Modern Navigators Have No Other Object In
Describing The Manners Of Remote Nations Than That Of Completing The
History Of Man; And The Knowledge They Endeavour To Diffuse Has For Its
Sole Aim To Render The People They Visit More Happy, And To Augment
Their Means Of Subsistence."
If Laperouse could see the map of the Pacific to-day he would find its
groups of islands all enclosed within coloured rings, indicating
possession by the great Powers of the world.
He would be puzzled
and pained by the change. But the history of the political movements
leading to the parcelling out of seas and lands among strong States
would interest him, and he would realise that the day of feeble
isolation has gone. Nothing would make him marvel more than the
floating of the Stars and Stripes over Hawaii, for he knew that flag
during the American War of Independence. It was adopted as the flag of
the United States in 1777, and during the campaign the golden lilies of
the standard of France fluttered from many masts in co-operation with
it. Truly a century and a quarter has brought about a wonderful change,
not only in the face of the globe and in the management of its affairs,
but still more radically in the ideas of men and in the motives that
sway their activities!
The geographical work done by Laperouse in this part of the Pacific was
of much importance. It removed from the chart five or six islands which
had no existence, having been marked down erroneously by previous
navigators.
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