Page:A voyage round the world. Performed by order of His most Christian Majesty, in the years 1766, 1767, 1768, and 1769 (IA voyageroundworld00boug).pdf/17

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THINK it would be of use to give, at the head of my relation, an account of all the voyages that ever were performed round the world, and of the different discoveries which have hitherto been made in the South Sea or Pacific Ocean.

Ferdinand Magalhaens, a Portuguese, commanding five Spanish ships, left Seville in 1519, discovered the straits which bear his name, and through them he came into the Pacific Ocean, where he first discovered two little desart isles, on the south side of the Line, afterwards the Ladrones, and last of all the Philippines. His ship, called la Victoria, was the only one out of the five that returned to Spain by the Cape of Good Hope: On her return she was carried on shore at Seville, and set up as a monument of this expedition, which was the boldest that had hitherto been undertaken by men. Thus it was for the first time physically demonstrated, that the earth was of a spherical figure, and its circumference ascertained.

Sir Francis Drake, an Englishman, set sail from Plymouth, with five ships, the 15th of September, 1577, and returned thither with only one, the 3d of Novem- ber,