INTRODUCTION. Ivii 



where our perfevcring Englifli navigator, inftead of this 

 promifed fairy land, found nothing but barren rocks, 

 fcarcely affording flielter to penguins and feals ; and dreary 

 feas, and mountains of ice, occupying the immenfe fpace 

 allotted to imaginary paradifes, and the only treafures there 

 to be difcovered, to reward the toil, and to compenfate the 

 dangers of the unavailing fearch. 



Or, if we carry our refle6lions into the Northern hemi- 

 fpherC; could Mr. Dobbs have made a fmgle con vert, muchlefs 

 could he have been the fuccefsful folicitor of two different 

 expeditions, and have met with encouragement from the le- 

 giflature, with regard to his favourite paffage through Hud- 

 fon'sBay, if Captain Chriflopher had previoufly explored its 

 coafts, and if Mr. Hearne had walked over the immenfe con- 

 tinent behind it ? Whether, after Captain Cook's and Captain 

 Gierke's difcoveries on the Weft fide of America, and their 

 report of the ftate of Bccring's Strait, there can be fufficient 

 encouragement to make future attempts to penetrate into 

 the Pacific Ocean in any Northern direc5lion, is a queftion, 

 for the decifion of which the Public will be indebted to this 

 work. 



2. Bat our voyages will benefit tlie world, not only by 

 •difcouraging future unprofitable fearche?, but alfo by lef- 

 fening the dangers and diftrefles formerly experienced in 

 thofe feas, which are within the line of commerce and na- 

 vigation, now a<5luaMy fubfifting. In how many infiances 

 have the midakes of former navigators, in fixing the true 

 fituations of important places, been rectified ? What acccf- 

 fion to the variation chart ? Hov/ many nautical obfcrvations 

 have been coiledrccl, and are now ready to be confuhed, in 

 direc51:ing a iliip's courfe, along rocky fhores, through nar- 



VoL. I. h row 



