Had the Sandwich Islands been discovered at an early period by the Spaniards, there is little doubt that they would have taken advantage of so excellent a situation, and have made use of Atooi, or some other of the islands, as a refreshing place to the ships that sail annually from Acapulco for Manilla. They lie almost midway between the first place and Guam, one of the Ladrones, which is at present their only port in traversing this vast ocean; and it would not have been a week's sail out of their common route to have touched at them; which could have been done without running the least hazard of losing the passage, as they are sufficiently within the verge of the easterly trade-wind. An acquaintance with the Sandwich Islands would have been equally favourable to our Buccaneers, who used sometimes to pass from the coast of America to the Ladrones, with a stock of food and water scarcely sufficient to preserve life. Here they might always have found plenty, and have been within a month's sure sail of the very part of California, which the Manilla ship is obliged to make, or else have returned to the coast of America, thoroughly refitted, after an absence of two months. How happy would Lord Anson have been, and what hardships would he have avoided, if he had known that there was a group of islands half way between America and Tinian, where all his wants could have been effectually supplied; and in describing which, the elegant historian of that voyage would have presented his reader with a more agreeable picture than I have been able to draw in this chapter![5] [Footnote 5: We defer considering the curious subject of the identity and origin of the people that inhabit the South Sea, till other relations shall have put the reader in possession of the facts requisite for the discussion. Of the Sandwich Islands, we shall hereafter probably have mere complete information than is now given.--E.] SECTION XIII. _Observations made at the Sandwich Islands, on the Longitude, Variation of the Compass and Tides.--Prosecution of the Voyage.--Remarks on the Mildness of the Weather, as far as the Latitude 44 deg. North.--Paucity of Sea Birds, in the Northern Hemisphere.--Small Sea Animals described.--Arrival on the Coast of America.--Appearance of the Country.--Unfavourable Winds and boisterous Weather.--Remarks on Martin de Aguilar's River, and Juan de Fuca's pretended Strait.--An Inlet discovered, where the Ships anchor.--Behaviour of the Natives._ After the Discovery had joined us, we stood away to the northward, close hauled, with a gentle gale from the east; and nothing occurring, in this situation, worthy of a place in my narrative, the reader will permit me to insert here the nautical observations which I had opportunities of making relative to the islands we had left; and which we had been fortunate enough to add to the geography of this part of the Pacific Ocean.