A New Voyage Round the World by a Course Never Sailed Before — John Shaqi
A New Voyage Round the World by a Course Never Sailed BeforeDefoe, Daniel
General
A New Voyage Round the World by a Course Never Sailed Before
Defoe, Daniel
Adventure stories; Voyages around the world -- Fiction
The particular spot which I observe upon, is that part of the
continent of America which lies on the shore of the North Seas, as
they are called, though erroneously, for they are more properly the
East Seas, being extended along the east shores of South America.
The land lies on the same east side of America, extended north and
south from Coasta Deserta, in 42°, to Port St. Julian, in 49½°,
being almost five hundred miles in length, full of very good
harbours, and some navigable rivers. The land is a plain for several
scores of miles within the shore, with several little rising hills,
but nowhere mountainous or stony; well adapted for enclosing,
feeding, and grazing of cattle; also for corn, all sorts of which
would certainly not only grow, but thrive very well here, especially
wheat, rye, pease, and barley, things which would soon be improved
by Englishmen, to the making the country rich and populous, the
raising great quantities of grain of all sorts, and cattle in
proportion. The trade which I propose for the consumption of all the
produce, and the place whither to be carried, I refer to speak of by
itself, in the farther progress of this work.
I return now to the pursuit of our voyage. We put to sea again the 10th
of May, with fair weather and a fair wind; though a season of the year,
it is true, when we might have reason to expect some storms, being what
we might call the depth of their winter. However, the winds held
northerly, which, there, are to be esteemed the warm winds, and bringing
mild weather; and so they did, till we came into the latitude of 50°,
when we had strong winds and squally weather, with much snow and cold,
from the south-west and south-west by west, which, blowing very hard, we
put back to Port St. Julian, where we were not able to stir for some
time.
We weighed again the 29th, and stood south again past the mouth of the
Straits of Magellan, a strait famous for many years, for being thought
to be the only passage out of the North Seas into the South Seas, and
therefore I say famous some ages; not only in the discovery of it by
Magellan, a Spanish captain, but of such significance, that, for many
years, it was counted a great exploit to pass this strait, and few have
ever done it of our nation, but that they have thought fit to tell the
world of it as an extraordinary business, fit to be made public as an
honour to their names. Nay, King Charles the Second thought it worth
while to send Sir John Narborough, on purpose to pass and take an exact
survey of this strait; and the map or plan of it has been published by
Sir John himself, at the public expense, as a useful thing.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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