it will take them up from a table, if they be within the sphere of its attraction. It is now ten o'clock in the morning, and you think you are standing upright on the upper part of the earth;-you will think the fame if you round the Cape of Good Hope, and entered the port of St. Maloes the 16th of March, 1769, having loft only feven men during two years and four months, the period fince he left Nantz. XIII. WALLIS left Plymouth the 16th of August, 1766, failed through the Magellanic Straits, and returned to the Downs the 20th of May, 1768. XIV. CARTERET fet fail with Captain Wallis from Plymouth, but was unfortunately feparated the 11th of April following. Having efcaped the moft imminent dangers in the Straits of Magellan, he croffed the South Sea, and anchored at Spithead the zoth of March, 1769. XV. COOK. His prefent Majefty being determined to profecute the difcoveries begun in the South Seas, Capt. Cook was appointed to the command of the fhip named the Endeavour, with which he failed from Plymouth the 26th of Auguft, 1768, and after the most satisfactory voyage that ever was undertaken, he anchored in the Downs the 12th of June, 1771. Among the new countries difcovered by this important voyage, the immenfe line of the coaft of New South Wales, laid down in a tract, which heretofore was marked as fea, claims the pre-eminence. A territory of the extent of two thousand miles is added to the crown of Great Britain. And New Zealand he first discovered to be two vast islands. As to Otaheite and the neighbouring ifles, they are pictured in ftand upright at ten o'clock this evening, when the earth fhall have turned half round, because you will then perceive no difference in pofture; and yet at the fame time you will colours which muft ever render them inticing to Europeans. After having thrice circum-navigated the globe, and explored the utmoft navigable limits of the ocean, this great but unfortunate man was cut off by the savage natives of Owhyhee, one of the Sandwich Islands, Jan. 14, 1779. XVI. PEROUSE. J. F. G. de la Peroufe fet out on a voyage round the world in the fhip Bouffole, accompanied by the Aftrolabe, in 1785, by order of the late King of France. In this voyage, M. Peroufe bent his course to the north-western coafts of America, which he explored from nearly 60° North latitude to Montery Bay, in California, in about 37° North latitude. From California, he proceeded to Macao in China, to Manilla, and thence, through the sea of Japan, and along the north-eastern coast of Tartary, of which he was the firkt known examiner, and the islands in the Sea of Jeffo, to the harbour of St. Peter and St. Paul in Kamchatka. Of thefe and other parts he has taken the precaution to remit accounts to his government. The two fhips and all their crews were unfortunately loft, but how or where has not yet been discovered. XVII. VANCOUVER. Capt. George Vancouver's Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean, and round the World, was undertaken by his Majefty's command, and performed in the years 1790-1795, in the Difcovery floop of war. be exactly in the fame pofition as a person is juft now, who ftands on the fide of the earth oppofite to us; which perfon being as strongly attracted by the earth there towards its centre, as we are here, is in no more danger of falling downwards than we are at present of falling upwards. If you find a word that you do not underftand in this, or any of my letters, I hope you will remember to afk the meaning of it; or look for it in your dictionary. Adieu, my dear boy! I am, with the tenderest affection, your Questions formed for the Exercife of the Pupil. WHAT is geography ? What is the earth? At what rate does it travel in its journey round the fun? How large are the diameter and circumference of the earth? How are day and night produced? How swiftly are the people at London carried in their diurnal courfe? What is the first proof that the earth is globular ? Who was the first person that failed round the earth? Trace the courfe of Magellan's fhip on the map or globe. Point out on the globe the tract pursued by Sir Thomas Cavendish. If the earth is round, and every where inhabited, how do bodies ftand firm on all parts of its surface? LETTER IV. The Circles upon the Globe defcribed;-ZonesLongitude-Latitude, &c. MY DEAR CHILD, GEOGRAPHER London, EOGRAPHERS have circumfcribed and divided the furface of the earth with several imaginary lines and circles, which you may fufficiently know in half an hour by a small figure I have drawn, and fent you with this, wherein thofe lines and circles are marked and named. The ftraight line you fee paffing through the centre of the earth, and round which it turns, once in about twenty-four hours, is called the Axis. This, in the real earth, is only an imaginary line; but in artificial globes, it is a wire, by which they are fupported and on which they revolve. The EQUATOR is that line or circle, which encompasses the middle of the earth, dividing the northern half from the fouthern. This line is very often called the Equinoctial, because when the fun appears in it, the days and nights are equal in all parts of the world. |