MEMOIRS for the CURIOUS.

June 1708.

The Remainder of Admiral Bartholomew de Fonte's Letter; giving an Account of the most material Transactions in a Journal of his from the Calo of Lima in Peru, on his Discoveries to find out if there was any North West Passage from the Atlantick Ocean into the South and Tartarian Sea; which for want of Room we could not possibly avoid postponing.

See the Memoirs for April 1708, and you'll find the beginning of this Curious Discovery.

We concluded with giving an Account of a Letter from Capt. Barnarda, dated the 27th of June, 1640. on his Discovery in the Lake Valasco. The first of July 1640, Admiral de Fonte sailed from the rest of his Ships in the Lake Belle, in a good Port cover'd by a fine Island, before the Town Conosset from thence to a River I named Parmentiers, in honour of my Industrious Judicious Comrade, Mr Parmentiers, who had most exactly mark'd every thing in and about that River; we pass'd 8 Falls, in all 32 foot, perpendicular from its Sourse out of Belle; it falls into the large Lake I named Lake de Fonte, at which place we arrived the 6th of July. This Lake is 160 Leagues long and 60 broad, the length is E. N. E. and W. S. W. to 20 or 30, in some places 60 Fathom deep; the Lake abounds with excellent Cod and Ling, very large and well fed, there are several very large Islands and 10 small ones; they are covered with shrubby Woods, the Moss grows 6 or 7 foot long, with which the Moose, a very large sort of Deer, are fat with in the Winter, and other lesser Deer, as Fallow, &c. There are abundance of wild Cherries, Strawberries, Hurtleberries, and wild Currants, and also of wild Fowl Heath Cocks and Hens, likewise Partridges and Turkeys, and Sea Fowl in great plenty on the South side: The Lake is a very large fruitful Island, had a great many Inhabitants, and very excellent Timber, as Oaks, Ashes, Elm and Fur-Trees, very large and tall.

The 14th of July we sailed out of the E. N. E. end of the Lake de Fonte, and pass'd a Lake I named Estricho de Ronquillo, 34 Leagues long, 2 or 3 Leagues broad, 20, 26, and 28 Fathom of Water; we pass'd this strait in 10 hours, having a stout Gale of Wind and whole Ebb. As we sailed more Easterly, the Country grew very sensibly worse, as it is in the North and South parts of America, from 36 to the extream Parts North or South, the West differs not only in Fertility but in Temperature of Air, at least 10 Degrees, and it is warmer on the West side than on the East, as the best Spanish Discoverers found it, whose business it was in the time of the Emperor Charles the V. to Philip the III. as is noted by Aloares and a Costa and Mariana, &c.

The 17th we came to an Indian Town, and the Indians told our Interpreter Mr Parmentiers, that a little way from us lay a great Ship where there had never been one before; we sailed to them, and found only one Man advanced in years, and a Youth; the Man was the greatest Man in the Mechanical Parts of the Mathematicks I had ever met with; my second Mate was an English Man, an excellent Seaman, as was my Gunner, who had been taken Prisoners at Campechy, as well as the Master's Son; they told me the Ship was of New England, from a Town called Boston. The Owner and the whole Ships Company came on board the 30th, and the Navigator of the Ship, Capt. Shapley, told me, his Owner was a fine Gentleman, and Major General of the largest Colony in New England, called the Maltechusets; so I received him like a Gentleman, and told him, my Commission was to make Prize of any People seeking a North West or West Passage into the South Sea but I would look upon them as Merchants trading with the Natives for Bevers, Otters, and other Furs and Skins, and so for a small Present of Provisions I had no need on, I gave him my Diamond Ring, which cost me 1200 Pieces of Eight, (which the modest Gentleman received with difficulty) and having given the brave Navigator, Capt. Shapley for his fine Charts and Journals, 1000 Pieces of Eight, and the Owner of the Ship, Seimor Gibbons a quarter Cask of good Peruan Wine, and the 10 Seamen each 20 Pieces of Eight, the 6th of August, with as much Wind as we could fly before, and a Currant, we arrived at the first Fall of the River Parmentiers, the 11th of August, 86 Leagues, and was on the South side of the Lake Belle on board our Ships the 16th of August, before the fine Town Conosset, where we found all things well; and the honest Natives of Conosset had in our absence treated our People with great humanity, and Capt. de Ronquillo answer'd their Civility and Justice.

The 20th of August an Indian brought me a Letter to Conosset on the Lake Belle, from Capt. Barnarda, dated the 11th of August, where he sent me word he was returned from his Cold Expedition, and did assure me there was no Communication out of the Spanish or Atlantick Sea, by Davis Strait; for the Natives had conducted one of his Seamen to the head of Davis Strait, which terminated in a fresh Lake of about 30 Mile in circumference, in the 80th Degree of North Latitude; and that there was prodigious Mountains North of it, besides the North West from that Lake, the Ice was so fix'd, that from the Shore to 100 Fathom Water, for ought he knew from the Creation; for Mankind knew little of the wonderful Works of God, especially near the North and South Poles; he writ further, that he had sailed from Basset Island North East, and East North East, and North East and by East, to the 79th Degree of Latitude, and then the Land trended North, and the Ice rested on the Land. I received afterwards a second Letter from Capt. Barnarda, dated from Minhanset, informing me, that he made the Port of Arena, 20 Leagues up the River los Reyes on the 29th of August, where he waited my Commands. I having store of good Salt Provisions, of Venison and Fish, that Capt. de Ronquillo had salted (by my order) in my absence, and 100 Hogsheads of Indian Wheat or Mais, sailed the 2d of September 1640. accompanied with many of the honest Natives of Conosset, and the 5th of September in the Morning about 8, was at an Anchor betwixt Arena and Mynhanset, in the River los Reyes, sailing down that River to the North East part of the South Sea; after that returned home, having found that there was no Passage into the South Sea by that they call the North West Passage. The Chart will make this much more demonstrable.

Tho the Style of the foregoing Piece is not altogether so Polite, (being writ like a Man, whose livelihood depended on another way) but with abundance of Experience and a Traveller, yet there are so many Curious, and hitherto unknown Discoveries, that it was thought worthy a place in these Memoirs; and 'tis humbly presum'd it will not be unacceptable to those who have either been in those Parts, or will give themselves the trouble of reviewing the Chart.