54< INTRODUCTION TO THE 



rica than the Spaniards, though settled in the neigh- 

 bourhood, had, in all their attempts for above two 

 hundred years, been able to do ; that he has put it 

 beyond all doubt that Beering and Tscherikoff had 

 really discovered the continent of America in 1741, 

 and has also established the prolongation of that 

 continent westward opposite Kamtschatka, which 

 speculative writers, wedded to favourite systems, had 

 affected so much to disbelieve*, and which, though 

 admitted by Muller, had, since he wTote, been con- 

 sidered as disproved by later Russian discoveries t ; 

 that, besides ascertaining the true position of the 

 western coasts of America, with some inconsiderable 

 interruptions, from latitude 44 up to beyond the 

 latitude 70, he has also ascertained the position of 

 the north-eastern extremity of Asia, by confirming 

 Beering's discoveries in 17^8, and adding extensive 

 accessions of his own ; that he has given us more 

 authentic information concerning the islands lying 

 between the two continents, than the Kamtschatka 

 traders, ever since Beering first taught them to ven- 

 ture on this sea, had been able to procured; that, 



* Dr. Campbell, speaking of Beering's voyage in 1741, says, 

 " Nothing can be plainer than this truth, that his discovery does 

 " not warrant any such supposition, as that the country he touched 

 " at was a great continent making part of North America." 



f See Coxe's Russian Discoveries, pp. 26, 27, &c. The fic- 

 tions of speculative geographers in the Southern hemisphere, have 

 been continents ; in the northern hemisphere, they have been seas. 

 It may be observed, therefore, that if Captain Cook in his first 

 voyages annihilated imaginary southern lands, he has made amends 

 for the havock in his third voyage, by annihilating imaginary nor- 

 thern seas, and filling up the vast space, which had been allotted 

 to them, with the solid continents of his new discoveries of Ame- 

 rican land farther west and north than had hitherto been traced. 



The Russians seem to owe much to England in matters of 

 this sort. It is singular enough that one of our countrj^men, Dr. 

 Campbell [See his edition of Harris's voyages, vol. ii. p. 1021. 

 has preserved many valuable particulars of Beering's first voyage, 

 of which Muller himself, the historian of their earlier discoveries, 

 makes no mention; that it should be another of our countrymen, 

 Mr. Coxe, who first published a satisfactory account of their later 



u 



