12 INTRODUCTION TO THE 



fine their cruises within a moderate distance of the 

 Spanish settlements ; in the vicinity of which alone 

 they could hope to exercise their commerce, or to 

 execute their predatory and military operations. 

 Accordingly, soon after emerging from the Strait, 

 or completing the circuit of Tierra del Fuego, 

 they began to hold a northerly course, to the un- 

 inhabited island of Juan Fernandez, their usual 

 spot of rendezvous and refreshment. And, after 

 ranging along the continent of America, from Chili 

 to California, they either reversed their course back 

 to the Atlantic ; or, if they ventured to extend their 

 voyage, by stretching over to Asia, they never 

 thought of trying experiments in the unfrequented 

 and unexplored parts of the ocean ; but chose the 

 beaten path (if the expression may be used), within 

 the limits of which it was likely they might meet 

 with a Philippine galleon, to make their voyage pro- 

 fitable to themselves ; but could have little prospect, 

 if they had been desirous, of making it useful to the 

 world, by gaining any accession of new land to the 

 map of the world. 



By the natural operation of these causes, it could 

 not but happen, that little progress should be made 

 toward obtaining a full and accurate knowledge of 

 the South Pacific Ocean. Something, however, had 

 been attempted by the industrious and once enter- 

 prising Dutch ; to whom we are indebted for three 

 voyages, undertaken for the purposes of discovery ; 

 and whose researches, in the southern latitudes of 

 this ocean, are much better ascertained than are 

 those of the earlier Spanish navigators above men- 

 tioned. 



Le Maire and Schouten, in 1616, and Roggewein, 

 in 1722, wisely judging, that nothing new could be 

 gained by adhering to the usual passage on the north 

 side of the line, traversed this ocean from Cape Horn 

 to the East Indies, crossing the South tropic ; a space 

 which had been so seldom, and so ineffectually 



