Lord Egmont’s eagerneſs after ſomething new determined him to make inquiry after Falkland’s Iſland, and he ſent out Captain Byron, who, in the beginning of the year 1765, took, he ſays, a formal poſſeſſion in the name of his Britannick Majeſty.
The poſſeſſion of this place is, according to Mr. Byron’s repreſentation, no deſpicable acquiſition. He conceived the iſland to be ſix or ſeven hundred miles round, and repreſented it as a region naked indeed of wood, but which, if that defect were ſupplied, would have all that nature, almoſt all that luxury could want. The harbour he found capacious and ſecure, and therefore thought it worthy of the name of Egmont. Of water there was no want, and the ground, he deſcribed as having all the excellencies of ſoil, and as covered with antiſcorbutick herbs, the reſtoratives of the ſailor. Proviſion was eaſily to be had, for they kill-
