1617 at the island of S. Helena, and in July following in Zealand. Purchas, vol. I. lib. 2. p. 80.

An. 1615. Isaac le Maire, a merchant of Amsterdam, and William Cornelison Schouten of Horn, resolving to find out a new way to the East Indies, besides those already known by the Cape of Good Hope and Strait of Magellan; at their own charges fitted out a good ship of three hundred and sixty ton and twenty guns, and a smaller of a hundred and ten ton and eight guns, in which they sailed themselves out of the Texel on the sixteenth of June in the aforesaid year, resolving to find another passage into the South Sea, to the southward of the Strait of Magellan; which their design they kept secret, till they came near the line, where they discovered it to the seamen, who were well pleased with the undertaking. To pass by all other particulars, as too like those in the foregoing voyages, on the ninth of December they sailed up into Port Desire, on the coast of America, in 47 degrees and 40 minutes of south latitude: where bringing their ships ashore to clean them, as they were burning reeds under the lesser of them, she took fire, and burnt, till the tide coming up, quenched the flame; yet so that nothing of her could be saved, but a little wood for fuel and the iron-work. The thirteenth of January 1616 the great ship now left alone sailed out of Port Desire, and the twenty-fifth discovered the island they called Statenland to the eastward, and the point of Tierra del Fuego to the westward, which they called Maurice-land, in almost 55 degrees of south latitude. Entering betwixt these two lands, they steered south-south-west, till coming under 55 degrees 36 minutes, they stood southwest and then south. Thus the twenty-sixth they came under 57 degrees, and the twenty-ninth discovered those they called Barnevelts islands. The third of February they were under 59 degrees 25 minutes, and the twelfth found the Straits of Magellan lay east of them; and therefore being satisfied that they were in the South Sea, they called the new-found passage the Strait of le Maire. March the first they came near the islands of John Fernandez, in 33 degrees 40 mi

nutes of south latitude, and at some distance from the coast of Chile: but though they endeavoured it, could never come near enough to anchor, being still beaten off by the wind and current, and therefore steered away to the westward to prosecute their voyage; and in April they discovered several small islands inhabited by naked people, none of whom would come aboard, nor could they come to an anchor. These islands were in about 14 and 15 degrees of south latitude. Sailing on still westward, they saw many more islands in May, and had some trade with the natives, who attempted to surprise the ship, or at least the boat; but were soon scared away by the fire arms, when they saw they did execution, for before they thought they had only made a noise. Finding no continent, and perceiving they were at least sixteen hundred leagues to the westward of Chile or Peru, they steered to the northward, for fear they should fall south of New Guinea, and perhaps not be able to clear themselves of the coast, the winds being always at east. Many more islands are mentioned in the journal, at some of which they touched and got refreshment; but on the first of July they anchored near the coast of New Guinea, whence they sailed still along the shore, and amidst a multitude of islands, till they came into half a degree of south latitude, where they saw a small island off the shore of the land of Papous, and called it William Schouten's Island, after the captain's name, and the westermost point of it the Cape of Good Hope. September the 17th they arrived at the island Ternate, and thence in October to Jacatra, or Batavia in the island of Java; where the president of the Dutch East India Company seized the ship and goods. Whereupon William Cornelison Schouten the master, Jacob le Maire the merchant, and ten seamen, put themselves aboard the Amsterdam, a Dutch ship homeward bound, and twelve others aboard the Zealand, and arrived in safety at Amsterdam in July; having discovered the new Strait called le Maire, as was said before, and performed the voyage round the world in two years and eighteen days. Purchas, vol. I. lib. 2. p. 88.

An. 1643. Brewer, or Brower, went another way into the South Sea, by a passage called after his own name, which is east of le Maire's Strait; but whether this was a strait with land on each side, or an open sea, is not known, his diary not being made public; but most maps make it a new strait.

