202 
A VOYAGE TO 
1777- feeiij the means of bringing to our knowledge a matter of 
iJX; not °nly very curious, but very inftrudtive. The ap¬ 
plication of the above narrative is obvious. It will ferve to 
explain, better than a thoufand conjectures of fpeculative 
reafoners, how the detached parts of the earth, and, in 
particular, how the illands of the South Sea, may have been 
firft peopled; efpecially thofe that lie remote from any in¬ 
habited continent, or from each other 
This illand is called Wateeoo by the natives. It lies in 
the latitude of 20° T South, and in the longitude 201° 45' 
Eaft, and is about fix leagues in circumference. It is a 
beautiful fpot, with a furface compofed of hills and plains, 
and covered with verdure of many hues. Our gentlemen 
found the foil, where they palfed the day, to be light and 
fandy. But farther up the country, a different fort, per¬ 
haps, prevails; as we faw from the fliip, by the help of 
our glades, a reddifh caft upon the rifing grounds. There 
* Such accidents as this here related, probably happen frequently in the Pacific Ocean. 
In 1696, two canoes, having on board'thirty perfons of both fexes, were driven, by con¬ 
trary winds and tempeftuous weather, on the ifle of Samal, one of the Philippines, after 
being toft about at fea feventy days, and having performed a voyage, from an ifland called 
by them Amorfot, 300 leagues to the Eaft of Samal. Five of the number who had em¬ 
barked, died of the hardfhips fuffered during this extraordinary paflage. See a particular 
account of them, and of the iflands they belonged to, in Lettres Edifiantes Curteufes r 
Tom. xv. from p. 196. to p. 215. In the fame Volume, from p. 282. to p. 320. we 
have the relation of a fimilar adventure, in 1721, when two canoes, one containing twen¬ 
ty-four, and the other fix perfons, men, women, and children, were driven, from an ifland 
they called Farroilep, Northward to the Ifle of Guam, or Guahan, one of the Ladrones 
or Mariannes. But thefe had not failed fo far as their countrymen, who reached Samal 
as above, and they had been at fea only twenty days. There feems to be no reafon to 
doubt the general authenticity of thefe two relations. The information contained in the 
letters of the Jefuits, about thefe iflands, now known under the name of the Carolines, 
and difcovered to the Spaniards by the arrival of the canoes at Samal and Guam, has been 
adopted by all our later writers. See Prefident de Brofle’s Voyages aux Terns Aujirales^ 
Tom. ii. from p» 443. to p. 490. See alfo the Modern Univerfal Hi/lory, 
the 
