Geography, 335 



from France, under the most favourable auspices. 

 Seldom has any expedition of the kind excited so 

 general an interest throughout the civilized worlds 

 or promised more brilliant success. The melan- 

 choly fate of LA Perouse and his companions is 

 well known. Happily, however, all knowledge 

 of the voyage is not lost with its unfortunate con- 

 ductors. From the accounts which have been pub- 

 lished, it appears that we are indebted to them for 

 some important geographical discoveries, especially 

 on the north-western coast of America, and on 

 the eastern coast of Asia, and in the seas between 

 that continent and Japan. From them, also, the 

 accounts of some preceding navigators have re- 

 ceived satisfactory confirmation ; the mistakes of 

 others have been corrected; and impositions under 

 which the learned world had long lain, either 

 through the ignorance or dishonesty of their au- 

 thors, have been detected and rem.oved. 



The discovery of the great extent o^ New- Hol- 

 land deserves to be mentioned among the most 

 important acquisitions in modern geography. — ■ 

 That large portion of our globe, v.^hich may, 

 indeed, be called, with propriety, a new continent^ 

 had been discovered as early as the beginning of 

 the seventeenth century, and, as some suppose, 

 earlier;^ but for more than a hundred years after 

 this discovery, little was known respecting it. 

 Many supposed it to be a part of the great southern 

 continent, for which navigators had been so long 

 and eagerly searching. In 1770 the celebrated Cap- 



j The length of Neiv-HoUand is about 2730 miles, and its breadth about 

 i960; so that its extent is but a quarter less than that of Europe. It does 

 not appear to be yet reduced to an absolute certainty, whether the whole 

 of this great territory is a continued tract of land, or divided into two or 

 more islands, by narrow straits. 



/• Mr. PiNKERTON, the latest, and probably the best systematic writer 

 on Geograpiiy in the English language, seems rather inclined to adopt the 

 opinion that New-Holland was discovered by the Portuguese and Spaniards, 

 near a century befori^ the Dutch navigators <uw Fan DUwcns Land. 



