disgraceful expedition was succeeded, in 1539, by that of Camargo, who, proceeding from the river La Plata with three ships, attempted to pass through the strait into the Pacific Ocean. He succeeded with his own vessel in reaching Peru: one of his ships was lost in the strait; and the third, after discovering a number of islands, inlets, and harbours, which delayed her course, was obliged to return to the La Plata. This was the last attempt made by the Spaniards for many years to examine and improve the navigation between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In 1557, indeed, Ladrillero sailed from Chili with two ships to survey the strait from the east a mutiny broke out in his crews, which he with difficulty quelled; one of his ships parted company in a storm, and returned to Chili. He, however, resolutely continued his voyage, and diligently examined all the windings of the strait, and returned with only one Spanish seaman and a negro to manœuvre his vessel; the rest of his crew having perished from want, fatigue, and the severity of the climate..

The claim of the Spaniards to the Moluccas was definitively renounced by the emperor in 1529, for a sum of money; but he did not give up his pretensions to the numerous islands which Spanish navigators had discovered to the east of the line of demarcation now confirmed to the Portuguese. In consequence, Rui Lopez de Villalobos was despatched in 1542, with six ships, to make a settlement in some of the islands discovered by Magellan. This voyage was productive of a considerable increase in the geographical knowledge of the Pacific Ocean; but it is difficult at the present day to trace with certainty and precision the course held by the Spanish navigator. Villalobos discovered a cluster of islands, which he named Del Coral (Coral Islands), and which are supposed to be a part of the New Philippines. Farther to the west he found Los Jardines or the Garden Islands; and then the Matalotes and the Arrecifes or Reefs, which are probably the Pelew Islands of modern maps. Arrived at Mindanao, he took pos

session of it in the name of the emperor, and called it Cæsarea Caroli; but he subsequently named the whole group of islands to which it belongs, Los Filippinas, the Philippines, in honour of prince Philip; a denomination which geography has preserved. In like manner the group of islands south of the Ladrones, which received in 1705, when Philip V. was on the throne of Spain, the name of the New Philippines, had been previously called the Carolines (from Charles II.), by Lazeano, the original discoverer of part of the group.

The expedition of Villalobos failed in its principal object: the natives of the Philippine Islands seemed well acquainted with the character and intentions of their visiters, and obstinately refused to maintain any friendly intercourse with them. The Spaniards, suffering continually from want of provisions, were at length compelled to throw themselves on the mercy of the Portuguese. Villalobos died at Amboyna: his companions, after many difficulties, reached Goa, whence they returned to Europe. The St. Juan, the smallest vessel of his fleet, twice attempted to return to New Spain, but was driven back on each occasion by the constancy of the easterly winds.

She touched at many new islands, and sailed several leagues along the coast of a low and fertile country, to which the Spaniards, not aware that it had been previously discovered, gave the name of New Guinea, which it still retains.

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The failure of Villalobos, being imputed to mismanagement, did not deter the Spaniards from their intention of making a settlement at the Philippine Islands. this purpose Miguel Lopez de Legaspi was despatched from the port of Navidad, in New Spain, with four ships, in the year 1564. Andres de Urdaneta, who, when a young man, had sailed with Loyasa, but had since retired into monastic life, and whose reputation as an able navigator and cosmographer was very high, was prevailed on, by the express desire of the king, to accompany the expedition. It was the wish of Urdaneta to establish a colony on New Guinea, which he supposed

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to be a part of a great southern continent stretching, without interruption, from the Indian seas to Tierra del Fuego, on the south of Magellan's Straits. The Philippines, however, had been fixed on by the Spanish government. Legaspi had a prosperous voyage, in the course of which he discovered some islands, which he named Los Barbudos, from the long beards of the inhabitants. He appears also to have fallen in with one of the Marianbut the difficulty of following the tracks of the early navigators, and the inaccuracy of their observations to determine their geographical position, may be estimated from the circumstance, that the four pilots of Legaspi's fleet differed from each other in their reckonings not less than 400 leagues. Legaspi succeeded in planting a colony at Zebu, where he took inhuman vengeance for the violence done to Magellan forty years before. Some years later he conquered Manilla, which thenceforth became the capital of the Spanish possessions in the Philippine Islands. The colony being established, Urdaneta, agreeably to his instructions, set sail across the Pacific for New Spain; an attempt in which every preceding navigator had been foiled. He had the boldness and sagacity to hold a northerly course, in order to fall in with westerly winds, and actually reached the latitude of 43° north. By this masterly navigation he succeeded, without any struggle, in returning to New Spain. The year following, a ship sailed to the Philippines from New Spain; and in 1567, two vessels returned by the course pointed out by Urdaneta. From that time forth voyages across the Pacific were annually repeated by the beaten tracks.

