To the honour o f the Britijh Nation be it fald, their
conduct has uniformly been the reverfe r whatever unknown
tracts o f land they have explored ; wherever they
found inhabitants, their attention and humanity towards;
them have uniformly been fuch, as to gain their affeBion,.
and conciliate their ejieem, inftead of exciting their refent-
ment, or incurring their hatred.
Indeed, if we regard adventurers from our own Country
in a commercial point of view, even fo lately as the
latter part of the laft, or beginning o f the prefent century,
we {hall find the generality of them little better
than free-booters I but on the other hand,, were we to
take a rctrofpe&ive view of the feveral voyages made
immediately under the patronage: of Government, during
the fpace of the laft fifty years, we ftiall not only find
them fet on foot for the benefit o f mankind in general,
but that their endeavours to improve Navigation, and the
different Sciences connected therewith, have been attended
with the moft brilliant fuccefs; and it is; not eafy to
fay, whether that zeal for the general good which firft
projected thefe voyages, or the conftant wiftr to have the1
refult of them made univerfally public, reflects the greateft
luftre on their royal and munificent patrons.
Without
Without' entering into a particular enumeration of thefe
Vbyages here, which would be fuperfluous, let it fuffice
to fay, that during the late Captain Cook’s laft Voyage
to the Pacific Ocean, befides every fcientific advantage
which might be derived from it, a new and inexhauftible
mine of wealth was laid open to future Navigators, by
trading for furs of the moft valuable kind, on the North
Weft Coaft of America.
This difcovery, though obvioufly a fource from whence
immenfe riches might be expe&ed, and communicated,
no doubt, to numbers-in the year 1 7 So, was not immediately
attended to. The profecution of any effe&ual plan
to carry on this novel undertaking, required not only
patience and perfeverance, but a degree of fpirit and en-
terprize which does not often Fall to the lot of individuals
however, in the Spring o f 1785, a fet of Gentlemen procured
a Charter from the South Sea Company, (to whom
the exclufive privilege of trading in the Northern Pacific
Ocean belongs) for the foie right o f carrying on this traffic
to its utmoft extent; to facilitate which, two veffels were-'
immediately purchafed, and fitted out with all expedition,
in order to proceed on a Voyage to the North Weft Coaft
of America, an account o f which is the fubjeft of the following
fheets.
b So