228 Observations on the late Expedition of Capt. Parry , 
last association wonderfully heightened its empire over the ima- 
gination of mankind. 
What efforts the Spanish Government might make from 
Mexico to explore the north-west coast, is concealed at once by 
that mysterious obscurity which it studiously throws over all 
its proceedings, and by the apathy with which such enterprises 
soon came to be viewed. The most remarkable voyage is that 
professed to have been made by Juan de Fuca, by birth a 
Greek, and who ultimately lived neglected in his native coun- 
try. The Spaniards deny all knowledge of him or his voyage ; 
but one Douglas, an Englishman, who met him accidentally at 
Venice, took down his narrative, which was to the following 
purport : That, after passing the 48th degree of latitude, he 
had entered the Strait of Anian, and having sailed for twenty 
days through its long and winding channel, and seen people on 
the shore covered with the skins of beasts, he had emerged in- 
to the North Sea, when, conceiving himself to have accomplish- 
the object of his voyage, he returned. This narrative was ac- 
counted a fable, till Meares and Vancouver, in tracing the north- 
west coast of America, discovered Vancouver’s Island, separa- 
ted from the continent by a long and narrow channel, precisely 
similar to that through which Fuca described himself to have 
passed. The aspect of the country and natives, and the pas- 
sage with the open sea, precisely corresponded. It became evi- 
dent, therefore, that the old captain had merely committed an 
error of judgment when, in sailing through this channel, he 
supposed himself to be sailing between Asia and America, and 
the sea into which he emerged to be the Northern Ocean. 
This seems the time to notice the narrative of Maldonado, 
which Mr Barrow, though he has presented us with a transla- 
tion of the original MS. preserved in the archieves of Spain, 
hesitates not to pronounce a palpable and decided forgery. We 
confess that this does not appear to us quite so clear. Maldo- 
nado is admitted to have been a navigator of great eminence ; 
and it is not very likely that the Spanish Government would 
have treasured up his narrative so carefully, if they had not 
had some reason to suppose it genuine. Maldonado reports, 
that, after passing through Davis’s Straits, and sailing a great 
distance, first north-west, and then south-west, he came to the 
