Here was a ship just a year from England, just come from a convenient and friendly island, where every refreshment and opportunity for refit were to be found, and the only thought is how to get home again! It was the vastly different conduct of Cook's voyages; the determination that nothing should stop the main object of the expedition; his resource in every difficulty and danger; that caused, and rightly caused, him to be hailed as a born leader of such expeditions.
Wallis followed nearly on Byron's track: went from the Ladrones, through the China Sea, to Batavia, and so home, arriving in May 1768.
The Swallow, under Captain Carteret, was navigated in a different spirit.
She was badly fitted out for such a voyage, had not even a forge, and all the articles for trade were on board the Dolphin.

But Carteret was not easily daunted.

He might, under the circumstances, when he found himself alone, have abandoned the voyage; but he boldly went forward.

Passing from the Strait of Magellan, he touched at Juan Fernandez, and steering somewhat south of Wallis's line, he passed south of Tahiti, discovering Pitcairn's Island on his way, and some of the islands south of the Paumotus.
By this time his people were severely afflicted with scurvy, and his ship in a bad state; but Carteret only thought of getting to some place of refreshment, from which he might afterwards pass on his voyage towards the south, in the hope of falling in with the great southern Continent.
In this he was not fortunate.

Missing all other islands, he fell across the Santa Cruz Group, and hoping that he had found what he wanted, he anchored and tried to water.