"The story of French exploration in Pacific waters has never been told in full. To reach back to the origins of French interest in the Mer du Sud, the author has made use of unpublished material from French national archives, records of trading concerns, reports from privateers, logbooks of old and forgotten explorers. This work is planned to present a complete panorama of French voyages of exploration from the closing years of the seventeenth to the middle of the nineteenth century. The first volume takes the story from the origins to the end of the eighteenth century ... second volume will continue it from the beginning of the nineteenth century to the 1840's when exploration gives way to political activities ..." -- Inside front cover, Volume I.