the transit of Venus, his first objective. He then set out in search of the Great Southern Continent and went on to visit New Zealand and the east coast of Australia. The outlines and positions of Tahiti and the Society Islands, and New Zealand, had been determined, while Cook had also charted the length of the eastern coast of Australia. The greater period of time Cook had spent in the region had paid off.

Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander, the scientists on board, collected botanical and zoological specimens. Cook brought the ship home to Britain in July 1771 when the voyage was hailed for its achievements. Cook's voyage received the praise that so easily could have been Bougainville's.

   Cook's may without exaggeration be called
   the first scientific voyage of discovery. This
   'good mathematician, very expert in his
   business' drew the modern map of the
   Pacific. (12)

With the success of that first voyage, Cook went on to make a second voyage from 1772 until 1775, during which he carried out what is probably the single most impressive voyage of all time. He circumnavigated the Southern Ocean as close to Antarctica as possible and made two majestic sweeps of the Pacific, being among the first to visit several island groups. He was certainly the first to chart most of them and he was already well on the way to producing the map of the Pacific we know today.

A third voyage followed from 1776 but, sadly, Cook was killed on Hawaii in 1779, after adding many more features to the Pacific map. He had become a tired and sick man through all his travelling and his condition may have contributed to his death. He was also not as inquisitive and determined as he had been on earlier voyages.

   His three expeditions not only revealed the
   geography of the Pacific but also set new
   standards in the survey and hydrography of
   unknown coasts. (13)

However, his reputation was already made. The journals of his voyages were published and became bestsellers. Later they were translated into many languages. Since then his voyages have been described countless times. Copies of many of his charts have appeared extensively and have become well known in their own right.

THE CARTOGRAPHERS

Charles Routier de Romainville was the cartographer for the French expedition and had principal responsibility for producing new charts. However, he sailed aboard the Etoile, rather than with Bougainville on the Boudeuse, and the fact that the two ships were separated from each other during the early part of the voyage, further reduced Romainville's output and effectiveness.

Romainville was born in 1742 and had served in the French army during the Seven Years' War in Europe, where he had been wounded at the battle of Johannisburg in 1762. Promoted to lieutenant in 1764, Romainville came to Bougainville's attention when he joined the second voyage to the Iles Malouines. His army background meant he was more suited to land surveys and had little or no experience of surveying at sea. This rendered him of little use during the crossing of the Pacific, when only short periods were spent ashore. Bougainville made only a few landings and these were often of short duration, which limited Romainville. However, given the opportunity to land and establish proper bases, Romainville produced excellent charts of harbours, as those of Baye Choiseul and Port Praslin testify (Fig. 3).

[FIGURE 3 OMITTED]

Sadly, Bougainville agreed to a request by Dumas, the Governor of the Ile de France (Mauritius), that Romainville stay on to assist in building up the defences of the island. This prevented Romainville from being involved in the preparation of charts for the printed narrative that Bougainville published in 1771. It also contributed to the dispersal of those charts that had already been prepared. In 1778, Romainville was sent to establish a French settlement on Mahe Island in the Seychelles. He remained there for two years on islands named after Moreau de Sechelles, the father of Helene de Sechelles, who had been Bougainville's "adopted" mother. Romainville died in 1818. (14)

On board the French ships were several other people with varying experience and ability to carry out surveys and prepare charts and maps, though not necessarily with formal training. Nicolas Pierre Duclos-Guyot, the captain of the Boudeuse, and his two sons, Pierre and Alexandre, were career sailors from St. Malo. Bougainville had met Nicolas when Duclos-Guyot had commanded the Chezine, the ship that had carried Bougainville back to Canada in 1759 and, together, the two men had later carried out the French campaign to settle the Iles Malouines (Falkland Islands) in 1763. Nicolas's brother, Alexandre, had also been involved in the Malouines expeditions. All of the Duclos-Guyots would have learned how to prepare charts and several survive, including works by Alexandre of the Malouines and of the Strait of Magellan.

The son, Pierre, sailed on the Etoile, where he formed a close working relationship with Philibert Commerson, the naturalist. Their collaboration produced several small charts of harbours in the Strait of Magellan, some of which survive.

