[ 336 ] 
are faid to have had very clear and fatisfadlory accounts 
of thefe iflands; but to have deftroyed them for po- 
litical reafons, by exprefs orders from Old Spain, 
when Sir Francis Drake failed into the South feas 
Their fituation is not known ; and from fome fruit- 
lefs attempts to find them, it has been, and is ftill, 
perhaps, queflioned whether there be any fuch 
iflands. — Some time after the year 1720, while 
Capt. Betagh, Commander of the Marines on board 
of Capt. Shelvocke’s fliip, was in Peru, the difcovery 
of thefe iflands was again attempted, upon fome frefli 
information, by command of the Viceroy -f- j but 
without fuccefs : for the latitude of thefe iflands is not 
even nearly known. They are, however, fuppofed 
to lie between the loth and 20th degree of S. latitude, 
in about 175° of W. longitude from London, accord- 
ing to the befl: Englifli and French maps : or, accord- 
ing to fome geographers, thefe iflands are only 120® 
to the VV^. of London. 
Soon after the government of the Dutch in the 
Eafl: Indies was fettled at Batavia, it was thought 
proper by the Dutch Eaft-lndia company that 
an exadt furvey of their countries already difco- 
vered fliould be made and preferved. For this 
purpofe Capt. Abel Janfen Taiinan failed from Ba- 
tavia in 1642. In this voyage feveral lands were 
difcovered, particularly the two iflands of Amfterdam 
and Rotterdam, lying in 2 1"" and 20° of S. latitude 
and in 173° or 174° of W. Longitude. The ifland- 
ers are reprefented to be of a civil and peaceable dif- 
* Harris’s Voyages, 2d Edit. Vol.I. p« 63. 
t Id. ib. p, 245. 
pofition. 
