INTRODUCTION. 



All thefe voyages having been fitted out by private ad- 

 venturers, for the double purpofe of difcovery and prefent 

 advantage ; it was natural to fuppofe, that the attention 

 of the navigators had been diverted from purfuing the 

 more remote and lefs profitable objeft of the two, with 

 all the attention that could have been wifhed. I am 

 happy, however, in an opportunity of doing juftice to 

 the memory of thefe men ; which, without having 

 traced their fteps, and experienced their difficulties, 

 it would have been impoffible to have done. They 

 appear to have encountered dangers, which at that 

 period muft have been particularly alarming from their 

 novelty, with the greateft fortitude and perfeverance j as 

 well as to have fhewn a degree of diligence and fkill, not 

 only in the ordinary and pradical, but more fcientific 

 parts of their profeffion, which might have done honour 

 to modern feamen, with all their advantages of later im- 

 provements. This, when compared with the accounts 

 given of the ftate of navigation, even within thefe forty 

 years, by the moft eminent foreign authors, affords the 

 moft flattering and fatisfa£lory proof of the very early 

 exiftence of that decided fuperiority in naval affairs, which 

 has carried the power of this country to the height it has 

 now attained. 



This great point of geography, perhaps the moft im- 

 portant in its confequences to a commercial nation and 



C maritime 



