VOL.XIX.'l PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 141 



which a body falling from rest runs through the curve of the cycloid avb, is to 

 the time in which it passes along the line ab, as mb x ac to mb X ba, that is, 

 as AC to AB. Q. K. D. And in the same manner the demonstration proceeds 

 when the point B is between a and v. 



Account of Books, viz. — /. -^n Account of a new Voyage round the JVorld, by 

 William Dampier,* J 697, in Svo. N° 225, p. 426. 



In this vol. the author, in 20 chapters, gives an account of the voyages he 

 made during near 12 years, i. e. from the beginning of 1679, when he left 

 England, to the middle of Sept. 169J, when he returned. First he relates his 

 passage to Jamaica ; thence to Porto Bello; thence across the Isthmus of Darien, 

 passing in sight of Panama into the South Sea ; thence coasting southward, as 

 far as the island of John Fernando, and his stay there some time ; and then his 

 return to cross back again the said isthmus into the North Sea. 



In the 4th chapter, the author begins the account of the first part of his new 

 voyage towards the South Sea, which proved afterwards to be a circumnavigation 

 of the whole globe of the earth. He began it in August l683, from Virginia, 

 and continues the account of it in the 16 following chapters, till Sept. \Q, 1691, 

 when he arrived in the Downs. 



//. Almagestum Bolanicum s. Pliytographice Plucnetiance Onomasticon, &c.foL 

 London, edit. 1696. N° 225, p. 434, 



In this work Dr. Leonard Plukenet presents the world with the names of 

 about 6000 plants, a part of his Herbarium Vivum, digested into an order as 

 well alphabetical as classical, 500 of them no where else to be found ; which 

 may very well serve instead of a pinax or general index plantarum. 



To which 70 copper plates, with various sculpts of the more rare, exotic, 

 new plants are annexed, for the satisfaction of the lovers of botany. Here it 

 is indeed oar author seems to lead us into the delights of both the Indies, and 



* William Darapier was a celebrated navigator in hh time, wlio performed the circumnavigation 

 of the terraqueous globe. He was born in Somersetshire l6"52, and went to sea early in life. He 

 sailed with a Captain Cook, who commanded a Bristol ship sent out against theiSpaniards. After 

 cruising a considerable time on the American coast, and taking several prizes, Captain Cook died, 

 and was succeeded by Mr. Davis, whom Dampier quitted, and entered another buccaneering ship, 

 commanded by Captain Swan. Meeting with little success, they sailed for the East Indies, where 

 Dampier left Captain Swan, and proceeded to the English factory at Achin. He then engaged with 

 a Captain Weldon, and afterwards became gunner lo the factory at Bencoolen. In I691 he em- 

 barked by stealth for England, where he arrived the same year. He afterwards sailed from Bristol 

 with Captain Woodes Rogers, for the South Sea, and returned in 171 1. When Dampier died is not 

 known. His voyages are thought to possess much accuracy. 



