2 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
which the Spaniards had hitherto ventured in the New 
Worlds Balboa^ having been informed by his Indian 
guides^ that he might view the sea from the next moun¬ 
tain^ advanced alone to its summit ; and beholding the 
vast ocean spread out before him in all its majesty^ 
fell on his knees, and rendered thanks to God for 
having conducted him to so important a discovery. 
He hastened towards the object he had so laboriously 
sought, and, on reaching its margin, plunged up to his 
middle in its waves, with his sword and buckler, and 
took possession of it in the name of his sovereign, Fer¬ 
dinand of Spain. 
Seven years after this important event, Magellan, a 
Portuguese, despatched by the court of Spain to ascertain 
the exact situation of the Molucca Islands, sailed along 
the eastern coast of South America, discovered the straits 
that bear his name; and, passing through them, first 
launched the ships of Europe in the Southern Sea. It is, 
however, probable, that neither Balboa, while he gazed 
with transport on its mighty waters, nor Magellan, when 
he first whitened wdth his canvass the waves of that 
ocean whose smooth surface induced him to call it the 
Pacific, had any idea either of its vast extent, of the 
numerous islands that studded its bosom, the diver¬ 
sified and beautiful structure of those foundations, 
which myriads of tiny architects had reared from the 
depths of the ocean to the level of its highest wave, or of 
the varied tribes of man by whom they were inhabited. 
Boldly pursuing his way across the untraversed surface of 
this immense ocean, Magellan discovered the Ladrone, 
and subsequently the Philippine islands. The object of 
the voyage was ultimately accomplished; the Victory, 
the vessel in which Magellan sailed, having performed 
