liv INTRODUCTION. 



one fummer, our Englifh Navigator difcovered a much 

 larger proportion of the North Weft coaft of America than 

 the Spaniards, though fettled in the neighbourhood, 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 

 TfchcrikofF had really difcovered the continent of America 

 in 1 74 1, and has alfo eftablifhed the prolongation of that 

 continent Weftvvard oppolite Kamtfchatka, which fpeculative 

 writers, wedded to favourite fyftems, had afFedled fo much 

 to difbelieve *, and which, though admitted by Muller, had, 

 fince he wrote, been confidered as difproved by later Ruffian 

 difcoveries f ; That, befides afcertaining the true polition of 

 the Weftern coafts of America, with fome inconfiderable in- 

 terruptions, from latitude 44° up to beyond the latitude 70', 

 he has alfo afcertained the pofition of the North Eaftern ex- 

 tremity of Afia, by confirming Beering's difcoveries in 1728, 

 and adding extenfive acceffions of his own ; That he has 

 given us more authentic information concerning the iflands 

 lying between the two continents, than the Kamtfchatka 

 traders, ever fince Beering firft taught them to venture on 

 this fea, had been able to procure X » That, by fixing the re- 

 lative 



* Dr. Campbell, fpeaking of Beering's voyage in 174.1, fays, " Nothing can be 

 *• plainer thar. this truth, that his difcovery does not warrant any fuch fiippofition, as 

 *' that the country he touched at was a great continent making part of North America," 



t See Coxe's Ruffian Difcoveries, p. 26, 27, &c. The fiitions of fpeculative geo- 

 graphers in the Southern hemifphere, have been continents ; in the Northern hemi- 

 fphere, they have been feas. It may be obferved, therefore, that if Captain Cook in 

 his firil voyages annihilated imaginary Southern lands, he has made amends for the 

 havock, in his third voyage, by annihilating imaginary Northern feas, and filling up 

 the vaft fpace, which had been allotted to them, with the folid contents of his new 

 difcoveries of American land farther Weft and North than had hitherto been traced. 



J The Ruffians feem to owe much to England, in matters of this fort. It is An- 

 gular enough tha't one of our countrymen, Dr. Campbell [See his edition of Harris's 



voyages', 



