a pleasant drawing
representing the King in his prison, with the little Dauphin seated on
his knee, pointing out the countries and oceans on a large geographical
globe; and he took a pride in having had prepared "for the education of
Monsieur le Dauphin," a History of the Exploration of the South Seas.
It was published in Paris, in three small volumes, in 1791.

The study of Cook made a deep impression on the King's mind. Why, he
asked himself, should not France share in the glory of discovering new
lands, and penetrating untraversed seas? There was a large amount of
exploratory work still to be done. English navigators were always busy
sailing to unknown parts, but the entire world was by no means revealed
yet. There were, particularly, big blank spaces at the bottom of the
globe. That country called by the Dutch New Holland, the eastern part
of which Cook had found--there was evidently much to be done there.
What were the southern coasts like? Was it one big island-continent, or
was it divided into two by a strait running south from the head of the
Gulf of Carpentaria? Then there was that piece of country discovered by
the Dutchman Tasman, and named Van Diemen's Land. Was it an
island, or did it join on to New Holland? There were also many islands
of the Pacific still to be explored and correctly charted, the map of
Eastern Asia was imperfect, and the whole of the coastline of
North-Western America was not accurately known.

The more Louis turned the matter over in his mind, the more he studied
his globes, maps and books of voyages, the more convinced he was that
France, as a maritime nation and a naval Power, ought to play an
important part in this grand work of unveiling to mankind the full
extent, form, nature and resources of our planet.

He sent for a man whose name the Australian reader should particularly
note, because he had much to do with three important discovery voyages
affecting our history. Charles Claret, Comte de Fleurieu, was the
principal geographer in France. He was at this time director of ports
and arsenals. He had throughout his life been a keen student of
navigation, was a practical sailor, invented a marine chronometer which
was a great improvement on clocks hitherto existing, devised a method
of applying the metric system to the construction of marine charts, and
wrote several works on his favourite subject. A large book of his on
discoveries in Papua and the Solomon Islands is still of muc