Though Behring settled the fact of the existence of the strait which bears his name, it was reserved for Captain Cook to survey the entire length of both coasts. This he did with a precision and accuracy which left nothing for after-voyagers to perform, and which has made the geography of this remote and barbarous region as familiar as that of the Atlantic shores of America. The island upon which Behring died, and which was then uninhabited and without a shrub upon its surface, is now an important trading station, and affords comfortable winter quarters to vessels from Okhotsk and Kamschatka. [Illustration: LORD ANSON.] CHAPTER XL. PIRATICAL VOYAGE UNDER GEORGE ANSON--UNPARALLELED MORTALITY--ARRIVAL AND SOJOURN AT JUAN FERNANDEZ--A PRIZE--CAPTURE OF PAITA--PREPARATIONS TO ATTACK THE MANILLA GALLEON--DISAPPOINTMENT--FORTUNATE ARRIVAL AT TINIAN--ROMANTIC ACCOUNT OF THE ISLAND--A STORM--ANSON'S SHIP DRIVEN OUT TO SEA--THE ABANDONED CREW SET ABOUT BUILDING A BOAT--RETURN OF THE CENTURION--BATTLE WITH THE MANILLA GALLEON--ANSON'S ARRIVAL IN ENGLAND--THE PROCEEDS OF THE CRUISE. The statesmen of England had now become penetrated with the idea that, in order to consolidate their territorial supremacy, they must make their country the undisputed mistress of the seas. War was declared against Spain in 1739, and the king determined to attack that power in her distant settlements and deprive her, if possible, of her possessions in America, and especially in Peru. It was supposed that the principal resources of the enemy would be by this means cut off, and that the Spanish would be reduced to the necessity of suing for peace, deprived as they would be of the returns of that treasure by which alone they could be enabled to support the drains of a foreign war. A fleet of six vessels, manned by fourteen hundred men and accompanied by two victualling-ships, was placed under the command of George Anson, a captain in the naval service. The flag-ship was the Centurion, mounting sixty guns and carrying four hundred men. On their way out from Spithead, on the 18th of September, 1740, the fleet was joined by an immense convoy of trading ships, which were to keep them company a portion of the way,--numbering in all eleven men-of-war and one hundred and fifty sail of merchantmen.