eYiofen for the voyage, on pretence of his nor having been?
bred tap in the RoyaLNav.y, and o f the infinuations o f cunning
men who would have endeavoured to throw an odium
on him, i f the expedition, in the mode icwas propofed, had.
not been fuccefeful, and* attributed a ll the merits to. their
own tools.
This brought to m y remembrance an old woman* whofe
mind had contracted a fplenetic turn by her having been al-
moft all her life at law : ihe frequently vifited my grandmother,
and.her law-fuits being conftantly uppermoft, Ihe uféd'.
to make them the fubjedl o f her difcourfe to a ll who happened,
to be prefent; and growing angry at. the fuppofcd injuries flie
had received,, flie never failed to pick a quarrel' with them,,
and was by no means fparing o f her abufe. I cannot but impute
the illiberal'turn-of'Mr. Dalrym pie’s Letter to a fimilart
caufe; he is as fore upon the fubjedt of a fouthem continent as-
the old womanwastipon that of-the law, and conféquèntly as
foon grows angry when it happens to be ftarted: I'am very för-
ry for the difcontentedHate of this good Gentleman’s mind,,
and moft fmcerdy wilh that a fóuthern continent may be -
found; as lam confident nothing elfe-can-make him happy
and good-humoured.* In the mean time I 'afiure Kim that It
have no concern in the*queftion, that I' have* not-advanced:
any fentiment or opinion of my own about it, and that,..as I:
never read llis book, his charge that I wilfully lnpprefled.
whatever I thought could db him credit, , is wholly without
foundation. I have incorporatedthe journals o f each voyage,.
and exprefled the fentiments o f the writers on the fubjeft in
the beft manner I was able; th a t l have faithfully related the
fafts the journals themfelVes indubitably prove, and that I
have not mtftaken the fentiments may fairly be inferred
from the acquiefcence of the Gentlemen who kept them, to
whom my manufcript was^read, to whom it was afterwards
g delivered*.
delivered, and in whofe poiTclIion it continued till they
thought fit to return it. .
Mr. Dalrymple fays, “ that Ire did not expect to find him-
“ felf mentioned by name in the work I have juft publifhed
but whatever this Gentleman’s expectations may have been
no other perfon furely can think it ft range that an author
fhouid be mentioned by name, when the fubject on which he
has profefledly written is under,confideration; nor can any
perfon but himfelf fuppofe me to blame for not fupprefling
a fentiment o f the Navigator, from whofe'journal I had
undertaken to draw up an account of his voyage* merely
becaufe it contained this name, or infinuated that the wonderful
perfonage to whom it belonged, was, like other-mortals*
liable to error; that nothing more is imputed to him than
mere miftake, without any expreffion that implies difrefpeeft,
the Reader will fee i f he reads the three laft pages o f the
fécond book, beginning Vol. III. p. 73. *
Mr. Dalrymple imputes a fuppojttion to me concerning the
fituation of Captain Cook’s fliip in the beginning o f September
1769, which he fays is highly improbable ; i f he means
that I have affigned this fituation to the fhip by a conjeBure of
my 0-wn,^ the contrary w ill appear from the book ; i f he means
that this fituation refults from what is there inferted, it is
fufficient for my juftifiçation to fay that I took this part from
the journal before me, and, with all the reft, fubmitted it to
Captain Cook’s revifion.
Mr. Dalrymple fays, p. 23. that the declaration imputed
to Captain Cook, that in March 1769, though it was a general
opinion that there was land to the windward, he did
not think himfelf at liberty to fearch for what he was not
flare to find, i f not foifted in by me, would almoft preclude
* Firft Edition, p. 477.
r a ] 2 him