_A View of the_ Chilesian _Language_ 635 Magellanica 649 _The_ Unknown South-Land 653 Terra Borealis, _or_ The Arctick Region 661 _Several Attempts for the discovery of the_ North-West Passage 672 _A brief View of what Places are possess’d at this day in the_ West-Indies, _by the_ English, Spaniards, French, Portuguese, _and_ Dutch 674 [Illustration] [Illustration: Novissima et Accuratissima TOTIUS AMERICÆ DESCRIPTIO per JOHAHEM OGILUIUM Cosmographum Regium] [Illustration] AN ACCURATE DESCRIPTION OF AMERICA. CHAP. I. America, _unknown to the Antients_. [Sidenote: Description of the Ocean.] The Sea, that takes several Denominations from the Countreys which it washeth, and surrounding the dry Land, cuts out, and shapes so many winding Bays, Creeks, and Meandring Inlets, seems no where so much confin’d and penn’d into so narrow a Channel, as the _Straights_ of _Magellan_: From whence again, soon expatiating, it spreads it self into two immense, and almost boundless Oceans, that which opens to the North, gives terminaries to the four Regions of the Earth; that to the South, onely to _Asia_ and _America_; both which, indeed, are but one continu’d Sea, extending it self round the Universal Globe. This watry part of the World, that almost through all Ages lay Fallow, hath in these later times been Furrow’d by several Expert and Stout Captains, who now by their Art and Industry, have given a good Account of, and made clear Discoveries from East to West, where-ever the Sun rises or sets. The Northern Bounds under the _Artick-Zone_, have been hitherto so obstructed with Ice, that the undertakings of such as adventur’d either to find by the North-East or North-West a Passage to _India_, have been utterly frustrate. Of the Southern, no such pains hath as yet been taken in the Discovery, so that for the most part it is yet unknown how far the Water, either deep or shallow, overspreads the Earth, onely thus much Experience hath made out, that the _Antartick_ needs lesser Line to Fathom, than the _Artick-Ocean_. [Sidenote: The Ancients had little knowledge in Navigation.] The antient _Greeks_, _Phenicians_, and _Romans_, or whosoever that were Renown’d by Antiquity, and Listed in the number of their famous Navigators, were no less Timerous than Ignorant concerning Maritim Affairs, and are not fit to stand in the least degree of competition with our later Voyagers. [Sidenote: Navigation is very ancient.]