ADVERTISEMENT. Ixl 



Sea, where their manners, and their language are 

 diflinguifhable to this day. Thus, by abandoning 

 themfelves to Nature, who frequently féconds us 

 much better than our own ikill, they landed, with- 

 out the help of chart or inftrument, on a multitude 

 of iflands, of which they had never fo much as 

 heard the names. 



I have indicated, in the beginning of the firft 

 Volume, thofe fimple methods of difcovery and of 

 communication between maritime Nations. It is 

 in the explanation of the plates, where I am fpeak- 

 ing of the Atlantic Hemifphere, and on the fubjed 

 of Chrijiopher Columbus^ who, on the point of pe- 

 rifliing at fea, on his firft return from America, put 

 the relation of his difcovery in a cafk, which he com- 

 mitted to the waves, in the hope that it might be 

 caft on fome fhore. On that occafion I obferved, 

 that " a limple glafs bottle might prefcrve fuch a 

 *' depofit for ages, on the furface of the Ocean, 

 ** and convey it oftener than once, from the one 

 *' Pole to the other." This experiment has jufl 

 been realized, in part, on the coafts of Europe *. 



The 



* I would recommend it to Navigators, who take an intereft 

 in the progrefs of natural knowledge, frequently to repeat this ex- 

 periment, which is fo eafy, and attended with fo little expenfe. 

 There is no place where empty bottles are more common, and of 

 lefe ufe, than on board a Iliip. On leaving port, there are a great 



number 



