ii INTRODUCTION. 
culpable want of rational curiosity, if we did not use our 
best endeavours to arrive at a full acquaintance with the 
contents of our own planet.” And if those endeavours, 
which, during war, were so successfully pursued, should 
be relaxed on the return of peace, we might then indeed 
have cause to think meanly of the times in which we 
live, or, to use the words of this eminent writer, * if 
we could suppose it possible that full justice will not be 
done to the noble plan of discovery, so steadily and so 
successfully carried on since the accession of His Majesty, 
which cannot fail to be considered, in every succeeding 
age, asa splendid period in the history of our country, 
and to add to our national glory, by distinguishing Great 
Britain as taking the lead in the most arduous undertakings 
for the common benefits of the human race.”’— Introd. 
to Cook’s Third Voyage, 
By following up, therefore, the same system, and being 
actuated by the same motives, of promoting the extension 
of human knowledge, the Prince Regent’s government 
has evinced a correspondent feeling; it has moreover 
proved, by appropriating to the purposes of discovery 
and maritime geography as great a share as possible of 
that part of the British navy which constitutes the peace 
establishment, its laudable inclination to cultivate the 
useful arts of peace, not from any selfish views, but for the 
general benefit of mankind. To what purpose indeed 
could a portion of our naval force be, at any time, but more 
especially in a time of profound peace, more honourably 
or more usefully employed, than in completing those 
mmutié and details of geographical and hydrographical 
science, of which the grand outlines have been boldly and 
