Though the immense expanse usually distinguished by this appellation, had been navigated by Europeans for near two centuries and a half, by far the greater part of it, particularly to the south of the equator, had remained, during all this time, unexplored.
The great aim of Magalhaens, and of the Spaniards in general, its first navigators, being merely to arrive, by this passage, at the Moluccas, and the other Asiatic spice islands, every intermediate part of the ocean that did not lie contiguous to their western track, which was on the north side of the equator, of course escaped due examination. And if Mendana and Quiros, and some nameless conductors of voyages before them, by deviating from this track, and steering westward from Callao, within the southern tropic, were so fortunate as to meet with various islands there, and so sanguine as to consider those islands as marks of the existence of a neighbouring southern continent, in the exploring of which they flattered themselves they should rival the fame of De Gama and Columbus, these feeble efforts never led to any effectual disclosure of the supposed hidden mine of a New World. On the contrary, their voyages being conducted without a judicious plan, and their discoveries being left imperfect without immediate settlement, or subsequent examination, and scarcely recorded in any well-authenticated or accurate narrations, had been almost forgot; or were so obscurely remembered, as only to serve the purpose of producing perplexing debates about their situation and extent, if not to suggest doubts about their very existence.
It seems, indeed, to have become a very early object of policy in the Spanish councils, to discontinue and to discourage any farther researches in that quarter. Already masters of a larger empire on the continent of America than they could conveniently govern, and of richer mines of the precious metals on that continent than they could convert into use, neither avarice nor ambition furnished reasons for aiming at a fresh accession of dominions. And thus, though settled all along the shores of this ocean, in a situation so commodious for prosecuting discoveries throughout its wide extent, the Spaniards remained satisfied with a coasting intercourse between their own ports; never stretching across the vast gulph that separates that part of America from Asia, but in an unvarying line of navigation, perhaps in a single annual ship, between Acapulco and Manilla.
The tracks of other European navigators of the South Pacific Ocean, were, in a great measure, regulated by those of the Spaniards, and consequently limited within the same narrow bounds. With the exception, perhaps, of two instances only, those of Le Maire and Roggewein, no ships of another nation had entered this sea, through the Strait of Magalhaens, or found Cape Horn, but for the purposes of trade with the Spaniards, or of hostility against them, purposes which could not be answered, without precluding any probable chance of adding much to our stock of discovery. For it was obviously incumbent on all such adventurers, to confine their cruises within a moderate distance of the Spanish settlements, in the vicinity of which alone they could hope to exercise their commerce, or to execute their predatory and military operations. Accordingly, soon after emerging from the strait, or completing the circuit of Tierra del Fuego, they began to hold a northerly course, to the uninhabited island of Juan Fernandez, their usual spot of rendezvous and refreshment. And after ranging along the continent of America, from Chili to California, they either reversed their course back to the Atlantic, or, if they ventured to extend their voyage by stretching over to Asia, they never thought of trying experiments in the unfrequented and unexplored parts of the ocean, but chose the beaten path (if the expression may be used,) within the limits of which it was likely that they might meet with a Philippine galleon, to make their voyage profitable to themselves; but could have little prospect, if they had been desirous, of making it useful to the public, by gaining any accession of new land to the map of the world.
By the natural operation of these causes, it could not but happen, that little progress should be made toward obtaining a full and accurate knowledge of the South Pacific Ocean. Something, however, had been attempted by the industrious, and once enterprising, Dutch, to whom we are indebted for three voyages, undertaken for the purposes of discovery; and whose researches, in the southern latitudes of this ocean, are much better ascertained than are those of the earlier Spanish navigators above mentioned.
Le Maire and Schouten, in 1616, and Roggewein, in 1722, wisely judging that nothing new could be gained by adhering to the usual passage on the north side of the Line, traversed this ocean from Cape Horn to the East Indies, crossing the south tropic, a space which had been so seldom, and so ineffectually, visited; though popular belief, fortified by philosophical speculation, expected there to reap the richest harvest of discovery.
Tasman, in 1642, in his extensive circuit from Batavia, through the South Indian Ocean, entered the South Pacific, at its greatest distance from the American side, where it never had been examined before. And his range, continued from a high southern latitude, northward to New Guinea, and the islands to the east of it near the equator, produced intermediate discoveries, that have rendered his voyage memorable in the annals of navigation.
But still, upon the whole, what was effected in these three expeditions, served only to shew how large a field was reserved for future and more persevering examination. Their results had, indeed, enabled geographers to diversify the vacant uniformity of former charts of this ocean by the insertion of some new islands. But the number, and the extent of these insertions, were so inconsiderable, that they may be said to appear
Rari, nantes in gurgite vasto.
And, if the discoveries were few, those few were made very imperfectly. Some coasts were approached, but not landed upon; and passed without waiting to examine their extent and connection with those that might exist at no great distance. If others were landed upon, the visits were, in general, so transient, that it was scarcely possible to build upon a foundation so weakly laid, any information that could even gratify idle curiosity, much less satisfy philosophical enquiry, or contribute greatly to the safety, or to the success, of future navigation.