sant place, has gold and copper mines, and yields tobacco, sugar, and cotton. East of Cuba lies Hispaniola an hundred and fifty leagues in length, and about sixty in breadth, producing the same commodities as Cuba; and both subject to Spain. Jamaica lies south of Cuba, about seventy leagues in length, and twenty in breadth, possessed by the English, and producing sugar, indigo and cotton. The island of Puerto Rico is less than Jamaica, yields the same commodities, and belongs to Spain. The Caribbe islands are many, but small; some of them possessed by the English, French, and Dutch, others not inhabited: they produce sugar, indigo, cotton and tobacco, and run from the coast of Paria to Puerto Rico. The Leeward-islands lie along the coast of Paria, the most remarkable of them being Margarita, and Cubagua, famous for the pearl-fishery. La Trinidad is a large island before the gulph of Paria, near which there are many small ones, but not considerable. All the coast southward has no island of any hote, till we come to the strait of Magellan, the south part whereof is made by Terra del Fuego and other islands, of which little is known. Nor is there any aseending again northward worth speaking of, till the mouth of the bay of Panama, where are the islands of Pearls, so called from a pearl-fishery there; they are small, and of no consideration in any other respect. The only great island on this side America is Califor nia, found to be so but of late years, running from the tropic of Cancer to 45 degrees of north latitude, northwest and south-east, above five hundred leagues in length, and an hundred in breadth in the northern part, whence it runs tapering down to the south. It has hitherto yielded no great profit to the Spaniards, who have not had leisure to build colonies there till within these very few years, and not above two as yet, This is all that belongs to America; it remains to add some few voyages to the isles of Solomon, Terra Australis incognita, and the land of Yesso, or Jedso; which being properly no part of the East or West Indies, and but little of them as yet known, they have been reserved to be spoke of by themselves.

An. 1595, Alvaro de Mendana, with the title of gos vernor and lord-lieutenant, set out from Peru for the islands of Solomon, whereof some uncertain knowledge was had before by ships that accidentally had seen some of them: he had four sail, with men and women, and all other necessaries to settle a colony. In about 9 or 10 degrees of south latitude, and fifteen hundred leagues west of the city of Lima in Peru, he discovered four small islands inhabited by very handsome and civilized people. Hence holding on his course still westward, he found several other more considerable islands, where he intended to have settled his colony, but was hindered by many misfortunes, and among the rest sickness. All that is extant of this relation, is only a fragment in Spanish taken out of Thevenot's second volume; which being inserted in this collection, it will be needless to add any more in this place, only that three of the ships perished; two were never heard of, a third cast away on the Philippine islands, the men saved; and the fourth, being the admiral, arrived at Manila, with the men almost starved; and thus this en terprise was disappointed.

An. 1600, four ships sailing from Peru for the Philippine islands, were by northerly winds driven south of the equinoctial, where they fell upon several rich countries and islands, not far from the isles of Solomone they called one place Monte de Plata, or Mountain of Silver, because they found plenty of it there. After which a captain of note went out on purpose, and saw these discoveries. This is all we have of it in Purchas, vol. IV. p. 1432; only he adds two petitions of captain Peter Fernandez de Quiros to the king of Spain, suing. to be employed in conducting colonies to those southern parts, alleging the vast extent and riches of the continent, and great value of the islands, which he speaks of as an eye-witness, and by the report of natives he brought away from thence, as may be seen more at large in Purchas, vol. IV. p. 1422.

An. 1628. On the twenty-eighth of October, the Dutch set out eleven sail for India, among which was the Batavia, commanded by captain Francis Pelsart,

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V: 207 101 902 which being parted from the rest was cast away on the rocks near some small islands not inhabited, and having no fresh water, in upwards of 38 degrees of south latitude, but all the people saved on the islands. This want obliged them to build a deck to their long boat and ade put out to sea, where they soon discovered the continent, bearing north and by west about six miles from them. This was on the eighth of June, CA An. 1629, and the weather being rough," and the coast high, they were forced to beat at sea till the fourteenth, when they found themselves in 24 degrees of south latitude; and six men swimming ashore, saw four savages quite naked, who fled from them: they went to seek fresh water, but finding none, swam back to their boat. The fifteenth the boat made into shore, and found no fresh water, but the remains of the rain that lay in the hollow of the rocks, which relieved them, being almost choaked. The sixteenth they went ashore again, but found no water, the latitude here 22 degrees; the twentieth in 19 degrees, the twenty second in 16 degrees 10 minutes. Thus Pelsart sailed along this coast to the northward till he came among the Indian ' islands, and then struck over to Java, where he met two Dutch ships, which carried him to Batavia, whence he returned with a vessel to save as much as might be of the wreck. Thevenot, vol. I..

