tasman’s voyage of discovery.

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in that voyage performed. Yet the fate of Le Maire had a much greater effedt indifcouraging, than the fame of his difcoveries had in exciting, a fpirit of emulation }fo that we may fafely fay, the feverity of the Eaft India Company in Holland extin-guifhed that generous defire of exploring unknown lands, which might otherwife haverailed the reputation, and extended the commerce of the republic much beyond whatthey have hitherto reached. This is fo true that for upwards of one hundred years,We hear of no Dutch voyage in purfuit of Le Maire’s difcoveries; and we fee, whenCommodore Roggewein, in our own time, revived that noble defign, it was againcramped by the fame power that llifled it before; and though the States did juftice tothe Well India Company, and to the parties injured, yet the hardlhips they fuffered,and the plain proof they gave of the difficulties that mull be met with in the profecu-tion of fuch a defign, feem to have done the bufinefs of the Ealt India Company, anddamped the fpirit of difcovery, for perhaps another century, in Holland.

It is very obfervable, that all the mighty difcoveries that have been made arofe fromthefe great men, who joined reafoning with pra&ice, and were.men of genius and learn-ing, as well as feamen. To Columbus we owe the finding America ; to Magellan thepalling by the llraits which bear his name, by a new route to the Eall Indies; to LeMaire a more commodious paffage round Cape Horne, and without running up to Cali-fornia ; Sir Francis Drake too hinted the advantages that might arife by examining thenorth-well fide of America ; and Candilh had fome notions of difcovering a palfagebetween China and Japan . As to the hiltory we have of Roggewein’s voyage, itaffords fuch lights, as nothing but our own negligence can render ufelefs. But in theother voyages, whatever difcoveries we meet with are purely accidental, except it beHam pier’s voyage to the coafls of New Holland and New Guinea , which was exprefslyWade for difcoveries; and in which, if an abler man had been employed in conjunctionwith Dampier, we cannot doubt, that the interior and exterior of thofe countries would. have been much better known than they are at prefent; becaufe fuch a perfon would 'father have chofen to have refreffied in the illand of New Britain, or fome othercountry not vifited before, than at that of Timor, already fettled both by the Portu-guefe and the Dutch.

In all attempts, therefore, of this fort, thofe men are fittefl to be employed who,"with competent abilities as feamen, have Iikewife general capacities, are at leaft tolerablya cquainted with other fciences, and have fettled judgments and folid underllandings.dhefe are the men from whom we are to expctt the finiffiing that great work whichformer circumnavigators have begun; I mean the difcovering every part and parcel°f the globe, and the carrying to its utmolt perfection the admirable and ufeful fcience°f navigation.

It is, however, a piece of jullice due to the memory of thefe great men, to acknow-ledge, that we are equally encouraged by their examples, and guided by their difco-' Ve ries. We owe to them the being freed, not only from the errors, but from thedoubts and difficulties, with which former ages were opprefled: to them we HandWdebted for the difcovery of the bell part of the world, which was entirely unknown.to the ancients, particularly fome part of the eallern, molt of the fouthern, and allthe weltern hemifphere : from them we have learned, that the earth is furrounded. bythe ocean, and that all the countries under the torrid zone are inhabited; and that,quite contrary to the notions that were formerly entertained, they are very far frombeing the molt fultry climate in the world, thofe within a few degrees of the tropics, ~though habitable, being much more hot, for reafons which have been elfewhere ex-plained. By their voyages, and efpecially by the obfervations of Columbus , we have

been