or to execute their predatory and military operations.  Accordingly, soon after emerging from the strait, or completing the circuit of Tierra del Fuego, they began to hold a northerly course, to the uninhabited island of Juan Fernandez, their usual spot of rendezvous and refreshment.  And after ranging along the continent of America, from Chili to California, they either reversed their course back to the Atlantic, or, if they ventured to extend their voyage by stretching over to Asia, they never thought of trying experiments in the unfrequented and unexplored parts of the ocean, but chose the beaten path (if the expression may be used,) within the limits of which it was likely that they might meet with a Philippine galleon, to make their voyage profitable to themselves; but could have little prospect, if they had been desirous, of making it useful to the public, by gaining any accession of new land to the map of the world.

By the natural operation of these causes, it could not but happen, that little progress should be made toward obtaining a full and accurate knowledge of the South Pacific Ocean.  Something, however, had been attempted by the industrious, and once enterprising, Dutch, to whom we are indebted for three voyages, undertaken for the purposes of discovery; and whose researches, in the southern latitudes of this ocean, are much better ascertained than are those of the earlier Spanish navigators above mentioned.

Le Maire and Schouten, in 1616, and Roggewein, in 1722, wisely judging that nothing new could be gained by adhering to the usual passage on the north side of the Line, traversed this ocean from Cape Horn to the East Indies, crossing the south tropic, a space which had been so seldom, and so ineffectually, visited; though popular belief, fortified by philosophical speculation, expected there to reap the richest harvest of discovery.

Tasman, in 1642, in his extensive circuit from Batavia, through the South Indian Ocean, entered the South Pacific, at its greatest distance from the American side, where it never had been examined before.  And his range, continued from a high southern latitude, northward to New Guinea, and the islands to the east of it near the equator, produced intermediate discoveries, that have rendered his voyage memorable in the annals of navigation.

But still, upon the whole, what was effected in these three expeditions, served only to shew how large a field was reserved for future and more persevering examination.  Their results had, indeed, enabled geographers to diversify the vacant uniformity of former charts of this ocean by the insertion of some new islands.  But the number, and the extent of these insertions, were so inconsiderable, that they may be said to appear

   Rari, nantes in gurgite vasto.

And, if the discoveries were few, those few were made very imperfectly.  Some coasts were approached, but not landed upon; and passed without waiting to examine their extent and connection with those that might exist at no great distance.  If others were landed upon, the visits were, in general, so transient, that it was scarcely possible to build upon a foundation so weakly laid, any information that could even gratify idle curiosity, much less satisfy philosophical enquiry, or contribute greatly to the safety, or to the success, of future navigation.