An. 1683. One John Cook sailed from Virginia in a ship of eight guns and fifty two men a buccaneering; and with him one Cowley, as master. On the coast of Guinea they took a ship of forty guns by surprise, in which they sailed away to the South Sea, meeting by the way another ship commanded by one Eaton, who joined them to follow the same trade. They ran into 60 degrees of south latitude, and passed that way into the South Sea, where Cowley says they discovered several islands about the line. Thence they sailed over to the Ladrones, whence they continued their course, and anchored at Canton in China. Departing from Canton, they came to the island Borneo, where Cowley, the author of this relation, with nineteen others, got a great boat in which they went away to Java. At Batavia the author, with two others, shipped himself on board a Dutch vessel, and so returned to Europe. The relation of this voyage is shortened, because there have been so many voyages round the world before, and all of them performed in the same ship; whereas in this there was much shifting. Those that desire may see it at large in the collection of original voyages, published by captain William Hack, An. 1699.

Captain Dampier in his first book of voyages gives an account of this same last mentioned, but more at large, he being aboard with the same Cook; and therefore no more needs be said of it, though there may be many circumstances which this discourse cannot descend to wherefore here shall end the voyages round the world, it being time to proceed to what remains.

After so long a discourse of voyages and discoveries, it may seem superfluous to treat of the advantages the public receives by navigation, and the faithful journals and accounts of travellers. The matter is natural, and no man can read the one without being sensible of the

other; and therefore a few words may suffice on this subject, to avoid cloying the judicious reader with what is so visible and plain, and to save running out this introduction to an unreasonable length. What was cosmography before these discoveries, but an imperfect fragment of a science, scarce deserving so good a name? When all the known world was only Europe, a small part of Afric, and the lesser portion of Asia; so that of this terraqueous globe not one sixth part had ever been seen or heard of. Nay, so great was the ignorance of man in this particular, that learned persons made a doubt of its being round; others no less knowing imagined all they were not acquainted with desert and uninhabitable. But now geography and hydrography have received some perfection by the pains of so many mariners and travellers, who to evince the rotundity of the earth and water, have sailed and travelled round it, as has been here made appear; to show there is no part uninhabitable, unless the frozen polar regions, have visited all other countries, though never so remote, which they have found well peopled, and most of them rich and delightful; and to demonstrate the antipodes, have pointed them out to us. Astronomy has received the addition of many constellations never seen before. Natural and moral history is embellished with the most beneficial increase of so many thousands of plants it had never before received, so many drugs and spices, such variety of beasts, birds, and fishes, such rarities in minerals, mountains and waters, such unaccountable diversity of climates and men, and in them of complexions, tempers, habits, manners, politics, and religions. Trade is raised to the highest pitch, each part of the world supplying the other with what it wants, and bringing home what is accounted most precious and valuable; and this not in a niggard and scanty manner, as when the Venetians served all Europe with spice and drugs from India by the way of Turkey and the Red Sea; or as when gold and silver were only drawn from some poor European and African mines; but with plenty and affluence, as we now see, most nations resorting freely to the East

Indies, and the West, yearly sending forth prodigious quantities of the most esteemed and valuable metals. To conclude, the empire of Europe is now extended to the utmost bounds of the earth where several of its nations have conquests and colonies. These and many more are the advantages drawn from the labours of those who expose themselves to the dangers of the vast ocean, and of unknown nations; which those who sit still at home abundantly reap in every kind: and the relation of one traveller is an incentive to stir up another to imitate him; whilst the rest of mankind, in their accounts, without stirring a foot, compass the earth and seas, visit all countries, and converse with all nations.

It only remains to give some few directions for such as go on long voyages; which shall be those drawn up by Mr. Rook, a fellow of the Royal Society, and geometry professor of Gresham college, by order of the said society, and published in the Philosophical Transactions of the eighth of January 1665-6, being Numb. 8. They are as follow:

1. To observe the declination of the compass, or its variation from the meridian of the place, frequently: marking withal the latitude and longitude of the place where such observation is made, as exactly as may be, and setting down the method by which they made them. 2. To carry dipping needles with them, and observe the inclination of the needle in like manner.

3. To remark carefully the ebbings and flowings of the sea in as many places as they can, together with all the accidents ordinary and extraordinary of the tides; as, their precise time of ebbing and flowing in rivers, at promontories or capes, which way the current runs, what perpendicular distance there is between the highest tide and lowest ebb, during the spring tides and neap tides, what day of the moon's age, and what times of the year the highest and lowest tides fall out: and all other considerable accidents they can observe in the tides, chiefly near ports, and about islands, as in S. Helena's island, and the three rivers there, at the Bermudas, &c.