394 History of 1/6^ Countries v Book II* 
Berries, aftd wild Currants, and alfo of wild Fowl, Heath- 
Codts and Hens, likewife Partriges and Turkeys, and 
$ea-Fowl in great Plenty. On the South-fide of the Lake 
is a very large, fruitful Ifland,. which had a great many 
Inhabitants, and Very excellent Timber j as Oak, Alh, 
Elm, and Fig-Trees very large and tall. 
The 1 4t^ of failed out of the Eaft-north-eaft 
End of the Lake de Fonte^ and paffed a Lake he named 
EJtricho de Ronquillo^ thirty-four Leagues long, two or 
three broad, twenty, twenty-fix, and twenty-eight Fa- 
thom Water ; They pafled this Streight in ten Hours, 
having a ftout Gale of Wind and whole Ebb. As they 
failed more eafterly, the Country grew very fenfibly worfe 
as it is in the North and South of America \ from thirty-fix 
to the extreme Parts, North or South, the Weft differs 
not only in Fertility, but in Temperature of Air, at ieaft 
ten Degrees ; and it is warmer on the Weft-fide than 
on the Eaft, as the beft Spanijh Difcoverers found it, 
whofe Bufinefs it was, as it is noted by Aharez Acofto and 
Mariana. The 1 7 th they came to an Indian Town, and 
the Indians told their Interpreter, Mr. Parmentiers, that a 
little way from them lay a great Ship, where there never 
had been one before ; they failed to them, and found 
one Man advanced in Years, and a Youth : The Man 
was the greateft Man in the mechanical Parts of the Ma- 
thematics he had ever met with ; the Admiral’s fecond 
Mate was an Englijhman., an excellent Seaman, as was his 
Gunner, who had been taken Prifoner in Campeachy as 
well as the Mafter’s Son. 
They told him the Ship was of New England, from a 
Town called Bojion, and the whole Ship’s Company came 
on board the 30th, and the Navigator of the Ship, Capt. 
Shapley, told him his Owner was a fine Gentleman, and 
Major-General of the fineft Colony in New England, 
called t\\t Majfachufets, fo he received him like a Gentle- 
man, and told him his Commiflion was to make Prize of 
any People feeking a North- weft or Weft Paffage into the 
South-Sea •, but he would look upon them as Merchants, 
trading with the Natives for Beavers, Otters, and other 
Furs and Skins j and fo for a fmall Prefent of Provifions, 
he had no need of, he gave him his Diamond-Ring, 
which coft him one thoufand two hundred Pieces of Eight, 
(which the modeft Gentleman received with Difficulty) 
and having given the brave Navigator Capt. Shapley, for 
his fine Charts and Journals, a thoufand Pieces of Eight, 
and the Owner of the Ship, Seamor Gibbons, a Quarter- 
Cafkof good Peruvian Wine, and the ten Seamen each 
twenty Pieces of Eight, the 6th of Auguji, with as 
much Wind as they could fly before, and a Current, they 
arrived at the firft Fall of the River Parmentiers •, the 
nth of Auguji, eighty-fix Leagues, and was on the 
South-fide of the Lake Belle, on board their Ships *, the 
1 6th of Auguji, before the fine Town Conajfet, where 
they found all Things well ; and the honeft Natives of 
Conaffet had, in his Abfence, treated his People with 
great Humanity ; and Capt. de Ronquillo anfwered their 
Civility and Juftice. 
The 26th of Auguji an Indian brought a Letter from 
Conajfet on the Lake Belle from Capt, Bernarda, dated 
the nth of Auguji, where he fent him word, he was re- 
turned from his cold Expedition, and did affure him, 
there was no Communication out of the Spanijh, or At- 
lantick. Sea, by Davis’s Streight, for the Natives had con- 
duffed one of his Seamen to the Head of Davis’s Streight, 
which terminated in a frefli Lake about thirty Miles in 
Circumference, in the 80th Degree of North Latitude j 
and that there were prodigious Mountains North of it ; 
befides, North- weft- from that Lake the Ice was fo fixed 
from the Shore, to a hundred Fathom Water, for aught 
he knew, from the Creation *, for Mankind knew little of 
the wonderful Works of God, efpecially near the North 
and South Poles : He wrote farther, that he had failed 
from Bajj'et Ijland North-eaft, and Eaft-north- eaft, and 
North-eaft by Eaft, to the 79th Degree of Latitude ; and 
then the Land trended North, and the Ice refted on the 
Land. 
He received afterwards a fecond Letter from Captain 
Bernarda, dated from Minhanfet, informing him he made 
the Port of Arena twenty Leagues up the River del Roye, 
the. 26th of Auguji, where he waited his Commands. 
