elebrated astronomer, Dr Edmund Halley, was appointed to the
command of his majesty's ship the Paramour Pink, on an expedition for
improving the knowledge of the longitude, and of the variation of the
compass; and for discovering the unknown lands supposed to lie in the
southern part of the Atlantic Ocean. In this voyage he determined the
longitude of several places; and, after his return, constructed his
variation-chart, and proposed a method of observing the longitude at sea,
by means of the appulses and occultations of the fixed stars. But, though
he so successfully attended to the two first articles of his instructions,
he did not find any unknown southern land.

1721 Roggewein.

The Dutch, in 1721, fitted out three ships to make discoveries in the South
Pacific Ocean, under the command of Admiral Roggewein. He left the Texel on
the 21st of August, and arriving in that ocean, by going round Cape Horn,
discovered Easter Island, probably seen before, though not visited, by
Davis;* then between 14 deg. 41' and 15 deg. 47' S. latitude, and between the
longitude of 142 deg. and 150 deg. W., fell in with several other islands, which I
take to be some of those seen by the late English navigators. He next
discovered two islands in latitude 15 deg. S., longitude 170 deg. W., which he
called Baumen's Islands; and, lastly, Single Island, in latitude 13 deg. 41'
S., longitude 171 deg. 30' W. These three islands are, undoubtedly, the same
that Bougainville calls the Isles of Navigators.

[* See Waser's description of the Isthmus of Darien.]

1738 Bouvet.

In 1738, the French East India Company sent Lozier Bouvet with two ships,
the Eagle and Mary, to make discoveries in the South Atlantic Ocean. He
sailed from Port L'Orient on the 19th of July in that year; touched at the
island of St Catherine; and from thence shaped his course towards the
south-east.

On the 1st of January, 1739, he discovered land, or what he judged to be
land, in latitude 54 deg. S., longitude 11 deg. E. It will appear in the course of
the following narrative, that we made several attempts to find this land
without success. It is, therefore, very probable, that what Bouvet saw was
nothing more than a large ice-island. From hence he stood to the east, in
51 deg. of latitude to 35 deg. of E. longitude: After which the two ships
separated, one going to the island of Mauritius, and the other returning to
France.

After this voyage of Bouvet, the spirit of