Bougainville, himself, showed little or no interest in charts or their production. There is no evidence that he ever drew one and his journals and narrative rarely make mention of them. This is somewhat surprising given his mathematical background, his being taught by the astronomer, Alexis Clairaut, and the fact he had already travelled extensively. He must have been aware of the value of producing and possessing good maps.

Cook, by contrast, was the best marine surveyor and cartographer of his generation.

   But Cook was the most practised surveyor
   on board the Endeavour, and he was not the
   Man to leave so essential a task to officers
   less well equipped than himself. (15)

By the time James Cook was chosen for the British expedition in 1768, the preparation of new charts was his main raison d'etre for going to sea, and time and resources would always be given to their production. Cook had managed to assimilate and combine the techniques of land surveying using triangulation, and existing marine techniques, and take them to a new level. He had learned land surveying originally from Samuel Holland while in Nova Scotia as Master of HMS Pembroke in 1758. He probably also read and learned from Mackenzie's work on surveying. (16) Employed from 1762 to 1767 to survey the south and west coasts of Newfoundland, Cook improved his skills to the point where he became a most proficient surveyor (Fig. 4).

[FIGURE 4 OMITTED]

It is also possible to trace a development over the same period in his ability to draw a chart. Two versions of a chart of Carbonear (the right hand chart is the later one) show a softening of style, and by the time he was selected for the Endeavour voyage his style is much neater and more artistic (Fig. 5).

[FIGURE 5 OMITTED]

Cook often used the technique of a running survey, in which a traverse was made along a coastline, carefully noting the course and distance sailed. As the ship proceeded, sightings were made of features on land from different locations. The use of compass or quadrant cross-bearings enabled the positions of the land features to be plotted. If time allowed, a landing was made and the exact coordinates of one or more features were fixed.

   Hydrographers were at this time rapidly
   absorbing the techniques of land survey,
   which equipped Cook in Newfoundland to
   construct his marine surveys on a network of
   shore triangulation...The thoroughness and
   rapidity of his running surveys in the
   Endeavour and Resolution testify to his skill
   in inshore navigation, learnt from his early
   training in coastal waters. (17)

Time and conditions in the Pacific did not always allow Cook the opportunities to carry out his surveys in the exact manner he had used in Newfoundland, where he had the time to set up base points on land from which to make other measurements. On his Pacific voyages, Cook was rarely able to land to establish a base point. Even so, he turned the running survey into a fine art and his chart of the New Hebrides is a supreme example (Fig. 13).

   The accurate methods of coastal survey, by
   triangulation from shore stations, which he
   had applied in Newfoundland, were not
   possible in the Pacific, where the charts had
   generally to be drawn by a continuous
   running survey from the ship, with compass
   bearings or sextant angles taken on shore
   features, and a good deal of masthead
   sketching. (18)

[FIGURE 13 OMITTED]

Interestingly, the resulting chart of the New Hebrides did not satisfy the perfectionist Cook:

   The word survey is not to be understood
   here in its literal sense; surveying a place,
   according to my idea, is taking a
   Geometrical plan of it, in which every place
   is to have its true situation, which cannot be
   done in a work of this kind. (19)

Cook carried out many of the surveys during his first voyage, but gradually he handed over responsibility to members of his crew. On British ships of the time, the responsibility for sailing the ship rested with the Master, a rank Cook had occupied himself in Newfoundland. Among the Master's duties was the compilation of charts, though not all Masters were equally skilled in this. Cook was fortunate in that the Masters of his ships were all able surveyors, though Cook was, by far, a more competent surveyor and cartographer than any of them. Robert Molyneux (Endeavour), Joseph Gilbert (Resolution 2), Peter Fannin (Adventure), William Bligh (Resolution 3) and Thomas Edgar (Discovery) all contributed charts, though the work of Gilbert and Bligh deserve special mention.

