May 25, 1857.] SOUTH AMERICA—GEOGRAPHICAL CORRECTIONS. 469 



tinguished medallist Sir Robert Sdiomburgk, formerly her Ma- 

 jesty's Commissioner to survey the boundaries of British Guiana, of 

 the " Discovery of the Empire of Guyana by Sir Walter Ealeigh," 

 printed for the Hakluyt Society in 1848. Having himself explored 

 what he describes as " the wondrous delta of the Orinoco," Sir 

 Eobert was able to enter, with the fullest intelligence and zeal, into 

 the reproduction of those elegant descriptions by Ealeigh which he 

 had read with so much delight. These early narratives not only 

 charm us by the quaint and nervous language in which the manly 

 exploits of our ancestors are related, but frequently record dis- 

 coveries or assert important truths which, from those distant times, 

 lie dormant or are regarded as fictions, until accident or science 

 unfolds anew, to the adventurer of the present day, the secret of 

 their existence. I may mention, by way of illustration, an in- 

 stance of the manner in which a fact of the greatest moment to 

 the interests of the world may thus lie buried for more than two 

 centuries and a half after its distinct announcement by one of our 

 most distinguished early travellers. In the " World encompassed 

 by Sir Francis Drake," edited for the Hakluyt Society by our asso- 

 ciate Mr. Yaux, we find it said of California, which then received 

 from Drake the name of Nova Albion, " There is no part of earth 

 here to be taken up wherein there is not some speciall likelihood of 

 gold or silver." This voyage of Drake's was made in 1578, and it 

 was not till 1848 that the whole world was astounded by the dis- 

 covery of the Californian goldfields. 



Observatory of Santiago. — " The astronomical geography of posi- 

 tions (Baron Humboldt writes to me) has made progress through 

 the useful establishment of the observatory of Santiago de Chile, 

 founded during the residence of the able astronomer Lieut. Gilliss, 

 of Washington. The Director of the Observatory of Santiago, 

 M. Moesta, has found the difference of longitude between Santiago 

 and Greenwich 4h. 42' 32''-4 in time, probable error 3"-2. 



" M. Moesta thinks, that all the west coast of South America is 

 17" too much to the west on the best maps. I had found that Callao 

 de Lima was 5h. 18' 16" west of Paris by the passage of Mercury 

 over the solar disc ; now Admiral FitzEoy finds the difference of 

 longitude between Valparaiso and Paris 4h. 50' 6''*6 ; and that between 

 Callao and Valparaiso by means of chronometers Oh. 22' 8"-4; so 

 that Callao would be 5h. 18' 15" west of Paris, which coincides to 

 within one second of time with the result of the observation of the 

 passage of Mercury observed by me — an accuracy probably acci- 

 dental. Admiral Beechey has repeated the calculations of Heiz and 



