540 SPANISH AMERICAN ISLANDS. 



dant, affords a most agreeable prospect. The island abounds in pas= 

 ture, in maize, and fruit ; but there is a scarcity of wood and water. 

 There was once a pearl fishery on the coast, which is now discon- 

 tinued. 



There are many other small islands in these seas, to which the 

 Spaniards have paid no attention ; we shall therefore proceed towards 

 and round Cape Horn into the South Sea, in our way to which we ar- 

 rive at the 



FALKLAND or MALOUIN ISLANDS....These islands, situate 

 between 51 and 53 degrees of south latitude, and 57 and 62 degrees 

 of west longitude, were first discovered by sir Richard Hawkins, in 

 1594, the principal of which he named Hawkins' Maidenland, in ho- 

 nour of queen Elizabeth. The present English name, Falkland, was 

 probably given them by captain Strong, in 1639, and being adopted 

 by Halley, it has from that time been received into our maps. The 

 French call them the Malouin Isles from the people of St. Maloes, 

 whom they consider as their discoverers. They have occasioned 

 some contest between Spain and Great Britain ; but being of very 

 little worth, seem to have been silently abandoned by the latter in 

 1774, in order to avoid giving umbrage to the Spanish court. 



The island of TERRA DEL FUEGO, at the southern extremity 

 of America, situate between 52 degrees 30 minutes, and 55 degrees 

 35 minutes south latitude, and 66 and 75 degrees west longitude, de- 

 rives its name from the volcanoes observed on it. It is a large island 

 containing about 42,000 square miles; the aspect of the country is 

 dreary and uncomfortable, and the climate is cold as that of Lapland, 

 though the latitude is only that of the north of England. The natives 

 are of a middle stature, with broad flat faces, high cheek bones, and 

 flat noses : they are dressed in the skins of seals, and their only food 

 seems to be shell fish. The isle called Staten-land is divided from 

 Terra del Fuego by the strait of Le Maire. Cape Horn is a promon* 

 tory on another small island to the south of Terra del Fuego. 



Terra del Fuego is separated from the main land of South America 

 by the Straits of Magellan. These straits were first discovered by 

 Magellan, or Magelhaens, a Portuguese in the service of Spain, who 

 sailed through them in the year 1520, and thereby discovered a pas- 

 sage from the Atlantic to the Pacific or Southern Ocean. He has 

 been since considered as the first navigator that sailed round the 

 world: but having lost his life in a skirmish with some Indians before 

 the ships returned to Europe, the honour of being the first circumna- 

 vigator has been disputed in favour of the brave sir Francis Drake $ 

 who, in 1574, passed the same strait in his way to India, from which 

 he returned to Europe by the Cape of Good Hope. In 1616, Le 

 Maire, a Dutchman, keeping to the southward of these straits, disco- 

 vered, in latitude fifty-four and a half, another passage, since known, 

 by the name of the straits of Le Maire ; and this passage, which has 

 been generally preferred by succeeding navigators, is called doubling 

 Cape Horn. The author of Anson's Voyage, however, from fatal 

 experience, advises mariners to keep clear of these straits and islands, 

 by running down to sixty-one or sixty-two degrees south latitude, be- 

 fore they attempt to set their face westward, towards the South Seas ; 

 but the extreme long nights, and the intense cold in those latitudes, 

 render that passage practicable only in the months of January and 

 February, which is there the middle of summer. 



