Fortune often delights to dignify what nature has neglected, and that renown which cannot be claimed by intrinfick excellence or greatnefs, is fometimes derived from unexpected accidents. The Rubicon was ennobled by the paffage of Cefar, and the time is now come when Falkland's Islands demand their hif

torian.

But the writer to whom this employment shall be affigned, will have few opportunities of defcriptive fplendor, or narrative elegance. Of other countries it is told how often they have changed their government; these islands have hitherto changed only their name. Of heroes to conquer, or legiflators to civilize, here has been no appearance; nothing has happened to them, but that they have been fometimes seen by wandering navigators, who paffed by them in fearch

of better habitations.

When the Spaniards, who, under the conduct of Columbus, difcovered America, had taken poffeffion of its moft wealthy regions; they furprised and terrified Europe by a fudden and unexampled influx of riches. They were made at once infupportably infolent, and might perhaps have become irrefiftibly powerful, had not their mountainous treasures been fcattered in the air with the ignorant profufion of unaccustomed opulence. The greater part of the European potentates faw this ftream of riches flowing into Spain without attempting to dip their own hands in the golden fountain. France had no naval fkill or power; Portugal was extending her dominions in the eaft over regions formed in the gaiety of nature; the Hanfeatick league, VOL. VIII.

H

being

being planned only for the fecurity of traffick, had no tendency to discovery or invafion; and the commer-, cial states of Italy growing rich by trading between Afia and Europe, and not lying upon the ocean, did not defire to feek by great hazards, at a diftance, what was almost at home to be found with fafety.

The English alone were animated by the fuccefs of the Spanish navigators, to try if any thing was left that might reward adventure, or incite appropriation. They fent Cabot into the north, but in the north there was no gold or filver to be found. The best regions were pre-occupied, yet they ftill continued their hopes and their labours. They were the fecond nation that dared the extent of the Pacifick Ocean, and the second circumnavigators of the globe.

By the war between Elizabeth and Philip, the wealth of America became lawful prize, and those who were lefs afraid of danger than of poverty, fuppofed that riches might easily be obtained by plundering the Spaniards. Nothing is difficult when gain and honour unite their influence; the fpirit and vigour of thefe expeditions enlarged our views of the new world, and made us first acquainted with its remoter coafts.

In the fatal voyage of Cavendish (1592), Captain Davis, who, being fent out as his affociate, was afterwards parted from him or deferted him, as he was driven by violence of weather about the ftraits of Magellan, is fuppofed to have been the firft who faw the lands now called Falkland's Islands, but his dif tress permitted him not to make any obfervation, and he left them, as he found them, without a name,

Not long afterwards (1594) Sir Richard Hawkins being in the fame feas with the fame designs, saw these islands again, if they are indeed the fame islands, and in honour of his miftrefs, called them Hawkins's Maiden Land.

This voyage was not of renown fufficient to procure a general reception to the new name, for when the Dutch, who had now become ftrong enough not only to defend themfelves, but to attack their masters, fent (1598) Verhagen and Sebald de Wert; into the South Seas, thefe iflands, which were not supposed to have been known before, obtained the denomination of Sebald's Islands, and were from that time placed in the charts; though Frezier tells us, that they were yet confidered as of doubtful exist

ence.

Their prefent English name was probably given them (1689) by Strong, whofe journal, yet unprinted, may be found in the Mufeum. This name was adopted by Halley, and has from that time, I believe, been received into our maps.

The privateers which were put into motion by the wars of William and Anne, faw those islands and mention them; but they were yet not considered as territories worth a conteft. Strong affirmed that there was no wood, and Dampier fufpected that they had no

water.

Frezier describes their appearance with more dif tinctness, and mentions fome fhips of St. Maloes, by which they had been vifited, and to which he seems willing enough to afcribe the honour of difcovering islands which yet he admits to have been seen by Hawkins, and named by Sebald de Wert. He, I fup

pofe, in honour of his countrymen, called them the Malouines, the denomination now ufed by the Spaniards, who feem not, till very lately, to have thought them important enough to deferve a name.

Since the publication of Anfon's voyage, they have very much changed their opinion, finding a settlement in Pepys's or Falkland's Iland recommended by the author as neceffary to the fuccefs of our future expeditions against the coast of Chili, and as of fuch use and importance, that it would produce many advantages in peace, and in war would make us mafters of the South Sea.

Scarcely any degree of judgment is fufficient to reftrain the imagination, from magnifying that on which it is long detained. The relator of Anfon's voyage had heated his mind with its various events, had partaken the hope with which it was begun, and the vexation fuffered by its various miscarriages, and then thought nothing could be of greater benefit to the nation than that which might promote the fuccefs of fuch another enterprise.

Had the heroes of that hiftory even performed and attained all that when they firft fpread their fails they ventured to hope, the confequence would yet have produced very little hurt to the Spaniards, and very little benefit to the English. They would have taken. a few towns; Anfon and his companions would have fhared the plunder or the ransom; and the Spaniards, finding their fouthern territories acceffible, would for the future have guarded them better.

That such a settlement may be of use in war, no man that confiders its fituation will deny. But war. is not the whole bufinefs of life; it happens but

4

feldom,

feldom, and every man, either good or wife, wishes that its frequency were ftill lefs. That conduct which betrays defigns of future hoftility, if it does not excite violence, will always generate malignity; it muft for ever exclude confidence and friendship, and continue a cold and fluggish rivalry, by a fly reciprocation of indirect injuries, without the bravery of war, or the fecurity of peace.

The advantage of fuch a fettlement in time of peace is, 1 think, not easily to be proved. For what use can it have but of a ftation for contraband traders, a nursery of fraud, and a receptacle of theft ? Narborough, about a century ago, was of opinion, that no advantage could be obtained in voyages to the South Sea, except by fuch an armament as, with a failor's morality, might trade by force. It is well known that the prohibitions of foreign commerce are, in thefe countries, to the last degree rigorous, and that no man not authorized by the king of Spain can trade there but by force or ftealth. Whatever profit is obtained must be gained by the violence of rapine, or dexterity of fraud.

Government will not perhaps foon arrive at fuch purity and excellence, but that fome connivance at leaft will be indulged to the triumphant robber and fuccefsful cheat, He that brings wealth home is feldom interrogated by what means it was obtained. This, however, is one of thofe modes of corruption with which mankind ought always to struggle, and which they may in time hope to overcome, There is reafon to expect, that as the world is more enlightened, policy and morality will at last be recon