Of the midshipmen, Cook's cousin, Isaac Smith, drew many of the early charts, while Henry Roberts drew up the charts of the third voyage. Several others, including Colnett and Portlock, went on to become captains of their own ships and prepare charts in their own right. The most successful of Cook's disciples was George Vancouver, who led a surveying voyage of the Northwest Coast of America from 1791 to 1795, from which the resulting charts can even be said to surpass those of Cook in their meticulous detail. Cook had trained his men well. Cook realised that the charts were only part of the task. Wherever possible, coastal views were drawn and notes added describing the navigational problems, details of anchorages, fishing potential, and any other relevant facts about the area.

Cook, more than anyone else, entered the Pacific realising the need for good, accurate charts, and he made it his responsibility to chart as much of the Pacific as possible.

   Beginning in 1768, James Cook led three
   expeditions that remain a model of
   reconnaissance mapping. (20)

THE CHARTS PRODUCED BY THE EXPEDITIONS

When the expeditions of Cook and Bougainville entered the Pacific they were both carrying copies of charts prepared by earlier voyagers and drawn by cartographers back in Europe. The reliability, though, of these charts was open to question. They were usually small-scale, very general and often full of supposed but non-existent lands. The exact location of real island groups was vague and one group, the Solomons, visited by Mendana in 1568, had been "lost" for two hundred years. The situation was understandable as instruments to fix latitude and longitude had not been available and few sailors, at the time, were given any training in chart making. Instruments for taking more accurate measurements, such as sextants and marine chronometers, were only just being developed:

   The construction of charts was a neglected
   discipline in the seamen's education during the
   18th century, particularly the British Navy. (21)

while Cook wrote of:

   ... the few [seamen] I have known who are
   capable of drawing a Chart or Sketch of sea
   coast. (22)

A similar situation existed in the French navy. These earlier charts could only act as rough guidelines and were not to be taken literally. The expectations for both expeditions were that they would locate new lands and fix their locations more correctly than had been achieved before.

Not all the charts of the period possessed a scale, and the charts of Cook and Bougainville usually lacked one. Most possessed a north point, though north was not necessarily at the top of the chart. The British, especially, often drew charts with south at the top. Joseph Gilbert, Master of the Resolution on the second voyage, drew a chart of Vanuatu (the New Hebrides) with this orientation. Latitude and longitude were both shown, the British relating longitude to Greenwich, the French to Paris. It would be over a hundred years before the meridian at Greenwich was set as the international standard. Cook had lunar tables to help him determine longitude and on his later voyages also carried copies of John Harrison's marine chronometers, which allowed more precise calculations. Although Bougainville's ships carried Connaissance des Temps, the French nautical almanac, the longitudes determined by the French were not as correct as those of the British.

Both Cook and Bougainville made efforts to use local knowledge in the production of their charts. Tupaia, from Raiatea, helped Cook on the first voyage as a translator, but he also drew a schematic chart that showed the locations of islands relative to Tahiti (Fig. 6). He was also able to predict the Endeavour's arrival at Rurutu after the ship left the Society Islands in August 1769. Local nomenclature was used if it could be established, though it was often difficult to determine because of problems with communication and translation. It was not always possible to know whether all features carried local names before European arrival.

[FIGURE 6 OMITTED]

Cook occasionally recorded names that bear no relation to local language or tradition, Tolaga Bay in New Zealand and Tanna in Vanuatu being examples. In other places, he used local names that have not been in general use since, Te Wai Pounamu for the South Island of New Zealand being an example. The name Tahiti (in different spellings) does appear on the charts of both Cook and Bougainville. However, where local names could not be established, the Europeans bestowed names of their own choosing.

