fettlement confifted only of twenty-fix perfons, who took poffeffion on the 14th of February, 1788. This fettlement was found fo eligible, that, in October, 1788, another party was fent thither, fo that the new colony, at the time the laft advices were received, confifted of fortyfour men and fixteen women; who, being fupplied with eighteen months' provifions, will probably be able to cultivate the foil in fuch a manner, as to enable them to form a granary, which will put those who settled on New Holland entirely out of danger from their barbarous neighbours.

For a more particular account of this new fettlement, we refer our readers to the Voyage of Governor Philip to Botany Bay.

NEW GUINEA,

TILL the late difcoveries, was thought to be the north coaft of an extenfive continent, and to be joined to New Holland; but captain Cook difcovered a ftrait between them, which runs north-eaft, through which he failed. Thus it was found to be a long narrow ifland, extending north-east from the fecond degree of fouth latitude to the twelfth, and from one hundred and thirty-one to one hundred and fifty degrees eaft longitude; but in one part it does not appear to be above fifty miles broad. The country confifts of a mixture of very high hills and valleys, interfperfed with groves of cocoa-nut trees, plantains, bread-fruit, and moft of the trees, fhrubs, and plants, that are found on the other South Sea islands It affords from the fea a variety of delightful profpects. The inhabitants make nearly the fame appearance as the New Hollanders on the other fide the straits.

To the north of New Guinea is NEW BRITAIN, which is fituated in the fourth degree of fouth latitude, and one hundred and fifty-two deg. nineteen min. eaft longitude from Greenwich. It was fuppofed to be part of an imaginary continent, till captain Dampier found it to be an ifland, and failed through a ftrait which divides it from New Guinea. Captain Carteret, in his voyage round the world, in 1767, found it was of much less extent than it was till then imagined to be, by failing through another firait to the north, which feparates it from a long ifland, to which he gave the name of New Ireland. There are many high hills in New Britain, and it abounds with large and ftately trees. To the Eaftward of New Britain, and in both the above ftraits, are many iflands, most of which are faid to be extremely fertile, and to abound with plantains and cocoa-nut trees

NEW IRELAND extends in length, from the north-eaft to the southweft, about two hundred and feventy miles, but is in general very narrow. It abounds with a variety of trees and plants, and with many pigeons, parrots, rooks and other birds. The inhabitants are black and woolly headed, like the negroes of Guinea, but have not their flat nofes and thick lips. North westward of New Ireland, a cluster of iflands was feen by captain Carteret, lying very near each other, and fuppofed to confift of twenty or thirty in number. One of thefe, which is of very confiderable extent, was named NEW HANOVER; the reft of the clufter

SANDWICH ISLANDS.

BESIDES the voyages of difcovery already mentioned, another voyage was performed by captain Cook and captain Clerke, in the Refolution and Discovery, during the years 1776, 1777, 1778, and 1779, in fearch of a north-weft paffage between the continents of Afia and America. After they had arrived at the Cape of Good Hope, they proceeded from thence to New Holland. In their course they difcovered two iflands, which captain Cook called Prince Edward's Ifles. The Jargeft, about fifteen leagues in circuit, is in latitude 46-53 fouth; long. 37-46; the other, about nine leagues in circuit, is in lat. 46-40, and long. 38-8, east, both barren, and almoft covered with fnow. From New Holland they failed to New Zealand, and afterwards they visited the Friendly and the Society ifles. In January, 1777, they arrived at the Sandwich Ifles, which are twelve in number, and are fituated between twenty-two deg. fifteen min. and eighteen deg. fifty-three min. north lat. The air of thefe iflands is in general falubrious, and many of the vegetable productions are the fame with thofe of the Society and Friendly Iles. The inhabitants are of a middle fize, ftout and well made, and their complexion in general a brown olive. On the 7th of February, being nearly in lat. 44 deg. 33 min. north, and long. 235 deg. 36 min. caft, they faw part of the American continent, bearing north-eaft. They afterwards difcovered King George's Sound, which is fituated on the north-west coast of America, and is extenfive: that part of it where the fhips under the command of captain Cook anchored is in lat. 49 deg. 36 min. north, and long. 233 deg. 28 min, caft. The whole found is furrounded by high land, which in fome places appears very broken and rugged, and is in general covered with wood to the very top. They found the inhabitants here rather below the middle fize, and their complexions approaching to a copper colour. On the 12th of May they difcovered Sandwich Sound in lat. 59 deg. 54 min. north. The harbour, in which the fhips anchored, appeared to be almost furrounded with high land, which was covered with fnow; and here they were vifited by fome of the Americans in their canoes. They afterwards proceeded to the island of Unalaschka; and after their departure from thence, ftill continued to trace the American coaft, till they discovered the ftrait which separates it from the continent of Afia. Here both the hemifpheres prefented to the view a naked and flat country, without any defence, and the fea between them not very deep. They paffed the frait, and arrived on the 20th of Auguft, 1778, in lat. 70 deg. 51 min. long. 194 deg. 55 min. where they found themselves almoft furrounded with ice, and the farther they proceeded to the eastward the closer the ice became compacted. They continued labouring among the ice till the 25th, when a ftorm came on, which made it dangerous for them to proceed; and a confultation was therefore held on board the Refolution, as foon as the violence of the gale abated, when it was refolved, that as this paffage was impracticable for any ufeful purpofe of navigation, which was the great object of the voyage, it fhould be profecuted no farther, and especially on account of the condition the fhips were in, the approach of winter, and their great diftance from any known place of refreshment. The voyage, indeed, afforded fufficient evidence, that no practicable paffage exifts between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans towards the north; and this paffage alfo afcertained the western boundaries

