ast, to which, from its white cliffs, he gave the name
of New Albion. When he arrived, however, at Cape Blanco, the cold was so
intense, that he abandoned his intention of searching for a passage into
the Atlantic, and crossed the Pacific to the Molucca islands. In this long
passage he discovered only a few islands in 20 deg. north latitude: after an
absence of 1501 days, he arrived at Plymouth. The discoveries made by this
circumnavigator, will, however, be deemed much more important, if the
opinion of Fleurien, in his remarks on the austral lands of Drake, inserted
in the Voyage of Marchand, in which opinion he is followed by Malte Brun,
be correct; viz. that Drake discovered, under the name of the Isles of
Elizabeth, the western part of the archipelago of Terra del Fuego; and that
he reached even the southern extremity of America, which afterwards
received, from the Dutch navigators, the name of Cape Horn. These are all
the well authenticated discoveries made in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, on the north-west coast of America. Cape Mendocino, in about
40-1/2 degrees north latitude, is the extreme limit of the certain
knowledge possessed at this period respecting this coast: the information
possessed respecting New Georgia and New Cornwall was very vague and
obscure.

In the beginning of the sixteenth century, the coasts of the east side of
North America, particularly those of Florida, Virginia, Acadia and Canada,
were examined by navigators of different countries. Florida was discovered
in the year 1512, by the Spanish navigator, Ponce de Leon; but as it did
not present any appearance of containing the precious metals, the Spaniards
entirely neglected it. In 1524, the French seem to have engaged in their
first voyage of discovery to America. Francis I. sent out a Florentine with
four ships: three of these were left at Madeira; with the fourth he reached
Florida. From this country he is said to have coasted till he arrived in
fifty degrees of north latitude. To this part he gave the name of New
France; but he returned home without having formed any colony. Towards the
end of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth centuries, the
English began to form settlements in these parts of North America. Virginia
was examined by the famous Sir Walter Raleigh: this name was given to all
the coast on which the English formed settlements. That part of it now
called Carolina, seems to have been first discovered by R