Bougainville's crew prepared and drew maps and charts during their voyage. However, the number of charts that survived and that have been published is not large. On his return to France, Bougainville prepared a narrative of his voyage and, when it was published, it included a selection of maps on 20 plates, which had been redrawn for the work. When Forster's translation into English was published in London in 1772, these maps had been copied but grouped together in a different way: several charts were combined, while some smaller charts were repositioned as insets in larger ones. Since that time, Bougainville's voyage has been largely ignored, even in France, and the few titles that have been published have included only one or two maps showing the overall course of the ships. Originals of the published and unpublished charts have been dispersed and reside in various archives in France so that it is difficult to determine the total number of charts that were produced. A French annotated edition of original journals was published in 1977 and this included several more reproductions of charts drawn on Bougainville's voyage. (23)

The charts were redrawn for inclusion in the narrative, not by Romainville, who had sailed on the voyage, but by a different cartographer. They are somewhat bare, reflecting the paucity of new information that Bougainville actually gained. The track of the two ships is shown as it crosses the Pacific, together with outlines of islands and coasts that were sighted. The relative rapidity of Bougainville's crossing, the small number of landfalls made by him, and the lack of time spent ashore, all combined to reduce the amount of cartographic detail that could be incorporated in new charts.

The standard of the charts improves where Bougainville anchored and was able to spend some time ashore. Also, places that had already been visited by Europeans, and for which Bougainville had copies of earlier charts, received better coverage. For these reasons, the Strait of Magellan, especially between Cabo San Isidro and Isla Carlos III, is far better served. Bougainville himself, and several of his officers, had visited the Strait in 1765. The Boudeuse and the Etoile were based here for seven weeks and, in this time, officers went off in small boats to survey bays and inlets that were incorporated in new charts.

The charts prepared by James Cook and his crew on his three voyages have been extensively reproduced. Various editions of the narratives of Cook's voyages contained selected charts and, since then, many have been reproduced in various formats. For example, Cook's chart of New Zealand has appeared on calendars, posters, biscuit tins and T-shirts amongst other formats, ensuring that Cook's charts are recognisable and well known (Fig. 7).

[FIGURE 7 OMITTED]

Cook's charts, therefore, have always been better served than those of Bougainville. The culmination of this state of affairs came in the late 1980s and 1990s when three volumes were published, devoted to Cook's charts. (24)

Cook was scrupulous in his attention to detail, and any harbour or anchorage where he stopped would be surveyed. He stated:

   The world will hardly admit of an excuse for
   a man leaving a coast unexplored he has
   once discovered. (25)

He would always map them sufficiently well so that he never had to waste effort resurveying locations he had already visited. Matavai Bay on Tahiti and Queen Charlotte Sound in New Zealand, which Cook revisited several times on his second and third voyages, are hardly represented by new charts on the later voyages.

COMPARISON OF CHARTS

The quantity of maps produced by Bougainville on his single voyage is dwarfed by the production of Cook on his three voyages. This is to be expected, given that Cook spent much more time in the Pacific, covered far greater distances and visited far more locations than his French counterpart.

In terms of quality, also, Cook's charts are generally superior. For a fair judgement, it is necessary to compare charts of locations visited and charted by both explorers. There are only a few locations that meet these requirements, and Tahiti and Vanuatu are the best examples.

Bougainville visited Tahiti in June 1768 and spent two weeks anchored at Hitia'a on the east coast of Tahiti Nui. The French were invited to land and erect a small camp but the Tahitians restricted French movement and prevented them going far beyond the camp. The Tahitians soon asked the French to leave, which meant that French cartographical knowledge was mainly restricted to observations made from the sea as they arrived and departed.

The resulting chart shows the route of the ships and the north coasts of Tahiti Iti and Tahiti Nui, with very little extra information. Romainville also produced a freehand sketch chart of the anchorage at Hitia'a. It does not appear that surveying equipment had been used in its compilation. It is a cross between a chart and a coastal view (Fig. 8).

[FIGURE 8 OMITTED]

Bougainville was unaware of a visit to the island a few months earlier by the British sailor, Captain Samuel Wallis. Bougainville records the local name Taiti on his chart but calls it and some neighbouring islands, the Archipel de Bourbon (Fig. 9). He also called Tahiti Nouvelle Cythere, reflecting his classical education. (26)

[FIGURE 9 OMITTED]

Cook knew of the existence of Tahiti before he sailed from Britain, Wallis having reported back to Britain about his visit to the island, which he called King George's Island. It was identified as a suitable location to observe the transit of Venus in June 1769 and Cook arrived there in April. He arrived without the benefit of detailed charts but with the knowledge of the safe anchorage on the north coast of the island from a sketch by George Pinnock (Fig. 10).

