M I N T R O D U C T I O N ,
•there are others, no doubt, who, too diffident of their own
abilities, or too indolent to exert them, would wiih to have
their reflexions aflifted, by pointing out what thofe ufeful
purpofes are. For the ufe of fuch, the following enumeration
o f particulars is entered upon. And i f there ihould be
any, who affect to undervalue the plan, or the execution of
our voyages, what ihall now be offered, if it do not convince
them, may, at leafl, check the influence of their unfavourable
decifion.
x. It may be fairly confxdered, as one great advantage accruing
to the world from our late furveys o f the globe,
that they have confuted fanciful theories, too likely to give
birth to impracticable undertakings.
After Captain Cook’s perfevering and fruitlefs traverfes
t h r o u g h every corner of the Southern hemifphere, who, for
the future, will pay any attention to the ingenious reveries of
Campbell, de Brofles, and de Buffon ? or hope to eftabliih an intercom*
with fuch a continent as Maupertuis’s fruitful imagination
had pictured! A,continent equal, at leafl, in extent,
to all the civilized countries in the known Northern hemifphere,
where new men, new animals, new. productions, o f
every kind, m i g h t be brought forward to our view, and dif-
coveries be made, which would open inexhauftible trea-
fures of commerced- We can now boldly take it upon us
to difcourage all expeditions, formed on fuch reafonings
of fpeculative philofophers, into a. quarter of the globe,
* See Maupertuis’s Letter to the King o f Pruffia, The author of ¡the Preliminary
Difcourfe to Bougainville’s Voyage aux Jfles Malouittes, computes .that the Southern
continent (for the exiftence of which, he owns, we muft depend more on the con-
jeaureo-of philofophers, than on the teftimony of voyagers) contains eight or ten
millions pffquare leagues.
j. where
I N T R O D U C T I O N . Ivi
where our perfevering Englifh navigator, inftead o f this
promifed fairy land, found nothing but barren rocks,
fcarcely affording ihelter to penguins and feals ; and dreary
feas, and mountains o f ice, occupying the immenfe fpace
allotted to imaginary paradifes, and the only treafures there
to be difcovered, to reward the toil, and to compenfate the
dangers of the unavailing fearch.
Or, i f we carry our reflections into the Northern hemifphere,
could Mr. Dobbs have made a Angle convert,much lefs
could he have been the fuccefsful folicitor of two different
expeditions, and have met with encouragement from the le-
giflature, with regard to his favourite paffage through Hud-
fon’s Bay, i f Captain Chriftopher had previoufly explored its
coafts, and if Mr. Hearne had walked over the immenfe continent
behind it! Whether, after Captain Cook’s.and Captain
Clerke’s difcoveries on the Weft fide o f America, and their
report of the ftate of Beering’s Strait, there can be fufficient
encouragement to make future attempts to penetrate into
the Pacific Ocean in any Northern direction, is a queftion,
for the decifion of which the Public will be indebted to this
work.
2. But our voyages will benefit the world, not only by
difcouraging future unprofitable fearches, but alfo by lef-
fening the dangers and diftreffes formerly experienced in
thofe feas, which are within the line of commerce and navigation,
now actually fubfifting. In how many inftances
have the miftakes of former navigators, in fixing the true
fituations of important places, been rectified ? What accef-
iion to the variation chart ? How many nautical obfervations
have been collected, and are now ready to be confulted, in
directing a ihip’s courfe, along rocky Iffores, through nar-
Voif, I. Ip row