A similar discovery in the art of navigation was made about the same time in the Southern Pacific. Seamen had hitherto found it nearly as difficult to sail from north to south along the coast of Peru, as to navigate the Pacific, between the tropics, from west to east. But Juan Fernandez discovered, that by running westward to a great distance from land, southerly winds were to be met with, which, continuing to the latitude of variable

or of westerly winds, gave the mariner the opportunity of making the land to the south, which he could not have done had he remained near shore. In the course of one of his voyages, this enterprising seaman discovered, at the distance of 110 leagues from the coast of Chili, the small island which bears his name, and which has obtained a pleasing celebrity as the spot inhabited for four years by the shipwrecked mariner Alexander Selkirk, on whose simple narrative Defoe founded the admirable Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. Juan Fernandez is also thought by many to have discovered New Zealand; but the great land, or tierra firma, which he is reported to have observed, does not appear to have been situated so far to the west of Chili; while, at the same time, the Southern Ocean has not yet been so perfectly explored as to compel us to refuse credit to his narrative.

After the settlement of the Spaniards in the Philippine Islands, and the consequent increase of navigation in the Pacific Ocean, it might naturally be expected that numerous geographical discoveries would be made in a sea so thickly strewed with islands. It is possible that voyages of discovery were made by the Spaniards, the accounts of which have never been published; and there is reason to believe that the name of the Salomon Islands had been applied to some islands in the Pacific previous to the discovery of the group which at present bears the name. * In 1567, Alvaro de Mendana sailed from Callao on a voyage of discovery, which seems to have had in view the examination of some islands previously descried. In the course of this voyage he discovered the Salomon Islands, the island of Santa Cruz, the group of San Francisco, and several others. luyt informs us "that the isles of Salomon were so named by the discoverer, to the end that the Spaniards, supposing them to be those isles from whence Salomon fetched gold, might be the more desirous to go and inhabit the same." Yet the discoveries made by Mendana in this voyage do not appear to have excited at first any * Burney's Voyages in the South Sea, vol. i. p. 277.

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uncommon degree of interest or expectation in the minds of the Spaniards in Peru. It is certain that the Salomon Islands were not again visited by Europeans till two centuries after their discovery, notwithstanding the romantic ideas entertained respecting their great riches; and we have but an imperfect acquaintance with them even at the present day. Nearly thirty years elapsed before Mendana departed a second time from Peru to continue his interesting researches. In this voyage he discovered the Marquesas, the group of San Bernardo, and that afterwards named by Carteret Queen Charlotte's Islands. He sought in vain the Salomon Islands, but from the errors of his reckoning was unable to find them; and relinquished the search when not more than forty leagues distant from San Christoval, the island of the group to which his views were chiefly directed. His attempts to plant a colony in Santa Cruz failed from the tyranny of the Spaniards, and consequent hostility of the natives. Mendana (who ranks high as a discoverer, but not as a navigator or commander) died at this island; and the voyage, though rich in geographical results, was otherwise unfortunate.

But previous to the second voyage of Mendana the attention of the Spaniards of Peru was diverted from researches which had for their object the gratification of curiosity or the establishment of new settlements, by dangers which threatened them at home. They found themselves attacked in a manner most unexpected; and while they indulged in dreams of security, their treasures were carried off from before their eyes. Sir Francis Drake had entered the Pacific Ocean, which they deemed all their own, by the Straits of Magellan, the navigation of which they had abandoned in despair, and his appearance caused them no less terror than surprise.

This extraordinary man was born of humble parents at Tavistock in Devonshire. At an early age he went to sea; and the master of the bark whom he served, leaving him the little vessel at his death, laid the foundation of his future fortune. Young Drake accompanied