ULLOA's voyage to south AMERICA. 



319 



able precipices which, in appearance, encircle his inveftigation. The reafon is, becaufe 

 the obftacles are painted, by the imagination, in the mofl lively colours ; but the me- 

 thods of furmounting them efcape our attention ; till, fmoothed by labour and applica- 

 tion, a more eafy paflage is difcovered. 



Among the difcoveries mentioned in hiftory, whether owing to accident or refledion, 

 that of the Indies is not the leaft advantageous. Thefe parts were for many ages un- 

 known to the Europeans, or, at leaft, the remembrance of them was buried in oblivion. 

 They were loft through a long fucceffion of time, and disfigured by the confufion and 

 darknefs in which they were found immerfed. At length the happy sera arrived, when 

 induftry, affifted by refolution, was to remove all the difficulties exaggerated by igno- 

 rance. This is the epocha which diftinguiflied the reign, in many other refpe6ls fo glo- 

 rious, of Ferdinand of Arragon, and Ifabella of Caftile. Reafon and experience at once ex- 

 ploded all the ideas of raftmefs and ridicule which had hitherto prevailed. It feems as 

 if Providence permitted the refufal of other nations to augment the glory of our own ; 

 and to rew^ard the zeal of our fovereigns, who countenanced this important enter- 

 prife J the prudejice of their fubjeds in the conduct of it, and the religious end pro- 

 pofed by both. 1 mentioned accident or refledion, being not yet convinced whether 

 the confidence with which Chriftopher Columbus maintained, that weftward there were 

 lands undifcovered, was the relult of his knowledge in cofmography and experience in 

 navigation, or whether it was founded oh the information of a pilot who had actually 

 difcovered them, having been driven on the coafts by ftrefs of weather ; and who, in 

 return for the kind reception he had met with at Columbus's houfe, delivered to him 

 in his laft moments the papers and charts relating to them. 



The prodigious magnitude of this continent ; the multitude and extent of its pro- 

 vinces ; the variety of its climates, products, and curious particulars ; and, laftly, the 

 diftance and difficulty of one part communicating with another, and efpecially with 

 Europe, have been the caufe, that America, though difcovered and inhabited in its prin- 

 cipal parts by Europeans, is but imperfedly known by them j and at the fame time 

 kept them totally ignorant of many things, which would greatly contribute to give a 

 more perfeft idea of fo confiderable a part of our globe. But though inveftigations of 

 this kind are worthy the attention of a great prince, and the ftudies of the moft piercing 

 genius among his fubjeds, yet this was not the principal intention of our voyage. His 

 Majefty's wife refolution of fending us to this continent was principally owing to a more 

 elevated and important defign. The literary world are no ftrangers to the celebrated 

 queftion that has lately produced fo many treatifes on the figure and magnitude of the 

 earth which had hitherto been thought perfe(5lly fpherical. The prolixity of later 

 obfervations had given rife to two oppofite opinions among philofophers. Both fuppofed 

 it to be elliptical ; but one affirmed its tranfverfe diameter was that of the poles, and the 

 other, that it was that of the equator. The folution of this problem, in which not 

 only geography and cofmography are interefted, but alfo navigation, aftronomy, and 

 other arts and fciences of public utility, was what gave rife to our expedition. Who 

 would have imagined that thefe countries, lately difcovered, would have proved the 

 means of our attaining a perfect knowledge of the old world j and that, if the former 

 owed its difcovery to the latter, it would make it ample amends by determining its real 

 figure, which had hitherto been unknown or uncontroverted ? who, I fay, would have 

 fufpefted that the fciences fhould in that country meet with treafures not'lefs valuable 

 than the gold of its mines, which has fo greatly enriched other countries ? How many 

 difficulties were to be furmounted in the execution ! What a feries of obftacles were to 

 be overcome in fuch long operations, flowing from the inclemency of the climates ; the 



difadvan- 



