THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 
How fhall we account for this nation’s having fpread it- 
felf, in fo many detached iflands, fo widely disjoined from 
each other, in every quarter of the Pacific Ocean ! We find 
it, from New Zealand, in the South, as far as the Sandwich 
Iflands, to the North! And, in another direction, from Eafter 
Ifland to the Hebrides ! That is, over an extent of fixty de¬ 
grees of latitude, or twelve hundred leagues, North and 
South! And eighty-three degrees of longitude, or fixteen 
hundred and fixty leagues, Eaft and Weft! How much far¬ 
ther, in either diretftion, its colonies reach, is not known; 
but what we know already, in confequence of this and our 
former voyage, warrants our pronouncing it to be, though 
perhaps not the moft numerous, certainly, by far, the moft 
extenfive nation upon earth 
Had the Sandwich Iflands been difcovered at an early pe¬ 
riod, by the Spaniards, there is little doubt that they would 
have taken advantage of fo excellent a fituation, and have 
made ufe of Atooi, or fome other of the iflands, as a refrefh- 
ing place to the fhips, that fail annually from Acapulco for 
Manilla. They lie almoft midway between the firft place 
and Guam one of the Ladrones, which is at prefent their only 
port in travelling this vaft ocean ; and it would not have 
been a week’s fail out of their common route, to have 
touched at them; which could have been done, without 
running the leaft hazard of lofing the paftage, as they are 
iufticiently within the verge of the Eafterly trade-wind. An 
acquaintance with the Sandwich Iflands would have been 
equally favourable to our Buccaneers; who ufed fometimes 
to pafs from the coaft of America to the Ladrones, with a 
ftock of food and water fcarcely fufhcient to preferve life. 
* See more about the great extent of the colonies of this nation, in the Introductory 
Preface. 
2 $ I 
1778. 
February. 
K k 2 
Here 