of the great continent of America. On their return, it unfortunately happened that the celebrated and able navigator, captain Cook, was killed in an affray with the natives on the island of O'why'hee, one of the Sandwich Ifles, on the 14th of February, 1779; not fo much by his own rafhness, as through the inadvertence and neglect of fome of his own people. His death was univerfally regretted, not only in Great Britain, but alfo in other parts of Europe, by thofe to whom his merits and public fervices were known. In his laft voyage he had explored the coast of America, from 42 deg. 27 min. to 70 deg. 40 min. 57 fec. north. After the death of captain Cook, the command devolved on captain Clerke, who died at fea on his return to the southward on the 22d day of August, 1779. The two fhips returned home by the Cape of Good Hope, and on the 5th of October, 1780, anchored at the Nore.

We cannot conclude this article without inferting the following character of captain Cook, to perpetuate the memory and fervices of fo excellent a navigator.

"Perhaps no science ever received greater additions from the labours of a fingle man than geography has done from those of captain Cook. In his first voyage to the South Seas, he discovered the Society Iflands; determined the infularity of New Zealand; difcovered the ftraits which feparate the two iflands, and are called after his name; and made a complete furvey of both. He afterwards explored the caftern coaft of New Holland, hitherto unknown-an extent of twenty-seven degrees of latitude, or upwards of two thousand miles.

"In his fecond expedition, he refolved the great problem of a fouthern continent, having traversed that hemifphere between the latitude of forty and seventy degrees, in fuch a manner as not to leave a poffibility of its existence, unless near the pole, and out of the reach of navigation. During this voyage he discovered New Caledonia, the largest island in the Southern Pacific Ocean, except New Zealand; the island of Georgia; and an unknown coaft, which he named Sandwich Land, the Thule of the fouthern hemisphere; and having twice vifited the tropical feas, he fettled the fituations of the old, and made feveral new difcoveries.

"But the laft voyage is diftinguished above all the reft, by the extent and importance of its difcoveries. Befides feveral smaller islands in the Southern Pacific, he difcovered to the north of the equinoctial line the group called the Sandwich Islands, which, from their fituation and productions, bid fairer for becoming an object of confequence in the fyftem of European navigation than any other discovery in the South Sea. He afterwards explored what had hitherto remained unknown of the weftern coaft of America, from the latitude of forty-three to feventy degrees north, containing an extent of three thousand and five hundred miles; afcertained the proximity of the two great continents of Afia and America; paffed the ftraits between them, and furveyed the coaft on each fide, to fuch a height of northern latitude, as to demonstrate the impracticability of a paffage, in that hemifphere, from the Atlantic into the Pacific Ocean, either by an eastern or a western courfe. In fhort, if we except the Sea of Amur, and the Japanefe Archipelago, which fiill remain imperfectly known to Europeans, he has completed the hydrography of the habitable globe.

