An Account of Several Late Voyages & Discoveries to the South and North. Towards the Streights of Magellan, the South Seas, the vast Tracts of land beyond Hollandia Nova, &c..

First edition: 'The editor of this work is believed to be Sir Tancred Robinson. In his lengthy Introduction, he speaks of explorations towards the South Terra Incognita, suggests that the Dutch had made great discoveries there which they had never divulged, and also speaks of Ferdinand Magellan, Pedro Fernándes de Quirós, Sir Francis Drake, and others who had sailed the South Seas' (Hill). The editor laments 'that the English nation have not sent with their Navigators, some skilful Painters, Naturalists, and Merchanists, under publick Stipends and Encouragement as the Dutch and French have done...'. Of Tasman's voyage he exclaims: '... 'tis the Discovery of a new World, not yet known to the English. 'Tis probable by Abel Jansen Tasman's Navigation, that New Guinea, New Carpentaria, and New Holland, are a vast prodigious Island, which he seems to have encompass'd in his Voyage...'.

This is thus one of very few contemporary printed records of Tasman's voyage. It is 'of the greatest importance to an Australian collection, as it contains one of the earliest accounts of Abel Janszoon Tasman's famous voyage of 1642 from Batavia, in which he discovered Tasmania and New Zealand and visited Tonga and Fiji' (Hill). This short account is based upon that published in Amsterdam, 1674 by Dirk Rembrantse (Dirk Rembrantse van Nierop). Also of great significance is the account of Narborough's voyage in the Batchelour through the Strait of Magellan and into the Pacific, which was widely read by later navigators including the survivors of the Wager (part of Anson's fleet), who used this account for their own navigation through the passage. Other works contained in the book include the narrative of captains John Wood and William Flawes who, in the Speedwell and Prosperous, explored the Northeast Passage and visited Novaya Zemlya. They concluded the East could not be reached by this route. The narrative of Friedrich Martens' whaling voyage, here first translated into English, was the first book on a voyage to Spitsbergen and Greenland. A diagram of the Southern Cross appears on p. 15.