Page:Voyage of discovery to the North Pacific Ocean, and round the world in the years 1791-95, volume 3.djvu/546

504 lain Shapely, the commander of the vefTel, one thoufand pieces of eight for his fine charts and journals. On the nth of auguft De Fonta ar- rived at the firfl. fall in the river Parmentiers, and on the i6th on board his (hip in lake Belle." The extenfive archipelago, in which De Fonta had failed through crooked channels 260 leagues ; the river navigable for fhipping that flowed into it, up which he had failed in his (hip 60 leagues ; the water becoming frefh after he had entered and pafled in it 20 leagues ; its communicating by other lakes and rivers with a palTage, in which a fhip had arrived from Bofton in New England ; are all fo circumftantially particularized, as to give the account, at firfl fight, an air of probability, and on examination, had it been found reafonably connefted together, which is by no means the cafe ; a trifling difference in point of defcription or fituation would have been pardoned. The Rio de los Reyes Mr. Dalrymple ftates (according to the Spanifh geographers, under the authority of which nation De Fonta is faid to have,failed) to be in the 43d; according to the Englifli in the 53d; and according to the French, in the 63d degree of north latitude, on the wefl:ern coaft of North America. If it be nerefiary to make allowance for the ignorance of De Fonta, or the errors in his obfervations, any other parallel along the coaft; may be affigned with equal correflnefs.

Under the 43d parallel of north latitude on this coaft, no fuch archipelago nor river does exift; but between the 47th and 57th degrees of north latitude, there is an archipelago compofed of innumerable iflands, and crooked channels ; yet the evidence of a navigable river flowing into it, is ftill wanting to prove its identity ; and as the fcrupulous exa6lnefs with which our furvey of the continental fhore has been made within thefe limits, precludes the poffibility of fuch a river having been pafled unnoticed by us, as that defcribed to be of Rio de los Reyes, I remain in full confidence, that fome credit will hereafter be given to the teftimony refulting from our refearches, and that the plain truth undifguifed, with which our labours have been reprefented, will be juftly appreciated, in refutation of ancient unfupported traditions. Ido