INTRODUCTION. liU 



may be recommended to thofe (if any fuch there be) who 

 would reprefent it as an imperfe6tion in Captain Cook's 

 voyage, that he had not an opportunity of examining the 

 coaft of America, in the latitude affigned to the difcoveries 

 of Admiral Fonte. " We now attempted to find out the 

 *' flraits of Admiral Fonte, though, as yet, we had not dif- 

 ** covered the Archipelago of St. Lazarus, through which he 

 " is faid to have failed. With this intent, we fearched every 

 *' bay and recefs of the coaft, and failed round every head^ 

 '' land, lying to in the night, that we might not lofe light 

 *' of this entrance. After thefe pains taken, and being favoured 

 '* by a North Weft wind, it may be pronounced that no fuch firaits 

 *' are to be found *." 



In this Journal, the Spaniards boail of " having reached 

 *' fo high a latitude as 58°, beyond what any other naviga- 

 " tors had been able to effect in thofe feas f." Without 

 diminifhing the merit of their performance, we may be 

 permitted to fay that it will appear very inconfiderable, in- 

 deed, in comparifon of what Captain Cook efFetfled, in the 

 voyage of which an account is given in thefe volumes. Be- 

 fides exploring the land in the South Indian Ocean, of which 

 Kerguelen, in two voyages, had been able to obtain but a 

 very imperfe6t knowledge ; adding alfo many confiderable 

 acceflions to the geography of the Friendly Iflands ; and 

 difcovering the noble group, now called Sandwich Iflands 

 in the Northern part of the Pacific Ocean, of which not 

 the fainteft trace can be met with in the account of 

 any former voyage ; befides thefe preliminary difcoveries 

 the Reader of the following work will find, that in 



* Journal of a voyage in 1775 by Don Francifco Antonio Maurelle, in Mr. Bar- 

 rington's Mifcellanies, p. 508. 



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

 feme time before performed upon the coaft of America 5 but ,the iitmoft Northern 

 progrefs of it was to latitude 55", 



one 



