Having Thus Explained The Consequence Of Captain
Tasman's Voyage, And Thereby Fully Justified My Giving It A Place In
This
Part of my work, I am now at liberty to pursue the reflections
with which I promised to close this
Section, and the history of
circumnavigators, and in doing which, I shall endeavour to make the
reader sensible of the advantages that arise from publishing these
voyages in their proper order, so as to show what is, and what is
yet to be discovered of the globe on which we live.
CHAPTER XXI: REMARKS UPON THE VOYAGE.
In speaking of the consequences of Captain Tasman's voyage, it has
been very amply shown that this part of Terra Australis, or southern
country, has been fully and certainly discovered. To prevent,
however, the reader's making any mistake, I will take this
opportunity of laying before him some remarks on the whole southern
hemisphere, which will enable him immediately to comprehend all that
I have afterwards to say on this subject.
If we suppose the south pole to be the centre of a chart of which
the equinoctial is the circumference, we shall then discern four
quarters, of the contents of which, if we could give a full account,
this part of the world would be perfectly discovered. To begin then
with the first of these, that is, from the first meridian, placed in
the island of Fero. Within this division, that is to say, from the
first to the nineteenth degree of longitude, there lies the great
continent of Africa, the most southern point of which is the Cape of
Good Hope, lying in the latitude of 34 degrees 15 minutes south.
Between that and the pole, several small but very inconsiderable
islands have been discovered, affording us only this degree of
certainty, that to the latitude of 50 degrees there is no land to be
found of any consequence; there was, indeed, a voyage made by Mr.
Bovet in the year 1738, on purpose to discover whether there were
any lands to the south in that quarter or not.
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