[FIGURE 10 OMITTED]

Cook produced many charts of Tahiti, especially on the first Endeavour voyage in 1769, when he spent close to three months on the island. Cook anchored at Matavai Bay on the north coast of Tahiti Nui and immediately struck up a friendly relationship with the local Tahitians. It would become his favourite place in the Pacific and one he would return to many times. Cook invariably called the island Otaheite and called the group of islands the Society Islands. Unlike the French, Cook and his crew were able to travel freely and Cook even made a tour of the perimeter of the island.

As a result, Cook was able to produce detailed and reasonably correct charts of the whole of Tahiti (Fig. 11). The overall shape of the island and the positioning of most of its features are excellent so that it is immediately recognisable as Tahiti. The coast and hinterland are portrayed exactly, while the interior of the island is far less well served, owing to the terrain and its covering of dense tropical bush. The mountainous interior is therefore portrayed somewhat stylistically. The surrounding reef is depicted with soundings shown inside the reef. Potential anchorages are marked, while Matavai Bay, where the Endeavour anchored, is given a more detailed chart. On his second voyage, a very good chart of Tautira, near the eastern tip of Tahiti Iti, was produced. Future visitors would be safe to use Cook's charts when approaching and attempting to anchor at Tahiti. Cook had had the opportunity to make better charts and had taken it.

[FIGURE 11 OMITTED]

Bougainville sailed west from Tahiti, aware that Quiros had discovered land in 1606, which Quiros had called Austrialia de Espiritu Santo. Its precise location was uncertain and various charts, including that of Vaugondy, which Bougainville was carrying, tentatively linked it to New Holland. On 22 May 1768, Bougainville reached land, which, after a short visit of five days, he correctly identified as the land previously visited by Quiros. The island group is now known as Vanuatu.

The French ships rounded Ile Aurore (Maewo) and approached a second island, off which they anchored, as they needed fresh water and wood. The French went ashore for a few hours and had the briefest of meetings with the Melanesian inhabitants of the island. Some of the local people had a skin complaint, which caused Bougainville to call the island Ile des Lepreux (Leper Island) though its local name was Aoba. Going back on board, Bougainville made to leave but was becalmed for two days. Eventually, on the 26th, he was able to sail through a passage (now known as Bougainville Strait) between two islands and continue his voyage to the west.

During the time the ships were becalmed a small chart was drawn showing all the land fronting onto their location at sea off the west end of Aoba. The chart is recognisable as being of part of Vanuatu, though there are pronounced distortions of some of the islands depicted. The Ile de la Pentecoste (Pentecost Island) is especially distorted. No depth soundings or anchorages are given. The chart, therefore, is a basic representation of islands that Bougainville called the Archipel des Grandes Cyclades, once more using a classical allusion to the Aegean (Fig. 12). (27)

[FIGURE 12 OMITTED]

On his second voyage, James Cook knew about Bougainville's voyage and carried a copy of his chart. In July 1774, Cook happened to approach Ile Aurore (Maewo) from the east as Bougainville had done. Over the next 45 days he would carry out one of the most incredible pieces of marine survey and put the island group firmly on the map. He would make short landings at Port Sandwich on Malekula, Port Narvin on Erromango and near the Jordan River on Espiritu Santo, but only for an hour or two at each location. A longer stay of 15 days took place at Port Resolution on Tanna. The other 29 days were spent coasting the 750 kilometre long archipelago. Using the technique of a running survey, Cook produced a chart that shows all the islands in their correct locations, their shapes mostly correct, and with soundings added. It is a magnificent chart and amongst the highlights of Cook's career (Fig. 13).

Cook, though, obviously felt that he had achieved more than Bougainville, as he wrote:

   They were next visited by M. de
   Bougainville in 1768, who...did no more
   than discover that it was not a connected
   land, but composed of islands which he
   called the great Cyclades; but as we, not
   only, ascertained the extent and situation of
   these islands, but added to them several
   new, which were not known before and
   explored the whole, I think we have
   obtained the right to name them and shall
   for future distinguish them under the name
   of the New Hebrides. (28)

To summarise why Cook's charts are demonstrably superior to those of Bougainville:

* No priority was given to charts in French instructions.

