This current breaks on that wedge of land of which Saint Roque is the
point; the southern column of it probably turning off and washing the
coast of Brazil. I say probably, because I have never heard the fact,
and conjecture it from reason only. The northern column, having its
western motion diverted towards the north, and reinforced by the
currents of the great rivers Orinoko, Amazons, and Tocantin, has
probably been the agent which formed the Gulf of Mexico, cutting the
American continent nearly in two, in that part. It re-issues into the
ocean at the northern end of the Gulf, and passes by the name of the
Gulf Stream, all along the coast of the United States, to its northern
extremity. There it turns off eastwardly, having formed by its eddy, at
this turn, the Banks of Newfoundland. Through the whole of its course,
from the Gulf to the Banks, it retains a very sensible warmth. The
Spaniards are, at this time, desirous of trading to their Philippine
Islands, by the way of the Cape of Good Hope: but opposed in it by the
Dutch, under authority of the treaty of Munster, they are examining the
practicability of a common passage through the Straits of Magellan, or
round Cape Horn.
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