id he, it is thought
to be safer and pleasanter sailing in the South Sea than any where else.
As I perceived that he waited for a reply, I said, that the great ocean,
called the South Sea, extended almost from one pole to the other; and
therefore, although that part of it which lay between the tropics might
justly be called the Pacific, on account of the trade-winds that blow
there all the year, yet without the tropics, on either side, the winds
were variable, and the seas turbulent. In all this he readily
acquiesced, and finding that he could not draw from me any thing to
satisfy his curiosity, by starting leading subjects of conversation, he
began to propose his questions in direct terms, and desired to know on
which side the equator I had crossed the South Seas. As I did not think
proper to answer this question, and wished to prevent others of the same
kind, I rose up somewhat abruptly, and I believe with some marks of
displeasure: At this he seemed to be a little disconcerted, and I
believe was about to make an apology for his curiosity, but I prevented
him, by desiring that he would make my compliments to his captain, and
in return for his obliging civilities presented him with one of the
arrows that had wounded my men, which I immediately went into my
bed-room to fetch: He followed me, looking about him with great
curiosity, as indeed he had done from the time of his first coming on
board, and having received the arrow, he took his leave.

After he was gone, and we had made sail, I went upon the deck, where my
lieutenant asked me, if my visitor had entertained me with an account of
his voyage. This led me to tell him the general purport of our
conversation, upon which he assured me that the tale I had heard was a
fiction, for, says he, the boat's crew could not keep their secret so
well as their officer, but after a little conversation told one of our
people who was born at Quebec, and spoke French, that they had been
round the globe as well as we. This naturally excited a general
curiosity, and with a very little difficulty we learnt that they had
sailed from Europe in company with another ship, which, wanting some
repair, had been left at the Isle of France; that they had attempted to
pass the Streight of Magellan the first summer, but not being able, had
gone back, and wintered in the river de la Plata; that the summer
afterwards they had been more successful, and having passed the
Streight, spent two months at