* The French commander, Bougainville, was not a cartographer.

* There was little time, encouragement and training given to surveying and charting.

* Romainville, the cartographer, sailed on the second ship, apart from Bougainville.

* There were delays in the Atlantic, and a much quicker crossing of the Pacific by Bougainville.

* Romainville stayed on in Mauritius and did not contribute to the charts in the narrative.

* Cook, on his second voyage, carried copies of charts from Bougainville's voyage and was able to improve on them.

AFTER THE VOYAGES

Bougainville arrived back in France in March 1769 and soon began writing up the narrative of his voyage. However, before the work was published in 1771 the Ducs du Choiseul and Praslin both lost power and were dispatched from Paris in disgrace. Bougainville's scheme to settle the Malouines and his round-the-world voyage owed much to the patronage of Choiseul and Praslin and it is probable that Bougainville lost standing and prestige through being involved and identified with them.

Certainly the Voyage, when it appeared, drew little comment from the Paris establishment, even though the work sold sufficiently well to warrant a second edition. The descriptions (especially those of Commerson) of Tahiti as an earthly paradise, helped fuel the debate about the "Noble Savage". Ahu-toru, a Tahitian taken to Europe by Bougainville, proved more popular in Parisian society than did Bougainville. Nor was Bougainville offered the chance to lead another voyage anywhere. France had turned its back on the Pacific and was more preoccupied with Europe. The French Government was nearly bankrupt and the Ministry of Marine changed its priorities completely. It would be 14 years before Jean-Francois Galaup de Laperouse was given command of an expedition to the Pacific.

Laperouse's expedition was an effort to combat the prestige that Britain had gained through the voyages of James Cook. Cook had died but the influence of people such as Sir Joseph Banks, who had sailed on Cook's first voyage, ensured that Cook's memory lived on. Gradually Cook's achievements were gaining near-mythical status. Even French explorers placed Cook on a pedestal. Julien Crozet, who visited New Zealand with Marion Dufresne in 1772, wrote:

   As soon as I obtained information of the
   voyage of the Englishman, I carefully
   compared the chart I had prepared of that
   part of the coast of New Zealand along
   which we had coasted with that of Captain
   Cook and his officers. I found it of an
   exactitude and of a thoroughness of detail
   which astonished me beyond all powers of
   expression, and I doubt whether the charts
   of our French coasts are laid down with
   greater precision. I think therefore that I
   cannot do any better than lay down our track
   off New Zealand on the chart prepared by
   this celebrated explorer. (29)

By the time France acted to restore some pride, Bougainville was too old, at 56, to lead the expedition. Instead, he pursued a naval career and fought in the War of American Independence with mixed results, distinguishing himself in one sea battle and being blamed for defeat in another. He survived a duel and the guillotine before becoming a favourite of Napoleon, who made him a Comte. Bougainville was also one of the first recipients of the Legion d'Honneur. He was one of the few explorers who reached old age and he died in his bed in 1811.

Sadly, this most interesting man has largely been forgotten by history. He deserves to be remembered, if not as the equal of Cook, then as the leader of a valuable eighteenth century expedition to the Pacific. For Bougainville, it is a case of what might have been. If only Commerson, Veron and Romainville had returned to France with him and had made botanical, zoological, astronomical and cartographical contributions to the voyage's narrative, they might have been the men applauded as members of the first scientific voyage of exploration and have become well-known names in history. More voyages probably would have resulted. As it is, they remain only adjuncts to history (Fig. 14).

