VOYAGE TO THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 57 



the toil, and to compensate the dangers of the una- 

 vailing search. 



Or, if we carry our reflections into the northern 

 hemisphere, could Mr. Dobbs have made a single 

 convert, much less could he have been the successful 

 solicitor of two different expeditions, and have met 

 with encouragement from the legislature, with regard 

 to his favourite passage through Hudson's Bay, if 

 Captain Christopher had previously explored its 

 coasts, and if Mr. Hearne had walked over the im- 

 mense continent behind it ? Whether, after Captain 

 Cook's and Captain Clerke's discoveries on the west 

 side of America, and their report of the state of 

 Beering's Strait, there can be sufficient encourage- 

 ment to make future attempts to penetrate into the 

 Pacific Ocean in any northern direction, is a ques- 

 tion, for the decision of which the public will be in- 

 debted to this work. 



c 2. But our voyages will benefit the world, not only 

 by discouraging future unprofitable searches, but also 

 by lessening the dangers and distresses formerly ex- 

 perienced in those seas, which are within the line of 

 commerce and navigation, now actually subsisting. 

 In how many instances have the mistakes of former 

 navigators, in fixing the true situations of important 

 places, been rectified?- What accession to the vari- 

 ation chart ? How many nautical observations have 

 been collected, and are now ready to be consulted, in 

 directing a ship's course, along rocky shores, through 

 narrow straits, amidst perplexing currents, and dan- 

 gerous shoals ? But, above all, what numbers of 

 new bays, and harbours, and anchoring-places, are 

 now, for the first time, brought forward, where ships 

 may be sheltered and their crews find tolerable re- 

 freshments ? To enumerate all these would Jbe to 

 transcribe great part of the journals of our several 

 commanders, whose labours will endear them to 

 every navigator whom trade or war may carry into 

 their tracks. Every nation that sends a ship to sea 3 



