INTRODUCTION. 
ix 
particularly to the South of the equator, had remained, 
during all tills time, unexplored. 
The great aim of Magalhaens, and of the Spaniards in 
general, its firft navigators, being merely to arrive, by this 
paffage, at the Moluccas, and the other Aflatic Spice III and s, 
every intermediate part of the ocean that did not lie conti¬ 
guous to their Weftern track, which was on the North fide 
of the equator, of courfe efcaped due examination. And if 
Mendana and Quiros, and fome namelefs conductors of 
voyages before them *, by deviating from this track, and 
fleering Weftward from Callao, within the Southern tropic, 
were fo fortunate as to meet with various iilands there, and 
fo fanguine as to confider thofe iflands as marks of the ex- 
iftence of a neighbouring Southern continent; in the ex¬ 
ploring of which they flattered themfelves they fhould rival 
the fame of De Gama and Columbus; thefe feeble efforts 
never led to any effectual difclofure of the fuppofed hidden 
mine of a New World. On the contrary, their voyages being 
conducted without a judicious plan, and their difcoveries 
being left imperfe£t without immediate fettlement, or fub- 
fequent examination, and fcarcely recorded in any well- 
authenticated or accurate narrations, had been almoft for¬ 
got ; or were fo obfcurely remembered, as only to ferve 
the purpofe of producing perplexing debates about their 
fltuation and extent; if not to fugged; doubts about their 
very exiftence. 
It feems, indeed, to have become a very early objeCt of 
policy in the Spanifh councils, to difcontinue and to dif- 
courage any farther refearches in that quarter. Already 
matters of a larger empire on the continent of America 
* See the particulars- of their difcoveries in Mr. Dalrymple’s valuable Colle&ion of 
Voyages in the South Pacific Ocean. 
Vol, I. b than 