[FIGURE 14 OMITTED]

It was not to be for Bougainville, and it was James Cook who became identified with the Pacific. On the grand scale, Henry Roberts' chart after the third voyage shows virtually every island and island group fixed firmly in its correct position and the tracks of Cook's ships weaving amongst them, all across the Ocean (Fig. 15). Like a pinball Cook had bounced from island to island, finding islands where no one else seemed able. His curiosity to search, his drive to search further, and his ability to read conditions and sense where new islands may be situated placed him apart from other explorers. But his attention to detail also was phenomenal, as the wealth of charts contained in the three volumes of the Charts and Coastal Views of Captain Cook's Voyages testifies. The map of the Pacific is Cook's fitting memorial:

   His chief memorial is the modern
   conception of the Pacific, derived from his
   superbly accurate charts, in which every
   island and every coastline had its latitude
   and longitude properly fixed for the first
   time through Cook's care and Harrison's
   chronometer. After Cook, no navigator
   could have an excuse for failing to find a
   Pacific island that Cook had visited or for
   being wrecked on a coastline appearing
   from nowhere. (30)

[FIGURE 15 OMITTED]

In conclusion, Bougainville left the map of the Pacific much as he had found it. His voyage may be regarded as one of the last made by a gentleman-amateur explorer. Cook, on the other hand, drew the map of the Pacific as we know it today and his voyage was the first made to the Pacific by a professional hydrographer. Cook had more than fulfilled the words written a few years earlier by Lord Colville, the Commodore of the squadron, which included HMS Northumberland, Cook's ship in Canada after Quebec:

   Mr Cook, late Master of the Northumberland,
   acquaints me that he has laid before their
   Lordships all his draughts and observations
   relating to the River St. Lawrence, part of
   the coast of Nova Scotia, and of
   Newfoundland...I beg to inform their
   Lordships, that from my experience of Mr
   Cook's genius and capacity, I think him well
   fitted for the work he has undertaken, and
   for greater undertakings of the same kind. (31)

ENDNOTES

(1) France established its Depot des cartes et plans de la marine in Paris in 1720, beginning a systematic collection of naval charts. Largely through the urgings of Alexander Dalrymple, Britain followed suit in 1795 with the creation of the Hydrographic Office.

(2) Charles de Brosses, Histoire des Navigations aux Terres Australes, 1756.

(3) J. Cook, Journals, 1, 1953, p. ccixx.

(4) ibid., p. cclxxxii.

(5) E. Taillemite, Bougainville et ses compagnons, 1977, p. 27. (Author's translation).

(6) ibid., (Author's translation).

(7) J.C. Beaglehole, The Life of Captain James Cook, 1974. This excellent biography is the definitive source for details of Cook's life.

(8) Details of Bougainville's life are harder to locate, as no good biography of him has been published. In France, Martin-Allanic's modified thesis, Bougainville, navigateur et les decouvertes de son temps, is the most comprehensive work. J.C. Robson has written A Short biography of Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, which appears on the Internet.

(9) P. Whitfield, The Charting of the oceans: ten centuries of maritime maps, 1996, p. 110.

(10) id.

(11) Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, Voyage autour du monde, 1771; and Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, Voyage around the world, translated from the French by Johann Reinhold Forster, 1772.

(12) J.N. Wilford, The Mapmakers, 2000, p. 243.

(13) ibid., p.235.

(14) Taillemite, 1977, p. 86.

(15) R.A. Skelton's essay, The Graphic records, in Cook, Journals, I, 1955, p. cclxv.

(16) M. Mackenzie, Orcades or a geographic and hydrographic survey of the Orkney and Lewis Islands, 1750.

(17) R.A. Skelton, Captain James Cook as a hydrographer, 1954, pp. 94-5.

(18) Wilford, 2000, p. 243.

(19) R.A. Skelton, Explorers' maps, 1958, p. 243.

(20) Wilford, 2000, pp. 168-9.

(21) Skelton, 1958, p. 233.

(22) ibid., p. 234.

(23) Taillemite, 1977.

(24) A. David, ed., The Charts and Coastal Views of Captain Cook's Voyages, 1988-1997. Andrew David has assembled all the charts from Cook's voyages in three magnificent volumes, one for each voyage.

(25) Skelton, 1954, p. 92.

(26) Cythera or Kithira is an island situated off the south coast of mainland Greece.

(27) The Cyclades or Kikladhes is a group of islands between Greece and Turkey.

(28) J. Cook, Journals, II, 1961, pp. 520-1.

