3°4
iflands De Ios Ladrones, and the Unfortunate Iflands, owing to their too great diftancefrom the others. This chart it is which the reader Ihould keep before him on tracingthe courfe of Pigafetta , from the inftant of his leaving the iflands De los Ladrones tothat at which he.enters again upon the Afiatic ocean, which he terms Laut Chidol, orthe Great Sea. The dots will point out the run of the fhips and the fpots where theyanchored. In order to place the iflands in their true pofitions, I confulted the chartsof Beilin and Robert, in which they are oftentimes marked under the fame names, ornames differing but immaterially. I am not ignorant that there are fome errors in thischart, in what regards the pofitions of the iflands ; and that the latitudes and longi-tudes in which they are placed by the author are fometimes different from thole inwhich they are laid down; but I likewife know that thefe errors are not uncommoneven with the navigators, and geographers of the prelent day, who have fo muchmore ample means to determine pofitions with exactitude. It mud further be ob-ferved, that Pigafetta only law a part of the iflands he defigned, and that the otherswere many of them traced from the defcription of the inhabitants, or Indian pilots, on >board his Ihip. In fhort, he drew fome of his charts in the fame manner as FatherCantova in 1722 laid down the Caroline iflands (fee the extracts from De Broffe’sCollection of Voyages in the South Seas, in this volume) : and as the celebrated Cook has, in our days, traced the iflands of the South Sea from the relations of the Ota-heitan Tupia.
XXX. This method, however inexafl:, poffeffes the precious advantage of the namesof the iflands being indicated by Pigafetta by the names applied to them by the indi-genous inhabitants; this is very ufeful in a geographical point of view, as the names ofplaces have frequently become unintelligible, from each navigator, either from igno-rance of the proper denomination, from vanity, or to pleafe his patrons, applying tonewly-difcovered countries the names of faints, their kings, friends, and protectors, or•of their native country, whence much confufion and uncertainty are occafioned, asmay be feen on calling an eye over the charts publilhed in different countries by thepeople who fucceflively formed eftablilhments in the iflands of the South Seas. Often-times the difference is only that of pronunciation ; and this will not appear extraor-dinary to thofe who know that the fame name pronounced by the fame perfon hasdifferently (truck the ear, and been dilferently written by the navigators of our time;for example, Meffrs. de Bougainville, Cook , Anderfon, Fofter, &c. However, torender my author better underltood, I have joined to the names ufed by him thofeadopted by other geographers, as well ancient as modern ; and thefe, at the fame time,furnifli an additional proof of the truth of his narrative.
XXXI. With the fame objeft of confirming and throwing light on what Pigafettafays, I have, in notes, added to the names of the different animals and plants given by•our author, thofe adopted by naturalifts, chiefly Linnmus. I have alfo endeavoured torectify the miftakes which he often makes, especially when fpeaking of phenomena,either feen by himfelf or related to him by others.
XXXII. Pigafetta , as I have already faid, endeavoured to form vocabularies of thelanguages of the new people he vifited ; but I have conceived by pniting them at thedole of the voyage they will not only be of greater utility, but, while they will be lefstedious to the reader, will enable him at once to compare them. See the preliminaryobfervations at the head of this preface. I (peak there alfo of a Treatife of Navigationby the fame author, which follows the defcription of his voyage. An extra# of it isgiven, and I befeech the reader to perufe the preface to it, that he may become fenfiblehow interelling it is, even bv its errors, to the hiltory of altronomv and navigation.
XXXIII. After