ſucceſſive days near this Longitude, but ſaw nothing to encourage any further endeavors.
The ſeaſon was now far advanced for doubling Cape Horn, and it appeared to me, that the moſt rational courſe I could take, would be to run down Weſt to the main land of Patagonia, in the Latitude in which the Iſle of Grand is placed; as we were now to the Eaſtward of Mr. Dalrymple's poſition of it[1]: ſo that if it was not found in that Latitude, I
- ↑
Extract from Mr. Dalrymple.
In the Latitude of 45° South there is a very large, pleaſant iſland, diſcovered by Ant. La Roche, a native of England, in his paſſage from the South Seas, in the year 1675. The Spaniſh author who gives the abſtract of La Roche's voyage, printed according to him, in 1678, ſays, "That La Roche, having the land, (diſcovered by him in 55° South, and which was ſince ſeen by the Leon, in 1756,) and ſailing one whole day to the North Weſt, the wind came ſo violently at South, that he ſtood North for three days more, till they were got into 46° South, when thinking themſelves then ſecure, they relate, that directing their courſe for the Bahia de Todos Santos, in Brazil, they found, in 45° South, a very large, pleaſant iſland, with a good port towards the Eaſtern part; in which they found wood, water and fiſh, they ſaw no people, notwithſtanding they ſtayed there ſix days." The ſize of this iſland is not mentioned in the Spaniſh abſtract; but the expreſſion, Muy Grande, very large, and the expectation of finding inhabitants, ſeemed to indicate that it is of great extent.
The exiſtence of this iſland, and, in ſome meaſure its extent, is confirmed by other authorities: for Halley, near this Longitude, in about 43° South ſays, "the color of the ſea was changed to pale green, and in 45° South he ſaw abundance of ſmall ſea-fowl and beds of weeds." Funnel, in his paſſage, into
