1770* ROUND THE WORLD. 03 



Seas, to have been peopled originally from the same 

 country, it will perhaps for ever remain a doubt what 

 country that is : we were, however, unanimously of 

 opinion, that the people did not come from America, 

 which lies to the eastward ; and except there should 

 appear to be a continent to the southward, in a 

 moderate latitude, it will follow that they came from 

 the westward. 



Thus far our navigation has certainly been unfa- 

 vourable to the notion of a southern continent, for it 

 has swept away at least three-fourths of the positions 

 upon which it has been founded. The principal na- 

 vigators, whose authority has been urged on this oc- 

 casion, are Tasman, Juan Fernandes, Hermite, the 

 commander of a Dutch squadron, Quiros, and 

 Roggewein ; and the track of the Endeavour has 

 demonstrated that the land seen by these persons, 

 and supposed to be part of a continent, is not so j 

 it has also totally subverted the theoretical argu- 

 ments which have been brought to prove that the 

 existence of a southern continent is necessary to 

 preserve an equilibrium between the two hemi- 

 spheres -, for upon this principle what we have 

 already proved to be water, would render the 

 southern hemisphere too light. In our route to the 

 northward, after doubling Cape Horn, when we were 

 in the latitude of 40, our longitude was 110 ; and in 

 our return to the southward, after leaving Ulietea, 

 when we were again in latitude 40, our longitude was 

 145 ; the difference is 35. When we were in lati- 

 tude 30 the difference of longitude between the two 

 tracks was 21, which continued till we were as low 

 as 20 ; but a single view of the chart will convey a 

 better idea of this than the most minute description : 

 yet as upon a view of the chart it will appear that 

 there is a large space extending quite to the tropics, 

 which neither we, nor any other navigators to our 

 knowledge, have explored, and as there will appear to 



