not even know which were copied, nor by whom, till I obtained
a lift of them and directions to the engravers, in order
to get the cuts o a t o f their hands.
I palled over Torres’s track in lilence for the reafon mentioned
already, Ihad never feen Mr.Dairy mple’s book in which
it was laid down ; I never had had time to read for amufe-
ment, and my literary purfuits had not led me to that path in
whichalonethis Gentleman feems to have wandered the great-
ei part o f his life. The two volumes which contain an account
of the voyage o f the Endeavour were written in little more
than four months after the papers were putinto my hands,
becaufe Jt was -expected that Captain Cook would in that
time fail on another expedition; and .though he did not
leave England till fome months.afterwards* the manufcript
was noureturned to me till within a very Ihort time o f his departure,
fo that! had no time to make myfelf matter of the
difptite concerning the exiftence or non-exiftence o f a fouth-
ern continent ; and i f I had, I Ihould not have thought myfelf
at liberty to take a part in it, in a work in which I was
little more than an amanuenfis for others.
And now, to ufe Mr. Dalrymple’s own words, “ having I
“ flatter myfelf fhewn that his illiberal infmuations againft
“ me are groundlefs,” I muft obferve that his fenfe o f injury,
when he fuppofed that I had “ attacked him by implz-
1 catlon’ as havir“g mifreprefented the Spanilh and Dutch
“ voyages to fupport his own ill-grounded conjectures,”
ihould, if better motives had been wanting, have reftrained
him from attacking by implication Gentlemen, who I prefume
have never given him any offence except by not difcovering
a louthern continent, as having committed murder. “ He
re gns himfelf, he fays, to Providence, although in the wif-
dom o f its difpenfafions he was prevented by the fecon-
ai y influence o f narrow-minded men from completing the
difeovery
difeovery of, and eftablifhing an amicable intercourfe with,
a fouthern continent; which, notwithftanding my fagacious
reafonings, he ftill thinks”, from his own experience in
fuch like voyages, may be done without committing murderf
Whether this does not by implication impute the death of
every Indian who fell in the courfe of thefe difeoveries, as
murder to every perfon who was inftrumental in taking away
his life, except thofe who aCted immediately under military
fubordination, let Mr. Dalrymple himfelf determine; if it
does, it is to be hoped that, for the honour of his humanity,
h e will" be the affociate o f tliofe,, whom he fuppofes to be:
murderers, no more.
By a reference from the word providence to the 19th page
o f my Introduction, Mr. Dalrymple feems to have adopted the
notion o f fome other ingenious, anefworthy Gentlemen who-
have lately honoured me with their notice in public, that
what I have faid upon that fubjeCl is inconfiffent with revealed
religion. I have however affirmed nothing as’ my
own opinion, but that the Supreme Being is th‘e caufe of n/T'
events, o f which the attributing, to him thofe only which:
appear to be good'in their immediate effeCt, implies a de-
niall Upon the principles of. revelation,all phyfical or natural
e vil. is, judicial, and God is exprefsly faid to ■ be the ■
author of' it in his judicial capacity. T o Eve he faid,,
“ I w ill greatly multiply- thy forrow ;” and to Adam,.
“ Curfed is the ground for thy fake, in the fweat o f thy
“ face Ilia It thou eat bread— and unto dull th ou ffialt rec
tu m . ” To fuppofe God therefore the Univerfal i Gaufe,,
notwithftanding-the exiftence o f natural evil, is not lefs con—
fonant to revelation than philofophy.
That there are immutable laws, in confequence o f which;
all events come to pafs without the immediate agency o f the;
Supreme: