not pretended to be measured to exactness, but according to the general computation of sailors. The total thus amounts to six thousand five hundred leagues, taking only the greatest windings of the coast, and this along what is conquered by Europeans; excepting only the seven hundred leagues of the land of the Patagones about the Strait of Magellan, and two hundred and fifty or thereabouts, of Caribana, not so well subdued. And to sum up the commodities we have from these countries; the principal are gold, silver, pearls, emeralds, amethysts, cochineal of several sorts, indigo, anatto, logwood, Brasil, Nicaragua wood, brasilette, fustic, lignum vitæ, sugar, ginger, cacao, bairullas, cotton, red wool, tobacco of various sorts, snuff, hides raw and tanned, ambergris of all sorts, bezoar, balsam of Tolu, of Peru, and of Chile, jesuit's bark, jalap, mechoacan, sarsaparilla, sassafras, tamarinds, cassia, and many other things of lesser note. It only remains now to add a word concerning the islands belonging to this mighty continent. The first of these beginning northerly, is Newfoundland, above three hundred leagues in compass, peopled by French and English, who have some colonies in it fruitful enough, were it well cultivated; yet it yields no commodity to export from the land: but the sea is an inexhausted treasure, furnishing all Europe with salt and dried fish; which yield a mighty profit to those that follow the fishery, and is a general benefit to all men. The next are the Bermudas, or Summer-islands, lying above three hundred leagues east from the coast of Virginia; the biggest of them is not twenty miles long, and not above two or three in breadth, the others much smaller: yet here is a strong colony of English, the land being delightful to live in, producing all things for human life plentifully, and the trade is some cochineal, ambergris and pearl: it used to send abroad the fairest oranges in these parts, but they have failed of late years. Off the coast of Florida are the islands called Lucayos, the first discovered by Columbus; but they are small and of no account. South of the point of Florida is Cuba, above two hundred leagues in length, and about forty in breadth in the widest place; a pleasant place,

has gold and copper mines, and yields tobacco, sugar, and cotton. East of Cuba lies Hispaniola, a 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 Gulf of Paria, near which there are many small ones, but not considerable. All the coast southward has no island of any note, 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 ascending 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 California, 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 a 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

governor 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 nine or ten 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 enterprise 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 Solomon: 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, 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 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,

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 twentysecond 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. 1.

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 departed thence south till 40 or 41 degrees, then bore away east somewhat southerly, till the sixth of November they were in 49 degrees. The twenty-fourth in 42 degrees 25 minutes they saw land east and by north at ten miles distance, and called it Antony van Diemen's land, and after running along the 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 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 1643, came up with the N. W. cape of this land, and finding an island there, called it Three Kings Island; and going thither to refresh, they saw some large men, but could not understand them. Hence they directed their course northeast, till in 22 degrees 35 minutes they saw a small island, which they could not come at, but called it Piilstreet's island. Jan. 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 35 minutes they were up with the islands of Mark, found before by William Schouten, and John le Mair: the natives are savage and have their hair tied up. March the twentyninth 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 twenty-eighth they came to the burning island, where they 'saw a great