Thus far our navigation has certainly been unfavourable to the notion of a southern continent, for it has swept away at least three-fourths of the positions upon which it has been founded. The principal navigators, whose authority has been urged on this occasion, are Tasman, Juan Fernandes, Hermite, the commander of a Dutch squadron, Quiros, and Roggewein; and the track of the Endeavour has demonstrated that the land seen by these persons, and supposed to be part of a continent, is not so; it has also totally subverted the theoretical arguments which have been brought to prove that the existence of a southern continent is necessary to preserve an equilibrium between the two hemispheres; for upon this principle what we have already proved to be water, would render the southern hemisphere too light. In our route to the northward, after doubling Cape Horn, when we were in the latitude of 40°, our longitude was 110°; and in our return to the southward, after leaving Ulietea, when we were again in latitude 40°, our longitude was 145°; the difference is 35°. When we were in latitude 30° the difference of longitude between the two tracks was 21°, which continued till we were as low as 20°; but a single view of the chart will convey a better idea of this than the most minute description: yet as upon a view of the chart it will appear that there is a large space extending quite to the tropics, which neither we, nor any other navigators to our knowledge, have explored, and as there will appear to be room enough for the Cape of a southern continent to extend northward into a low southern latitude, I shall give my reason for believing there is no Cape of any southern continent, to the northward of 40° south. Notwithstanding what has been laid down by some geographers in their maps, and alleged by Mr. Dalrymple, with respect to Quiros, it is improbable in the highest degree that he saw to the southward of two islands, which he discovered in latitude 25 or 26, and which I suppose may lie between the longitude of 130° and 140° W., any signs of a continent, much less any thing which, in his opinion, was a known or indubitable sign of such land; for if he had, he would certainly have sailed southward in search of it, and if he had sought, supposing the signs to have been indubitable, he must have found: the discovery of a southern continent was the ultimate object of Quiros’s voyage, and no man appears to have had it more at heart; so that if he was in latitude 26° S. and in longitude 146° W., where Mr. Dalrymple has placed the islands he discovered, it may fairly be inferred, that no part of a southern continent extends to that latitude.