Ill INTRODUCTION. 



authentic information than the world had hitherto obtained, 

 about the relative fituation and vicinity of the two conti- 

 ' nents, which was abfolutely neceflary to be known, before 



the pra(5licability of failing between the Pacific and Atlantic 

 Oceans, in any Northern diredion, could be afcertained. 



After all, that fearch, in a lower latitude, which they 

 who give credit (if any fuch there now be) to the pretended 

 difcoverics of deFonte, affedl to vvifh had been recommended 

 to Captain Cook, has (if that will cure them of their cre- 

 dulity) been fatisfadlorily made. The Spaniards, roufed 

 from their lethargy by our voyages, and having caught a 

 fpark of enterprize from our repeated vifits to the Pacific 

 Ocean, have followed us more than once into the line of our 

 difcoveries within the Southern tropic ; and have alfo fitted 

 out expeditions to explore the American continent to the 

 North of California. It is to be lamented, that there fhouid 

 be any reafons why the tranfadions of thofe Spanifli voyages 

 have not been fully difclofed, with the fame liberal fpiritof 

 information which other nations have adopted. But, for- 

 tunately, this exceffive caution of the court of Spain has 

 been defeated, at leaft in one inftance, by the publication of 

 an authentic Journal of their laft voyage of difcovery upon 

 the coafl of America, in 1775, for which the world is in- 

 debted to the Honourable Mr. Daines BarringLon. This 

 publication, which conveys fome Information of real con- 

 fequence to geography, and has therefore been referred to 

 more than once in the following work, is particularly va- 

 luable in this refpecSt, that fome parts of the coaft which 

 Captain Cook, in his progrefs Northward, was prevented, 

 by unfavourable winds, from approaching, were feen and 

 examined by the Spanifli ihips who preceded him; and 

 ihe perufal of the following extraft from their Journal, 



may 



