P R E F A C E ' .
to the frivolous obfervations, the uninterefting digreflions,.
and fophiflical principles of this writer, the ill-fuccefs of-
the woik has been attributed j though, few are. able to
determine, with what degree of juftice the blame is thrown
upon the compiler. The adtive life of captain Cook,
and his indefatigable purfuits after difcoveries, have mader
it impoflible for him to fuperintend the printing of his owa
Journals ; and the public, I am much afraid, mull again
converfe with him by means of an interpreter. His pre*
fent performance will, in all probability, have another cir-
cumftance in common with the former, where many im-
portant obfervations, thought obnoxious, have been fup-
preffed, as is cuftomary in France. The fame authority
which blew off M. de Bougainville from the ifland of Juan
Fernandez, could hulh to lilence the Britifli guns, whilft
the Endeavour cannonaded the Portuguefe fort at Madeira *;
Without entering farther into this fubjedt, I fhall.only
obferve, that the above remark wiU give an adequate idea
of the authenticity of a performance, which is fubmitted
* T h e two circumftances here alluded to, are well known fails, though
lupprefled in the publilhed narratives. M. de Bougainville fpent fome time at
Juan Fernandez, and completely refrefhed his crew there, though-he withes to
have it underftood, that contrary winds prevented his touching at that-illand.
Captain Cook in the Endeavour, battered the Loo-fort at Madeira, in con-
junaion with an Englilh frigate, thus refenting an affront which had been,
offered to the Britiih flag,
IO
P R E F A C E. xi
to cenfure and mutilation, before it is offered to the
public.
The philofophers of the prefent age, to obviate the feem-
ing contradidtions in the accounts of different travellers,
have been at the trouble to feledt certain authors in whom
they have placed confidence, and rejected as fabulous the
affertions of all the reft. Without being competent judges
o f the fubjedt, they have affumed a few circumftances as
fadts ; and wrefting even thofe to fuit their own fyftems,
have built a fuperftrudlure which pleafes at a diftance, but
upon nearer examination partakes of the illufive nature of
a dream. The learned, at laft grown tired of being deceived
by the powers of rhetoric, and by fophiftical arguments,
raifed a general cry after a Ample colledtion of fails.
They had their wifh ; fadts were colledted in all parts of the
world, and yet knowledge was not increafed. They received
a confufed heap of disjointed limbs, which no art
could reunite into a whole ; and the rage of hunting after
fadts foon rendered them incapable of forming and refolv-
ing a Angle propofition ; like thofe minute enquirers, whofe
life is wholly fpent in the anatomical diffedtion of flies,
from, whence they never draw a Angle conclufion for the
ufe of mankind, or even of brutes. Befides this, two travellers
feldom faw the fame objedt in the fame manner, and
each reported the fadt differently, according to his fenfaa
2 tions,