xiv
a fmall part o f the Weftern Coaft o f New Zealand ;— the
Friendly Ille s;— and thofe called Prince William’s.
. '594. Thus far I have thought it beft; not to interrupt the
Sir Riehard 0 Dp .
Hawkins. pr0grefs of difcovery in the South Pacific Ocean, otherwife
I fhould before have mentioned, that Sir Richard Hawkins
in 1594, being about fifty leagues to the Eaftward of
the river Plate, was driven by a ftorm to the Eaftward of
his intended courfe, and when the weather grew moderate,
fleering towards the. Straits of Magalhaens, he unexpectedly
fell in with land; about fixty leagues of which he coafted,
and has, very particularly, defcribed.; This he named Hawkins’s
Maiden Land, in honour o f his royal miftrefs, Queen
Elizabeth, and fays it lies fome threefcore leagues from the
neareft part of South America.
.689. This land was afterwards difcovered to be two large
Str°”S' iflands, by Captain. John Strong, of the Farewell, from
London, who, in i689,.pafled through the Strait which divides
the Eaftern from the Weftern o f thofe iflands. T o
this Strait he gave the name of Falkland’s Sound, in honour
of his patron, Lord Falkland; and the name has fince been
extended, through inadvertency, to the two iflands it ftpa-
rates.
Having mentioned thefe iflands,- I will add, that future
navigators will mifpend their time, if they look for Pepys’s
Wand
Wand in 47° South; it being now certain,- that Pepys’s
Wand is no other than thefe iflands o f Falkland.
In April 16 7 5 , Anthony, la Roche, an Englifh
merchant, in his return from the South Pacific Ocean,
where he had been on a trading voyage, being carried, by
the winds and currents, far to the Eaft o f Strait La Maire,
fell in with a coaft, which may poffibly be the fame with
that which I vifited during this voyage, and have called
the Wand o f Georgia.
Leaving this land, and failing to the North, La Roche,
in the latitude o f 450 South, difcovered a large ifland, with
a good port towards the eaftern part, where he found wood,
water, and fifli.
In 1699, that celebrated aftronomer Dr. Edmund Halley
was appointed to the command of his Majefty’s fhip
the Paramour Pink, on an expedition for improving the
knowledge of the longitude, and of the variation o f the
compafs; and for difcovering'the unknown lands fuppofed
to lie in the fouthern part o f the Atlantic Ocean. In this
voyage, he determined the longitude of feveral places; and
after his return, conftruöed his Variation Chart, and pro-
pofed a method of obferving the longitude at fea, by means
o f the appulfes, and occultations o f the fixed ftars. But,
though he lb fuccefsfully attended to the two firft
5 arti-
■% .
La Roche.
1699.
Halley.