(29) Beaglehole, 1974, p. 221n.

(30) S. Berthon, The Shape of the world, 1991, p. 131.

(31) R.A. Skelton, Cook's contribution to marine survey, 1968, p. 28.

SOURCE OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Bougainville (1771) Figs. 9, 12

Bougainville (1772) Fig. 14

Brosses (1756) Fig. 1

Cobbe (1979). Fig. 10

David, Vol. 1 (1988) Figs. 4, 5 left, 6, 7, 11

David, Vol. 2 (1992) Fig. 13

David, Vol. 3 (1997) Fig. 15

James Cook: surveyor of Newfoundland (1965) Fig. 5 right

Taillemite (1977) Figs. 3, 8.

Whitfield (1996) Fig. 2

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

Beaglehole, J.C., The Life of Captain James Cook (London, 1974)

Berthon, Simon and Andrew Robinson, The Shape of the world (London, 1991)

Bougainville, Louis-Antoine de, Louis de Bougainville's Pacific Journal, 1767-1768, ed. John Dunmore (London, 2003)

Bougainville, Louis-Antoine de, Voyage autour du monde par la fregate du roi la Boudeuse et la flute L' Etoile (Paris, 1771)

Bougainville, Louis-Antoine de, Voyage autour du monde, ed. Michel Bideaux and Sonia Faessel (Paris, 2001)

Bougainville, Louis-Antoine de, Voyage round the world, 1766-1769, in the frigate la Boudeuse and the storeship l'Etoile, translated from the French by Johann Reinhold Forster (London, 1772)

Brosses, Charles de, Histoire des Navigations aux Terres Australes, (Paris, 1756)

Cobbe, Hugh, ed., Cook's voyages and the peoples of the Pacific, (London, 1969)

Cook, James, The Journals of Captain James Cook on his Voyages of Discovery, ed. J.C. Beaglehole, 4 vols (Cambridge, 1955-1967)

David, Andrew, ed., The Charts and Coastal Views of Captain Cook's Voyages, 3 vols (London, 1988- 1997)

Dunmore, John, French explorers in the Pacific: 1. The Eighteenth century (Oxford, 1965)

James Cook, surveyor of Newfoundland: being a collection of charts of the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador, &c, reproduced in facsimile with an introductory essay by R.A. Skelton (San Francisco, 1965)

Mackenzie, Murdoch, Orcades or a geographic and hydrographic survey of the Orkney and Lewis Islands (London, 1750)

Martin-Allanic, Jean Etienne, Bougainville, navigateur et les decouvertes de son temps, 2 vols (Paris, 1964)

Morris, Roger, ' 200 years of Admiralty Charts & Surveys', Mariner's Mirror, 82 (1996) pp. 420-35

Robertson, George, The Discovery of Tahiti: a journal of the Second Voyage of H.M.S. Dolphin round the world, 1766-1768, ed. Hugh Carrington (London, 1948)

Robson, John, A Short biography of Louis-Antoine de Bougainville http://pages.quicksilver.net.nz/~boug2.html (Hamilton, N.Z., 2001)

Skelton, R.A., 'Captain James Cook as a hydrographer', Mariner's Mirror, 40 (1954), pp. 92-115

Skelton, R.A., 'Cook's contribution to marine survey', Endeavour, 27 (1968), pp. 28-32

Skelton, R.A., Explorers' maps: chapters in the cartographic record of geographical discovery (London, 1958)

Spate, O.H.K., Paradise found and lost (London, 1988)

Taillemite, Etienne, ed., Bougainville et ses compagnons autour du monde: 1766-1769, journaux de navigation, 2 vols (Paris, 1977)

Verge-Franceschi, Michel, La Marine francaise au XVIIIe siecle: guerres - administration - exploration (Paris, 1996)

Whitfield, Peter, The Charting of the oceans: ten centuries of maritime maps (London, 1996)

Wilford, John Noble, The Mapmakers, 2nd edn (New York, 2000)

John Cullen Robson, Map Librarian, University of Waikato Library, Hamilton, New Zealand. [e-mail]