PREFACE. vri 



father, one of the braveft men, and one of the moft 

 difinterefted minifters, this nation could ever boafl. 



After doing juftice to the authors, let us come to 

 the work itfelf. In pieces of this kind, there is, gs«. 

 nerally fpeaking, no part fo tedious and unpleafant, at 

 lead to the generality of readers, as what regards oc- 

 currences at fea; and yet thefe are allowed to have their 

 utility. In the following Iheets, however, though, 

 they are found pretty copioufly, we (hall fee them 

 without thofe defeds. If thefe writers mention im 

 variation of the compafs, they explain the nature, en- 

 quire into the caufe, and fhew the ufes that arife from 

 obferving this phasnomenon. In this manner, they 

 treat of calms, winds, currents, and other incidents, 

 in fo fuccindl and fcientific a method, as at the fam© 

 time to be very inftrudive, and not unentertaining. 

 In this refpeft, we may look upon their narratives as 

 a fort of pradical introdudtion to the art of navigation^ 

 which we not only read without difguft, but which, 

 when read with any tolerable attention, will enable us 

 to underftand many pafTages in other writers of voyagfeSj 

 which we Ihould otherwife pafs over, as utterly unin^ 

 terefting and unintelligible. This obfervation, the 

 reader will find fo fully verified, from his own experi- 

 ence, that, I am confident, he will think it no fmall re- 

 commendation to the book-, and the more fo, becaufe^ 

 though very neceflary, and much wanted, the difiicul- 

 ties attending it had hitherto, in a great meafure, dif- 

 couraged any fuch attempt. 



The geographical defcriptions we have of the 

 country about Carthagena, the ifthmus of Darien, 

 the Terra Firma, the countries of Peru and Chili, 

 thofe watered by the vaii river of the Amazons, and, 

 in a word, of the greateft part of South America, are 

 not only perfedtly accurate, very methodical, and, in all 

 refpefts, full, clear, and fatisfadlory ; but alfo what we 

 greatly wanted, and what we never had, at leaft in any 



a 4 com* 



