xtent, if not to suggest doubts about their very
existence.

It seems, indeed, to have become a very early object of policy in the
Spanish councils, to discontinue and to discourage any farther
researches in that quarter. Already masters of a larger empire on the
continent of America than they could conveniently govern, and of richer
mines of the precious metals on that continent than they could convert
into use, neither avarice nor ambition furnished reasons for aiming at a
fresh accession of dominions. And thus, though settled all along the
shores of this ocean, in a situation so commodious for prosecuting
discoveries throughout its wide extent, the Spaniards remained satisfied
with a coasting intercourse between their own ports; never stretching
across the vast gulph that separates that part of America from Asia, but
in an unvarying line of navigation, perhaps in a single annual ship,
between Acapulco and Manilla.

The tracks of other European navigators of the South Pacific Ocean,
were, in a great measure, regulated by those of the Spaniards, and
consequently limited within the same narrow bounds. With the exception,
perhaps, of two instances only, those of Le Maire and Roggewein, no
ships of another nation had entered this sea, through the Strait of
Magalhaens, or found Cape Horn, but for the purposes of trade with the
Spaniards, or of hostility against them, purposes which could not be
answered, without precluding any probable chance of adding much to our
stock of discovery. For it was obviously incumbent on all such
adventurers, to confine their cruises within a moderate distance of the
Spanish settlements, in the vicinity of which alone they could hope to
exercise their commerce, or to execute their predatory and military
operations. Accordingly, soon after emerging from the strait, or
completing the circuit of Tierra del Fuego, they began to hold a
northerly course, to the uninhabited island of Juan Fernandez, their
usual spot of rendezvous and refreshment. And after ranging along the
continent of America, from Chili to California, they either reversed
their course back to the Atlantic, or, if they ventured to extend their
voyage by stretching over to Asia, they never thought of trying
experiments in the unfrequented and unexplored parts of the ocean, but
chose the beaten path (if the expression may be used,) within the limits
of which it was likely that they might meet with a Philippine galleon,
to make thei