Recently there has arrived in Genoa the famous navigator Malaspina, who is returning to his homeland Lunigiana. Following in the footsteps of Bougainville, of Cook, and of Lapeyrouse, he has in fact twice circumnavigated the globe (1) at the orders of the King of Spain. New discoveries and observations made by him in the southern seas will be read with interest in the account of his voyage that is currently being published in Madrid (2).
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(1) In reality Malaspina circumnavigated the globe only once (in the frigate Astrea: 1786-1788), but over time the scientific expedition has come to be described, inaccurately, as one "around the world."

(2) This surely refers to the account of the voyage of the schooners Sutil and Mexicana, which was published in Madrid in 1802; the reporter evidently believed that it was still at the press. See Relación del viaje hecho por las goletas Sutil y Mexicana en el año 1792, para reconocer el Estrecho de Fuca, con una introducción en que se da noticia de las expediciones executadas  anteriormente por los españoles en busca del paso del Noroeste de la América. De orden del Rey, Madrid, en la Imprenta Real, 1802. 2 vols; see also M.D. HIGUERAS, M.L. MARTÍN-MERÁS (eds.), Relación del viaje hecho por las goletas Sutil y Mexicana en el año 1792 para reconocer el Estrecho de Juan de Fuca, Madrid, Museo Naval, 1991.

Text and notes courtesy of Dario Manfredi, translated by John Black.

Updated: June 13, 2018