Chap. I. Captain Abel Jansen Tasman. 
another Southern Continent, which is ftill to be difcovered. 
III. It would greatly increafe our Shipping and our Seamen, 
which are the true and natural Strength of this Country, ex- 
tend our naval Power, and raife the Reputation of this Na- 
tion ; the moft diftantProfpedl of which is fufficient to warm 
the Soul of any Man, who has the leaft Regard for his 
Country, with Courage fufficient to defpife the Imputations 
that may be thrown upon him as a vifionary Projector, for 
taking fo much Pains about an Affair, that can tend fo 
little to his private Advantage. We will now add a few 
Words, with refpedl to the Advantages arifing from having 
thus digefted the Hiftory of Circum-navigators, from the 
earlieft Account of Time to the prefent; and then flhut up 
the Whole with another Seftion, containing the laft Cir- 
cum-navigation by Rear-Admiral Am for, whole Voyage has 
at leaft fhewn, that, under a proper Officer, Englijh Sea- 
men are able to atchieve as much as they ever did ; and 
that is as much as was ever done by any Nation in the 
World. 
It is a Point that has always admitted fome Debate, whe- 
ther Science ftands more indebted to Speculation or Pra- 
ctice ; or, in other Words, whether the greater Difcoveries 
have been made by Men of deep Study, or Perfons of great 
Experience in the moft ufeful Parts of Knowledge. But 
this, I think, is a Propofition that admits of no Difpute at 
all, that the nobleft Difcoveries have been the Refult of a 
juft Mixture of Theory with Practice. It was from hence, 
that the very Notion of failing round the Earth took Rife ; 
and the ingenious Genoefe firft laid down his Syftem of the 
World, according to his Conception ; and then added the 
Proofs derived from Experience. It is much to be deplored, 
that we have not that Plan of Difcovery, which the great 
Chrifiopher Columbus lent over thither by his Brother Bar- 
tholomew to King Henry Vll. for, if we had, we fhould 
certainly find abundance of very curious Obfervations, which 
might ftill be ufeful to Mariners : For it appears clearly, 
from many little Circumftances, that he was a Perfon of 
univerfal Genius, and, until bad Ufage obliged him to take 
many Precautions, very communicative. 
It was from this Plan, as it had been communicated to 
the Portuguefe Court, that the famous Magellan came to 
have fo juft Notions of the Poffibility of failing by the 
Weft to the Eafi Indies ; and there was a great deal of 
Theory in the Propofal made by that great Man to the 
Emperor Charles V. Sir Francis Brake was a Perfon of the 
fame Genius, and of alike general Knowledge: And it is very 
remarkable, that thefe three great Seamen met alfo with the 
fame Fate ; by which I mean, that they were Conftantly 
purfued by Envy while they lived, which hindered fo much 
Notice being taken of their Difcourfes and Difcoveries as 
they deferved. Bur, when the Experience of fucceeding 
Times had Verified many of their Sayings, which had been 
confidered as vain and empty Boaftings in their Life-times, 
then Pofterity began to pay a fuperftitious Regard to what- 
ever could be collected concerning them, and to admire 
all they delivered as oraculous. Our ether Difcoverer, Can- 
dijh , was likewife a Man of great Parts, and great Pene- 
tration, as well as great Spirit; he had, undoubtedly, 
a mighty Genius for Difcoveries ; but the prevailing No- 
tion of thofe Times, that the only Way to ferve the Na- 
tion, was plundering the Spaniards , feems to have got the 
better of his Deme to fine, out unknown Countries ; and 
made himehufe to be known to Pofterity, rather as a gal- 
lant Privateer, than as an able Seaman, though, in Truth, 
lie was both. 
