INTRODUCTION. 



near tv/o centuries and a half*, by far the greater part of 

 it, particularly to the South of the equator, had remained, 

 during all this time, unexplored. 



The great aim of Magalhaens, and of the Spaniards in 

 general, its firft navigators, being merely to arrive, by this 

 paflage, at the Moluccas, and the other Afiatic Spice Iflands, 

 every intermediate part of the ocean that did not lie conti- 

 guous to their Weftern track, which was on the North fide 

 of the equator, of courfe efcaped due examination ; and if 

 Mendana and Quiros, and fome namelefs conducflors of 

 voyages before them fj by deviating from this track, and 

 holding a Wefterly one from Callao, within the Southern 

 tropic, were' fo fortunate as to meet with various iflands 

 there, and fo fanguine as to confider thofe iflands as marks 

 of the exiftence of a neighbouring Southern continent ; in 

 the exploring of which they flattered themfelves they fhould 

 rival the fame of De Gama and Columbus ; thefe feeble 

 efforts never led to any effedual difclofure of the fuppofed 

 hidden mine of the- New World. On the contrary, their 

 voyages being conduced without ajudicious plan, and their 

 difcoveries being left irnperfecft without immediate fet- 

 tlement, or fubfequent examination, and fcarcely recorded 

 in any well-authenticated or accurate narrations, had been 

 almoft forgot; or were fo obfcurely remembered, as only to 

 ferve the purpofe of producing perplexing debates about 

 their fituation and extent ; if not to fugged doubts about 

 their very exiftence. 



* Magalhaens's Voyage v/as undertaken in 1519. 



•f- See the particulars of their difcoveries in Mr. Dalrymple's valuable Colicclion 

 of Voyages in the South Pacific Ocean. 



Vol. I. b It 



jx 



