INTRODUCTION. 
xi 
California, they either reverfed their courfe back to the 
Atlantic; or, if they ventured to extend their voyage, by 
firetching. over to Alia, they never thought of trying expe¬ 
riments in the unfrequented and unexplored parts of the 
Ocean; but chofe the beaten path (if the expreflion may 
be ufed), within the limits of which it was likely that they 
might meet with a Philippine galleon, to make their voyage 
profitable to themfelves ; but could have little profpect, 
if they had been defirous, of making it ufeful to the public, 
by gaining any accefiion of new land to the Map of the 
World. 
By the natural operation of thefe caufes, it could not but 
happen, that little progrefs fhould be made toward obtain¬ 
ing a full and accurate knowledge of the South Pacific 
Ocean. Something, however, had been attempted by the 
induftrious, and once enterprifing Dutch; to whom we are 
indebted for three voyages, undertaken for the purpofes of 
difcovery; and whofe refearches, in the Southern latitudes 
of this Ocean, are much better afcertained than are thofe of 
the earlier Spanifh navigators above mentioned. 
Le Maire and Schouten, in 1616, and Roggewein, in 1722, 
wifely judging, that nothing new could be gained by ad¬ 
hering to the ufual paflage on the North fide of the line, 
traverfed this Ocean from Cape Horn to the Eaft Indies, 
eroding the South tropic; a fpace which had been fo fel- 
dom, and fo ineffectually viiited; though popular belief, 
fortified by philofophical fpeculation, expected there to 
reap the richeft harveft of difcovery. 
Tafman, in 1642, in his extenfive circuit from Batavia, 
through the South Indian Ocean, entered the South Pacific, 
at its greateft difiance from the American fide, where it 
never had been examined before. And his range, continued 
b 2 from 