After thefe follow Scho'uten and Fe Maire , who were 
fitted out to make Difcoveries; and executed their Com- 
miffion with equal Capacity and Succefs. If Le Maire had 
lived to return to Holland , and to have digefted into proper 
Order his own Accounts, we fhould, without Queftion, 
have received a much fuller and clearer, as well as a much 
more corre&and fatisfaclory Detail of them, than we have 
i at prelent: 1 hough the Voyage, as it is now publifhed, is, 
in all i efpects, the beft, and the moft curious, of all the 
Cii cum-nav igators. I his was, very probably, owing to 
the iil Ufage he met with from the Dutch Eafi India Com- 
pany ; which put Captain Schovten , and the Relations of 
Le Maire, upon giving the World the beft Information 
they could or what had been in that Voyage per- 
formed. Yet the Fate of Le Maire had a much greater 
Effeftin difeouraging, than the Fame of his Difcoveries had 
in exciting, a Spirit of Emulation,; fo that we may fafely 
fay, the Severity of the Eafi India Company in Holland 
extinguiflied that generous Defire of exploring unknown 
Lands, which might otherwife have raffed the Reputation, 
and extended the Commerce, of the Republic, much be- 
yond what they have hitherto reached. This is fo true, 
that, for upwards of one hundred Years, we hear of no 
Dutch Voyage in Purfuit of Le Maire' s Difcoveries ; and 
we fee, when Commodore Roggewein , in our own Time, 
revived that noble Defign, it was again cramped by the 
fame Power that ftifled it before ; and, though the States 
did Juftice to the Wefi India Company, and to the Parties 
injured, yet the Hardfhips they fuffered, and the plain 
Proof they gave of the Difficulties that muft be met with 
in the Profecution of fuch a Defign, feem to have done 
the Bufinefs of the Eafi India Company, and damped the 
Spirit of Difcovery, for, perhaps, another Century, in 
Holland . 
It is very obfervable* that all the mighty Difcoveries that 
have been made arofe from thefe great Men, who joined 
Reafon ing with Practice, and were Men of Genius and 
Learning, as well as Seamen. To Columbus we owe the 
finding America ; to Magellan the paffing by the S freight 
which bear his Name, by a new Route to the Eafi Indies ; 
to Le Maire a more commodious Pafiage round Cape Horne, 
and without running up to California ; Sir Fraticis Drake 
too hinted the Advantages that might arife by examining 
the North-weft Side of America ; and Candijh had feme 
Notions of difeovering a Pafiage between China and Japan. 
As to the Hiftory we have of Roggewein’ s Voyage, it af- 
fords fuch Lights, as nothing but our own Negligence can 
render ufelefs. But in the other Voyages, whatever Dife 
coveries we meet with are purely accidental, except it 
be D ampler s Voyage to the Coafts of New Holland and 
New Guiney , which was exprefly made for Difcoveries ; 
and in which, if an abler Man had been employed in Con- 
junction with Dumpier, we cannot doubt, that the Interior 
and Exterior of thofe Countries would have been much 
better known than they are at prefen t ; becaufe fuch a Per- 
fon would rather have chofen to have refreflied in the Hand 
of New Britain , or fome other Country, not vifited before* 
than at that of Timor , already fettled both by the Portu- 
guefe and the Dutch. 
In all Attempts, therefore, of this fort, thofe Men are 
fitted to be employed, who, with competent Abilities as 
Seamen, have likewife general Capacities, are at leaft tole- 
rably acquainted with other Sciences, and have fettled 
Judgments, and folid Underftandings. Thefe are the 
Men, from whom we are to expeeft the finifhing that great 
Work, which former Circum-navigators have begun ; I 
mean the difeovering every Part and Parcel of the Globe, 
and the carrying to its utmoft Perfection the admirable 
and ufeful Science of Navigation. 
It is, however* a Piece of Juftice due to the Memory 
of thefe great Men* to acknowledge, that we are equally 
encouraged by their Examples* and guided by their Difco- 
veries. We owe to them the being freed, not only from 
the Errors, but from the Doubts and Difficulties, with which 
former Ages were oppreffed : To them we fland indebted 
for the Difcovery of the beft Part of the World, which 
was intirely unknown to the Antients, particularly fome 
Part of the Eaftern* moft of the Southern, and all the 
Weftern Hemifphere : From them we have learned, 
that the Earth is furrounded by the Ocean, and that all 
the Countries under the Torrid Zone are inhabited. ; and 
that* quite contrary to the Notions that were formerly en- 
tertained, they are very far from being the moft fultry Cli- 
mate in the World, thofe within a few Degrees of the Tro- 
pics, though habitable, being much more hot, for Reafons 
which have been elfewhere explained. By their Voyages, 
and efpecially by the Obfervations of Columbus , we have 
been taught the general Morion of the Sea, the Reafon of 
it, and the Gaufe and Difference of Currents in particular 
Places ; to which we may add the Doctrine of Tides, 
which were very imperfe&ly known, even by the greateft 
Men in former Times, whole Accounts have been found 
equally repugnant to Reafon and Experience, 
i 
By 
