repeated vifits o f his Ihips to the Southern hemifpheee,
have very confiderably. added to our ftock of geographical
knowledge.
I .
The South Atlantic Ocean was the firft fcene of our operations.
Falkland’s Iflands had been hitherto barely known
to exift; but their true poiition and extent, and every cir-
cumftance which could ieh~der'fKeif'Snitence of any con-
fequence, remained abfolutely undecided, till Byron viiited
them in 1764. And Captain Macbride, who followed him
thither two years after, having circumnavigated their coafts,
and taken, a complete furvey, a chart of Falkland’s Iflands has
been conftruCted, with fo much accuracy, that the coafts of
Great Britain, itfelf, are not more authentically laid down
r upon our -maps.
How little was really known of the iflands in the South
. Atlantic, even fo late as the time of Lord Anfon, we have
the moft remarkable proofs, in the Hiftory of his voyage.
Unavoidably led into miftake, by the imperfeCt materials
then in the poffeffion of the world, he had confidered
Pepys’s Ifland, and Falkland Ifles, as diftinft placesf diftant
from each other about five degrees o f latitude *. Byron’s
refearches have rectified this capital error; and it is now decided,
beyond all contradiction, that future navigators win
miff end their time, i f they look for Pefys’s Ifland in latitude 4.7° ; it
-being novo certain, that Pefys’s I f and is no other than thefe ifands
.-.of Falkland f .
* See Lord Anion’s Voyage, quarto edition, p. 91.
, + Thefe are Captain Cook’s words, Preface to. his Voyage, p. 14 .; and the evidence,
on which he forms this judgment, may be met with in Hawkefworth’s Journal
-o f Byron’s Voyage, Vol. i. p.- 23, 2+.— 5 1 , 52, ,53, 5,4.
2 Befides
i n t r o d u c t i o n .
Befides the determination o f this confiderable point, other
lands, fituated in the South Atlantic, have been brought
forward into view. I f the ifle of Georgia had been formerly
feen by La Roche, in 1675» and by Mr. Guyot, in the
ffiip Lion, in 1756, which feems.to be probable, Captain Cook,
m 177So has made us fully acquainted with its extent and
true poiition;' and, in the fame year, he added tq the map
of the world Sandwich Land, hitherto not known to exift,
and. j j| Smoft Southern difcovery that has been ever accom-
plifhed *. .
II.
Though the Strait o f Magalhaens had been frequently
viiited, and. failed through, by ihips o f different nations,
before our time, a careful examination o f its bays, and
harbours, and head lands; of the numerous iflands it contains,
and o f the coafts, on both fides, that inclofe it; and
an exaCt account of the tides, and currents, and foundings,
throughout its whole extent, was a talk, which, if Sir
John Narborough, and others, had not totally omitted,
they cannot be faid to have recorded fo fully, as to prev
'^ ¿ rUtllity ° f future inveftigation. This talk has
been ably and effectually performed by Byron, Wallis, and
Carteret; whofe tranfaCtions in this Strait, and the chart of
it, founded on their obfervations and difeoveries, are a moft -
valuable acceilion to- ^eograrpby.
III.
If the correct information, .thus obtained, about every
part of this celebrated. Strait, ihould deter future adven-
urers from involving themfelves in the difficulties and
p. l l i i l Chatt ° f PifC0VerieS in the South Atbnlic. Cook’s Voyage, Vol. ii.
embarraffments