a thousand conjectures of speculative reasoners, how the
detached parts of the earth, and, in particular, how the islands of the
South Sea, may have been first peopled, especially those that lie remote
from any inhabited continent, or from each other.[154]

[Footnote 154: Such accidents as this here related, probably happen
frequently in the Pacific Ocean. In 1696, two canoes, having on board
thirty persons of both sexes, were driven by contrary winds and
tempestuous weather on the isle of Samal, one of the Philippines, after
being tossed about at sea seventy days, and having performed a voyage
from an island called by them Arnorsot, 300 leagues to the E. of Samal.
Five of the number who had embarked died of the hardships suffered
during this extraordinary passage. See a particular account of them, and
of the islands they belonged to, in Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses,
tom. xv. from p. 196 to p. 215. In the same volume, from p. 282 to p.
320, we have the relation of a similar adventure in 1721, when two
canoes, one containing twenty-four, and the other six, persons, men,
women, and children, were driven from an island they called Farroilep,
northward to the Isle of Guam, or Guahan, one of the Ladrones or
Mariannes. But these had not sailed so far as their countrymen who
reached Samal, as above, and they had been at sea only twenty days.
There seems to be no reason to doubt the general authenticity of these
two relations. The information contained in the Letters of the Jesuits
about these islands, now known under the name of the Carolines, and
discovered to the Spaniards by the arrival of the canoes at Samal and
Guam, has been adopted by all our later writers. See President de
Brosse's Voyages aux Terres Australes, tom. ii. from p. 443 to p. 490.
See also the Modern Universal History.--D.]

This island is called Wateeoo by the natives. It lies in the latitude of
20 deg. 1' S. and in the longitude 201 deg. 45' E., and is about six leagues in
circumference. It is a beautiful spot, with a surface composed of hills
and plains, and covered with verdure of many hues. Our gentlemen found
the soil, where they passed the day, to be light and sandy. But farther
up the country, a different sort perhaps prevails, as we saw from the
ship, by the help of our glasses, a reddish cast upon the rising
grounds. There the inhabitants have their houses; for we could perceive
two or three, which were long and spacious. Its produce, with the