34° S. and afterwards W. N. W.; and if this was indeed his rout, the proof that there is no main land to the northward of 35° S. is irrefragable. Mr. Dalrymple indeed fuppofes his rout to have been different, and that from Easter Isle he fteered N. W. taking a course afterwards very little different from that of La Maire; but I think it is highly improbable that a man, who at his own requeft was fent to discover a fouthern continent, fhould take a course in which La Maire had already proved no continent could be found: it muft however be confeffed, that Roggewein's track cannot certainly be ascertained, because in the accounts that have been published of his voyage, neither longitudes nor latitudes are mentioned. As to myself I faw nothing that I thought a fign of land, in my rout either to the northward, fouthward, or weftward, till a few days before I made the east coast of New Zealand: I did indeed frequently fee large flocks of birds, but they were generally fuch as are found at a very remote distance from any coaft; and it is alfo true that I frequently faw pieces of rock-weed, but I could not infer the vicinity of land from thefe, because I have been informed, upon indubitable authority, that a confiderable quantity of the beans called ox-eyes, which are known to grow no where but in the West Indies, are every year thrown up on the coaft of Ireland, which is not less than twelve hundred leagues distant.

Thus have I given my reafons for thinking that there is no continent to the northward of latitude 40° S.; of what may lie farther to the fouthward than 40° I can give no opinion; but I am fo far from wishing to difcourage any future attempt, finally to determine a question which has long been an object of attention to many nations; that now this voyage has reduced the only poffible fcite of a continent in the fouthern hemifphere, north of latitude 40°, to so small a

fpace,

1770.

March.

1770. March.

space, I think it would be pity to leave that any longer unexamined, especially as the voyage may turn to good account, besides determining the principal question, if no continent should be found, by the discovery of new islands in the Tropical regions, of which there is probably a great number, that no European veffel has ever yet visited. Tupia from time to time gave us an account of about one hundred and thirty, and in a chart drawn by his own hand, he actually laid down no less than seventy-four.

AN