Page:Early voyages to Terra Australis.djvu/170

 S5» A MEMORIAL RESPECTING

of credit as any that is known, and who has been employed in Chili nearly sixty years.

When Pedro Fernandez de Quiros sailed from the coast of Peru, he followed nearly the same track until he reached the latitude of twenty-six degrees, when his companions, aiid especially his admiral, earnestly advised him to continue on until he reached forty degrees, as the most reasonable means of finding the continent which they had come in search of. This, for certain considerations he refused, being appre- hensive of unfavourable weather, as he saw that the sun already began to decline towards the equinoctial ; but in this refusal he made a great mistake.

That which we have above related, is the most noticeable thing which has hitherto been effected in the shape of dis- covery in the southern hemisphere in the said longitude in the Pacific ; and although, with the exception of the dis- covery made by the pilot Juan Fernandez, no satisfactory examination of the coast of the much-sought-for great south- ern continent has been eflfected, yet, doubtless, the aforesaid voyage failed but little of finding it, and it is either by negli- gence or by carelessness, and, it may be said, by the acknow- ledged blunders of some of the adventurers that it has not yet been discovered, for in their explorations they saw very great and manifest signs of a most extensive continent ; and when Pedro Fernandez de Quiros reached the aforesaid twenty-six degrees they saw to the south very extensive and thick banks of clouds in the horizon, and other well known signs of mainland, and also a little islet, in which were various kinds of birds of very sweet song, which never sing nor are found at any great distance from the coast of the main- land. They discovered afterwards some islands, still very remote from the coast of Peru and Mexico, inhabited by races very different in feature, form, stature, colour, and language from the Indians of Peru and Mexico, which, ap- parently, could not have been peopled but from the coast of