VOYAGE TO THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 53 



as an imperfection in Captain Cook's voyage, that he 

 had not an opportunity of examining the coast of 

 America, in the latitude assigned to the discoveries 

 of Admiral Fonte. " We now attempted to find out 

 " the Straits of Admiral Fonte, though, as yet, we 

 " had not discovered the Archipelago of St. Lazarus, 

 " through which he is said to have sailed. With 

 " this intent, we searched every bay and recess of the 

 " coast, and sailed round every headland, lying to in 

 " the night, that we might not lose sight of this en- 

 " trance. After these pains taken, and being favoured 

 " by a ?iorth-west wind, it may be pronounced that 

 " no such straits are to be found.*" 



In this Journal, the Spaniards boast of " having 

 " reached so high a latitude as 58, beyond what 

 " any other navigators had been able to effect in 

 " those seas."t Without diminishing the merit of 

 their performance, we may be permitted to say that 

 it will appear very inconsiderable, indeed, in com- 

 parison of what Captain Cook effected, in the voyage 

 of which an account is given in these volumes. Be- 

 sides exploring the land in the South Indian Ocean, 

 of which Kerguelen, in two voyages, had been able 

 to obtain but a very imperfect knowledge ; adding 

 also many considerable accessions to the geography 

 of the Friendly Islands, and discovering the noble 

 group, now called Sandwich Islands, in the Northern 

 part of the Pacific Ocean, of which not the faintest 

 trace can be met with in the account of any former 

 voyage ; besides these preliminary discoveries, the 

 reader of the following work will find, that in one 

 summer, our English navigator discovered a much 

 larger proportion of the north-west coast of Ame- 



* Journal of a Voyage in 1775 by Don Francisco Antonio 

 Maurelle, in Mr. Barrington's Miscellanies, p. 508. 



f Ibid. p. 507. We learn from Maurelle's Journal that another 

 voyage had been some time before performed upon the coast of 

 America; but the utmost northern progress of it was to latitude 

 55. 



B 3 



