JtfO THItOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [anNOI/SS. 



the South seas, reported to be very rich in gold. They were first discovered by 

 Alvarez de Mendoza in 1527, anfl are supposed by some to be the very lands 

 which were afterwards found by Fernandez de Quiros. The Spaniards are said 

 to have had very clear and satisfactory accounts of these islands ; but to have de- 

 stroyed them for political reasons, by express orders from Old Spain, when Sir 

 Francis Drake sailed into the South seas.* Their situation is not known; and 

 from some fruitless attempts to find them, it has been, and is still perhaps ques- 

 tioned, whether there be any such islands. Some time after the year 1720, 

 while Capt. Betagh, commander of the marines on board of Capt Shelvocke's 

 ship, was in Peru, the discovery of these islands was again attempted, on some 

 fresh information, by command of the Viceroy,-|- but without success: for the 

 latitude of these islands is not even nearly known. They are however supposed 

 to lie between the lOthand 20th degree of s. latitude, in about 175° of w. lon- 

 gitude from London, according to the best English and French maps: or, ac- 

 cording to some geographers, these islands are only 120" to the w. of London. 



Soon after the government of the Dutch in the East Indies was settled at Ba- 

 tavia, it was thought proper, by the Dutch East India company, that an exact 

 survey of their countries already discovered should be made and preserved. For 

 this purpose Capt. Abel Jansen Tasman sailed from Batavia in l642. In this 

 voyage several lands were discovered, particularly the two islands of Amsterdam 

 and Rotterdam, lying in 21** and 20° of s. latitude, and in 173" or 174° of w. 

 longitude. The islanders are represented to be of a civil and peaceable disposi- 

 tion, and to all appearance unacquainted with the use of arms; the lands well 

 cultivated, and planted with all kinds of fruit-trees.;}: Not far from these two 

 islands are 1 9 or 20 more, in 17° or 18" of s. latitude, and 4° or 5° to the w. of 

 the former. 



Mr. de Chabert, in the Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences for 1757, has 

 given an account of 4 islands in the South sea, lying in about 10° of s. latitude, 

 and 134° or 135" to the w. of London, discovered in July 1595, by Alvaro Ben- 

 dano de Neyra, commander of a Spanish squadron of 4 ships, in his 2d voyage 

 for the discovery of the Solomon isles. " The first and easternmost he named 

 the island of Magdalene. It is about 6 leagues in circuit, with high coasts and 

 mountains in the middle: and is extremely well peopled. More than 40 Indians 

 came on board the ship. To the n. w. at the distance of about 10 leagues, lies 

 the island of St. Peter, near 3 leagues in circuit, and presenting an agreeable 

 prospect to the eye. About 5 leagues to the s. w. of St. Peter is another and 

 larger island, named Dominica, about 15 leagues in circumference, well peopled, 

 and affording beautiful prospects. To the s. of this island is St. Christine, near 



• Harris's Voyages, 2d edit. vol. 1, p. 63.-Orig. f Id. ib. p. 245.-Orig. + Id. ib. p. 327.-Orig. 



