Since Now Nothing Had Happened To Prevent Me From, Carrying These
Views Into Execution, My Intention Was First To Go
In search of the land
said to have been discovered by Juan Fernandez, above a century ago, in
about the
Latitude of 38 deg.; if I should fail in finding this land, then to
go in search of Easter Island or Davis's Land, whose situation was known
with so little certainty, that the attempts lately made to find it had
miscarried. I next intended to get within the tropic, and then proceed to
the west, touching at, and settling the situations of such islands as we
might meet with till we arrived at Otaheite, where it was necessary I
should stop to look for the Adventure. I had also thoughts of running as
far west as the Tierra Austral del Espiritu Santo, discovered by Quiros,
and which M. de Bougainville calls the Great Cyclades. Quiros speaks of
this land as being large, or lying in the neighbourhood of large lands; and
as this was a point which M. de Bougainville had neither confirmed nor
refuted, I thought it was worth clearing up. From this land my design was
to steer to the south, and so back to the east, between the latitudes of
50 deg. and 60 deg.; intending, if possible, to be the length of Cape Horn in
November next, when we should have the best part of the summer before us to
explore the southern part of the Atlantic Ocean.
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