An. 1642, Abel Jansen Tasman set sail from Batavia in the island of Java with a yacht and a flyboat, and September the fifth anchored at the island Mauritius in 20 degrees of south latitude. The eighth they debparted thence south till 40 or 41 degrees, then bore away east somewhat southerly, till the sixth of Novemober they were in 49 degrees. The twenty-fourth in 42 todegrees 25 minutes, they saw land east and by north at ten miles distance, and called it Antony van Diemen's land, and after running alongthe coast came to an anchor on the first of December in a bay they named Frederick Hendrick's Bay they heard some noise as of people, but saw none, and only the footing of wild beasts, and some smokes. Departing hence, on the thirteenth of December they anchored in the country called in the

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maps New-Zealand; here they saw some natives lusty people, and half naked, who coming aboard' on pretence to traffic, fell upon the men in the boat, and killed four of them, for which reason it was called Murderers Bay. Here they seemed to be embayed, but on the fourth of January 1648, came up with the N. W. cape of this land, and finding an island there, called Three Kings Island; and going thither to refresh, they saw some large men, but could not understand them. Hence they directed their course north-east, till in 22 degrees 35 minutes they saw a small island, which they could not come at, but called it Piilstreet's island. January 21, in 21 degrees 20 minutes, they called two islands, the one Amsterdam, the other Zealand: on the first they got many hogs, hens, and all sorts of fruit. The inhabitants were friendly, had no weapons, and seemed to know no evil, but that they would steal. In the latter of these islands they saw gardens with square beds and trees regularly planted. Leaving this place they saw many islands as they stood northward, and in 17 degrees 19 minutes they run among eighteen or twenty islands, which in the charts are called Prince William's Islands, or Hemskirk's Shoals. Directing their course now N. or N. N. W. after much foul weather, on the twenty-second of March, in 5 degrees 2 minutes south latitude, they had sight of land four miles west of them, being about twenty islands, called in the charts Onthong Java, about ninety miles from the coast of New-Guinea. March the twenty-fifth, in 4 degrees 3.5 minutes, they were up with the islands of Mark, found before by William Schouten, and John 'le Maire: the natives are savage and have their hair tied up. March the twenty-ninth they passed by Green Island, the thirtieth by S. John's Island, and April the first, in 4 degrees 30 minutes, they reached the coast of New-Guinea at a cape called by the Spaniards Santa Maria, and run along the coast to the promontory called Struis Hook, where the land bends to the south and south-east, as they did to find a passage to the south, but were forced to turn to the west. April the twentyeighth they came to the burning island, where they

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saw a great fire come out of the hill, and sailing betwixt the island and the main saw many fires. At the islands Jama and Moa they got refreshment. May the twelfth, in only 54 minutes of south latitude, they sailed along the side of William Schouten's island, which seems to be well inhabited; and the eighteenth they came to the west-end of New-Guinea, and on the fifteenth of June returned to Batavia, having finished the voyage in ten months. Thevenot, vol. II,

An. 1643, a Dutch ship sailing to the northward of Japan, came upon a coast in 39 degrees 45 minutes latitude. Running up as far as 43 degrees, they saw several villages near one another, and say there are about them many mines of silver. The land in some places seemed to bear no grass, but the sea was very full of fish. In 44 degrees 30 minutes, they went ashore in a mountainous country, supposed to be full of silver mines. In 46 degrees the land resembled the coast of England, the soil being good, but the natives do not till it. In 48 degrees there are small hills covered with short grass. In 45 degrees 50 minutes is an island, which the Dutch call Staten island, and beyond it the Companies land, another island: in this they found a sort of mineral earth, that looked as if it had been all silver. In 45 degrees they observed, that though the land was not cul❤ tivated it yielded very good fruit of several sorts, the sea-shore was covered with rose-trees, and on the rocks many large oysters, but on the land they saw no beast but one bear. The inhabitants of this land of Eso or Yedso, for so it is called, are all strong set, thick, with long hair and beards, good features, no flat noses, black eyes, a sallow complexion, and very hairy about their bodies: the women are not so black as the men, some of them cut their hair, and others tie it up. They seem to have no religion nor government, every man has two wives, who serve him at home and abroad; they are very jealous of their women, love drinking, look like savages, but yet are very civil and obliging to strangers: their houses are only small cottages, and but a few of them together they eat the fat and oil of whales, all sorts of fish and herbs, and rose-buds are their greatest dainty.