observation here is as follows:—

An observation concerning the soil and climate of the continent of America, south of the river De la Plata; and how suitable to the genius, the constitution, and the manner of living of Englishmen, and consequently for an English colony.

The particular spot which I observe upon, is that part of the continent of America which lies on the shore of the North Seas, as they are called, though erroneously, for they are more properly the East Seas, being extended along the east shores of South America. The land lies on the same east side of America, extended north and south from Coasta Deserta, in 42°, to Port St. Julian, in 49½°, being almost five hundred miles in length, full of very good harbours, and some navigable rivers. The land is a plain for several scores of miles within the shore, with several little rising hills, but nowhere mountainous or stony; well adapted for enclosing, feeding, and grazing of cattle; also for corn, all sorts of which would certainly not only grow, but thrive very well here, especially wheat, rye, pease, and barley, things which would soon be improved by Englishmen, to the making the country rich and populous, the raising great quantities of grain of all sorts, and cattle in proportion. The trade which I propose for the consumption of all the produce, and the place whither to be carried, I refer to speak of by itself, in the farther progress of this work.

I return now to the pursuit of our voyage. We put to sea again the 10th of May, with fair weather and a fair wind; though a season of the year, it is true, when we might have reason to expect some storms, being what we might call the depth of their winter. However, the winds held northerly, which, there, are to be esteemed the warm winds, and bringing mild weather; and so they did, till we came into the latitude of 50°, when we had strong winds and squally weather, with much snow and cold, from the south-west and south-west by west, which, blowing very hard, we put back to Port St. Julian, where we were not able to stir for some time.

We weighed again the 29th, and stood south again past the mouth of the Straits of Magellan, a strait famous for many years, for being thought to be the only passage out of the North Seas into the South Seas, and therefore I say famous some ages; not only in the discovery of it by Magellan, a Spanish captain, but of such significance, that, for many years, it was counted a great exploit to pass this strait, and few have ever done it of our nation, but that they have thought fit to tell the world of it as an extraordinary business, fit to be made public as an honour to their names. Nay, King Charles the Second thought it worth while to send Sir John Narborough, on purpose to pass and take an exact survey of this strait; and the map or plan of it has been published by Sir John himself, at the public expense, as a useful thing.

Such a mighty and valuable thing also was the passing this strait, that Sir Francis Drake's going through it gave birth to that famous old wives' saying, viz., that Sir Francis Drake shot the gulf; a saying that was current in England for many years after Sir Francis Drake was gone his long journey of all; as if there had been but one gulf in the world, and that passing it had been a wonder next to that of Hercules cleansing the Augean stable.

Of this famous place I could not but observe, on this occasion, that, as ignorance gave it its first fame and made it for so many ages the most eminent part of the globe, as it was the only passage by which the whole world could be surrounded, and that it was to every man's honour that had passed it; so now it is come to the full end or period of its fame, and will in all probability never have the honour to have any ship, vessel, or boat, go through it more, while the world remains, unless, which is very improbable, that part of the world should come to be fully inhabited.

I know some are of opinion, that, before the full period of the earth's existence, all the remotest and most barren parts of it shall be peopled; but I see no ground for such a notion, but many reasons which would make it appear to be impracticable, and indeed impossible; unless it should please God to alter the situation of the globe as it respects the sun, and place it in a direct, as it now moves in an oblique position; or that a new species of mankind should be produced, who might be as well qualified to live in the frozen zone as we are in the temperate, and upon whom the extremity of cold could have no power. I say, as there are several parts of the globe where this would be impracticable, I shall say no more than this, that I think it is a groundless suggestion.

But to return to our voyage; we passed by the mouth of this famous Strait of Magellan, and those others which were passed through by Le Maire the Dutch sailor afterwards; and keeping an offing of six or seven leagues, went away south, till we came into the latitude of 58°, when we would, as we had tried three days before, have stretched away south-west, to have got into the South Seas, but a strong gale of wind took us at west-north-west, and though we could, lying near to it, stretch away to the southward, yet, as it over-blowed, we could make no westward way; and though we had under us an excellent strong-built vessel, that, we may say, valued not the waves, and made very good work of it, yet we went away to leeward in spite of all we could do, and lost ground apace. We held it out, however, the weather being clear, but excessive cold, till we found ourselves in the latitude of 64°.

We called our council several times, to consider what we should do, for we did but drive to leeward the longer we strove with it; the gale held still on, and, to our apprehensions, it was set in; blowing like a kind of monsoon, or trade-wind, though in those latitudes I know there is no such thing properly called, as a trade-wind.

We tried, the wind abating, to beat up again to the north, and we did so; but it was by running a great way to the east; and once, I believe, we were in the longitude of St. Helena, though so far south, but it cost us infinite labour, and near six weeks' time. At length we made the coast, and arrived again at the Port of St. Julian the 20th of June, which, by the way, is the depth of their winter.

Here we resolved to lay up for the winter, and not attempt to go so far south again at that time of the year, but our eager desire of pursuing our voyage prevailed, and we put out to sea again, having taken in fresh provisions, such as are to be had there; that is to say, seals, penguins, and such like, and with this recruit we put to sea, I say, a second time.

We had this time worse luck than we had before; for, the wind setting in at south-west, blew a storm, and drove us with such force away to sea eastward, that we were never able to make any way to the southward at all, but were carried away with a continued storm of wind, from the same corner, or near it. Our pilot, or master, as we called him, finding himself often obliged to go away before it, which kept us out long at sea, and drove us far to the north-east, eastward, that he advised us to stand away for the Cape of Good Hope; and accordingly we did so, and arrived there the last day of July.

We were now disheartened indeed, and I began to revive my proposal of going to the East Indies, as I at first proposed; and to answer the objection which they then made against it, as being against the nature of trade, and that we had nothing on board but European goods, which were not fitted for the East Indies, where money only was suitable to the market we were to make; I say, to answer this objection, I told them I would engage that I would sell our