PREFACE. 



more^ and in a more systematic manner ^ than all the other 

 Powers of Christendom put together. She has surteyed^ 

 by the most able operators, furnished with the best in- 

 struments and instructions which England and France 

 could produce, the whole sea coast of those vast regions ; 

 and the results she has, with a manly liberality without 

 example, laid before the public. The great Coasting 

 Pilot of Spain (including Portugal) was published by 

 the authority of the Government in 1787, accompanied 

 ' by a set of charts, illustrated by plans of all the principal 

 harbours and naval stations, in the fullest detail ; accom- 

 panied by views of the coast, the whole executed in a 

 style far superior to any work of the kind which France 

 or England yet possesses ; except, perhaps, the Atlantic 

 Neptune of Governor De Barres. This Coasting Pilot, 

 forming a good quarto volume, I translated several years 

 ago for Mr. Faden ; and it now forms one of the standard 

 treatises attached to every vessel belonging to the na- 

 tional navy. 



Since then I have translated from the Spanish An 

 Account of a Voyage from Cadiz to the Sti-ait of Ma- 

 gellan." This voyage, performed under the command 

 of Admiral Don Antonio de Cordova, in a frigate, was 

 projected with the humane view of setting at rest for 

 ever the long-agitated question, whether mariners ought 

 or ought not, on any account, to attempt a passage to 

 the Pacific Ocean through that Strait. 



The translation was first suggested to me by the late 



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