Page 352
An.1686
Davis's Discovery of Terra Australis.
ther side of Terra Patagonica; or, if you please, at the Gallapagoes Islands, where there is Refreshment enough; and returning you may probably touch somewhere on New Holland, and fo make some pro- fitable discovery in these places without going out of your way. And to speak my thoughts freely, I believe 'tis owing to the neglect of this easy way that all that vast Tract of Terra Australis which bounds the South Sea is yet undiscovered: those that cross that Sea seeming to design some business on the Peruvian or Mexican Coast, and so lea- ving that at a distance. To confirm which, I shall add what Captain Davis told me lately, that after his Departure from us at the Haven of Ria Lexa (as is mentioned in the 8th Chap.) he went, after seve- ral Traverses, to the Gallapagoes, and that standing thence Southward for Wind, to bring him about Terra del Fuego, in the Lat. of 27 South, about 500 leagues from Copayapo, on the Coast of Chili, he saw a small fandy Island just by him; and that they faw to the Westward of it a long tract of pretty high Land, tending away toward the North West out of sight. This might probably be the Coast of Terra Australis Incognita.
But to return to Mindanao; as to the capacity we were then in, of settling our selves at Mindanao, al- though we were not sent out of any such design of settling, yet we were as well provided, or better, considering all circumstances, than if we had. For there was scarce any useful Trade, but some or others of us understood it. We had Sawyers, Car- penters, Joyners, Brickmakers, Bricklayers, Shoe- makers, Taylors, &c. we only wanted a good Smith for great work; which we might have had at Mindanao. We were very well provided with Iron, Lead, and all sorts of Tools, as Saws, Axes, Hammers, &c. We had Powder and Shot enough, and very good small Arms. If we had designed to build