The Admiral having good Store of fait Provifions of 
Venifon, and Fifli, that Capt. de Ronquillo had faked by 
the Admiral’s Orders in his Abfence, and an hundred 
Hogfheads of Indian Wheat, or Maize, he failed the 
2d of September,^ 1640, accompanied with many of the 
honeft Natives of Conajfet ; and, on the 5th of September 
in the Morning, about eight was at Anchor between 
Arena and Minhanfet in the River of Reys ; after that he 
returned home, having found there was no Paffage into 
the South Sea by that they call the North-wejl Paffage : 
The Charts will make this much more demonftrable. 
“ The Style of the foregoing Piece, fays Mr, Dobbs 
“ very juftly, is not polite (being wrote like a Man whofe 
“ Livelihood depended on another Way, but with 
“ abundance of Experience, and like a Traveller) yet 
“ there are in it fo many curious and hitherto unknown, 
“ Difcoveries, that it was thought worthy a Place in thefo 
“ Memoirs, and it is humbly prefumed, it will not be 
“ unacceptable to thofe who have either been in thofe 
“ Parts, or will gi ve themfelves the Trouble of reviewing 
“ the Charts. By this Abftraff of de Fonte’s Voyage, 
“ which has all the Appearance of being authentic, it is 
“ plain, that there is a navigable Paffage from Hudfon’s 
“ Bay to ' California, and though it has not had Juftice 
“ done to it in the Tranflation, and probably has not been 
“ exaffly copied, or printed ; yet, making an Allowance 
“ for Errors of that Kind, it has throughout the Air 
“ of Truth : There may be, probably, fome Errors in 
“ the Figures relating to the Degrees of Latitude and 
“ Leagues in their Courfe, for the Length of the Lake 
“ de Fonte is faid to be one hundred and fixty Leagues, 
“ and the Streight Ronquillo thirty-four. Upon his Re- 
“ turn from the Bojlon Ship, he is faid to have got again 
“ to the Mouth of the River Parmentiers in five Days, 
“ with a ftout Gale and brifk Current, which, he fays, 
“ was eighty Leagues j which plainly ought to have 
“ been one hundred and eighty, otherwife, with that 
“ ftout Gale and Current it would have been but fixteen 
“ Leagues in twenty-four Hours, and the other would 
“ be but thirty-fix, which was reafonable failing. As to 
“ his faying there was no Paffage, although he met the 
“ Bojlon Ship, I take his Meaning to be, that either 
“ Bernardo found no Paffage by the North- weft of Davis’s 
“ Sir eights, the Way probably the Spaniards expeffed it, 
“ or, that by his pafiing upon a River to Lake Belle, 
“ and down another to Lake de Fonte, by what he called 
“ Sharps or Falls, he apprehended there was no navigable 
“ Paffage for Ships the Way he went ; or he defired to 
‘‘ difguife it, to prevent other from attempting 
it to his Country’s Prejudice ; and therefore he did not 
“ publifli his Chart which he refers to in his I.etter. 
“ It is plain that it was an Ifland below the Lake Belle, 
“ which divided the River los Reys from the River Par- 
“ mentiers, and as the Sea in Lake de Fonte was upon a 
“ Level with the Sea at the Mouth of Rio los Reys, and 
“ the Tide flowed up that River into the Lake Belle, it 
“ muft alfo flow up the River Parmentiers, and the Sharps 
“ and Falls be obferved in that River, were only the 
“ Sharps occafioned by the feveral Ebbs he had in failing 
‘‘ down the River, being five Days in palfing to the Sea, 
“ fo that the great and true Paffage was without that 
“ Ifland, which the Admiral miffed, by getting among 
“ the Hands in the Archipelago of St. Laurence. It is a 
“ Misfortune his Chart was not publiflied, which would 
“ have given more Light as to the Lands, Lakes, and 
“ Rivers he mentions, now we can only guefs in the 
“ dark, and may be miftaken. 
“ However, I fhall venture to -give my Opinion of 
“ their Situation, though I may not judge right. As I 
“ apprehend it the Archipelago oF St. Lazarus, and Rio 
“ los Reys, and Lake Belle, and alfo the Lake of V elafco, 
“ are no Part of North America, but a Country diftirtff 
“ from it •, the Paffage lying betwixt thofe Lands and 
“ America ; for in his Journal he fays he failed eight 
‘‘ hundred and fixty-fix Leagues North-north- weft from 
“ Cap^ Abel, in California, in Latitude 26 Degrees, 
“ the laft two hundred and fixty of which was in crook- 
“ ed Channels, among Hands, until he got to Rio los 