"The method which he difcovered, and fo fuccefsfully pursued, of preferving the health of feamen, forms a new era in navigation, and will tranfmit his name to future ages amongst the friends and benefactors of nankind.

dear à rate the advantages which have been fought through the medium of long voyages at fea have always been purchafed. That dreadful diforder which is peculiar to their fervice, and whofe ravages have marked the tracks of discoverers with circumstances almoft too fhocking to relate, muft, without exercifing an unwarrantable tyranny over the lives of our feamen, have proved an infuperable obftacle to the profecution of such enterprises. It was referved for captain Cook to fhow the world, by repeated trials, that voyages might be protracted to the unusuð length of three, or even four years, in unknown regions, and under every change and rigour of the climate, not only without affecting the health, but even without diminishing the probability of life, in the smallest degree."

TERRA-INCOGNITA, or UNKNOWN COUNTRIES.

NOTWITHSTANDING the amazing difcoveries of navigators, and the progrefs made in geography fince the first voyage of Columbus, anno 1492, there ftill remain fome countries, either abfolutely unknown, or very fuperficially furveyed. ·

IN AFRICA.

Of this quarter of the globe, the moderns are acquainted with the fes

coafts only, and thefe very imperfectly: the internal parts being little known to us; nor have we any fatisfactory accounts of their inha bitants, their productions, or their trade. It is well known, however, that the rivers of Africa bring down large quantities of gold, and it is equally certain that the ancients drew prodigious riches from a country blessed with a variety of climates, fome of them the finest in the world.

IN North America, towards the pole, Labrador, or New Britain, New North and South Wales, New Denmark, are very little known, All that vaft tract on the back of the British fettlements, from Canada and the Lakes to the Pacific Ocean, which washes America on the west, is likewife unknown to us, no European having ever travelled thither. From the climate and the fituation of the country, it is fuppofed to be fruitful. It is inhabited by innumerable tribes of Indians, many of whom used to refort to the great fair of Montréal, even from the diftance of one thousand miles, when that city was in the hands of the French.

In South America, the country of Guiana, extending from the equator to the eighth degree of north latitude, and bounded by the river Oronoque on the north, and the Amazons on the South, is unknown, except a flip along the coaft, where the French at Cayenne, and the Dutch at Surinam, have made fome fettlements, which, from the unhealthinefs of the climate, almoft under the equator, and other caufes, can hardly be extended any confiderable way back.

The country of Amazonia, fo called from the great river of that name, has never been thoroughly discovered, though it is fituated between the European colonies of Peru and Brafil, and every-where navigable by ineans of that great river and its branches. Some attempts have been made by the Spaniards and Portuguefe; but being always attended with vaft difficulties, fo that few of the adventurers ever returned back, and no gold being found in the country, as they expected, no European nation has hitherto made any fettlement there.

Patagonia, at the fouthern extremity of America, is fometimes defcribed as part of Chili; but as neither the Spaniards, nor any other European nation, have any colonies here, it is almost unknown, and is generally represented as a barren, inhofpitable country. And here, in fifty-two degrees and a half fouth lat. we fall in with the Straits of Magellan, having Patagonia on the north, and the islands of Terra del Fuego on the fouth. These ftraits extend from eaft to weft 110 leagues, but the breadth in fome places falls fhort of one. They were first discovered by Magellan, or Magelhaens, a Portuguese, in the fervice of Spain, who failed through them in the year 1520, and thereby discovered a paffage from the Atlantic to the Pacific or Southern Ocean. He has been fince confidered as the firft navigator that failed round the world: but having loft his life in a fkirmish with fome Indians before the ships returned to Europe, the honour of being the first circumnavigator has been difputed in favour of the brave Sir Francis Drake, who, in 1574, paffed the fame. ftrait in his way to India, from which he returned to Europe by the Cape of Good Hope. In 1616, Le Maire, a Dutchman, keeping to the fouthward of these ftraits, discovered, in lat. fifty-four and a half, another paffage, fince known by the name of the Straits of Le Maire; and this paffage, which has been generally preferred by fucceeding navigators, is called doubling Cape Horn. The author of Anfon's Voyage, however, from fatal experience, advifes mariners to keep clear of these ftraits and iflands, by running down to fixty-one or fixty-two degrees fouth lat. be fore they attempt to fet their face weftward, towards the South Seas; but the extreme long nights, and the intense cold in those latitudes, render that paffage practicable only in the months of January and February, which is there the middle of fummer.