hat country lies
buried in obscurity, perhaps in greater obscurity than it was an age ago;
so that there is still room for performing great things, which in their
consequences perhaps might prove greater than can well be imagined. I
say nothing of the discoveries that yet remain with regard to inland
countries, because these fall properly under another head, I mean that of
travels. But it will be time enough to think of penetrating into the
heart of countries when we have discovered the seacoasts of the whole
globe, towards which the voyages recorded in this chapter have so far
advanced already. But the only means to arrive at these great ends, and
to transmit to posterity a fame approaching, at least in some measure, to
that of our ancestors, is to revive and restore that glorious spirit
which led them to such great exploits; and the most natural method of
doing this is to collect and preserve the memory of their exploits, that
they may serve at once to excite our imitation, encourage our endeavours,
and point out to us how they may be best employed, and with the greatest
probability of success.

AN ACCOUNT OF NEW HOLLAND AND THE ADJACENT ISLANDS. 1699-1700.

BY CAPTAIN WILLIAM DAMPIER.

Having described his voyage from Brazil to New Holland, this celebrated
navigator thus proceeds:

About the latitude of 26 degrees south we saw an opening, and ran in,
hoping to find a harbour there; but when we came to its mouth, which was
about two leagues wide, we saw rocks and foul ground within, and
therefore stood out again; there we had twenty fathom water within two
miles of the shore: the land everywhere appeared pretty low, flat, and
even, but with steep cliffs to the sea, and when we came near it there
were no trees, shrubs, or grass to be seen. The soundings in the
latitude of 26 degrees south, from about eight or nine leagues off till
you come within a league of the shore, are generally about forty fathoms,
differing but little, seldom above three or four fathoms; but the lead
brings up very different sorts of sand, some coarse, some fine, and of
several colours, as yellow, white, grey, brown, bluish, and reddish.

When I saw there was no harbour here, nor good anchoring, I stood off to
sea again in the evening of the 2nd of August, fearing a storm on a lee-
shore, in a place where there was no shelter, and desiring at least to
have sea-room, for the clouds began to grow thick in the western-board,
and th