g6 INTRODUCTION. 



plished. If this truly patriotic man were not 

 otherwise known than by the princely enter- 

 prise, the history of which is here to be related, 

 he would even by this alone be entitled to the re- 

 gard of posterity, with as much right as his father, 

 who has obtained, as a general, immortal honour in 

 the military history of Russia. * 



It might perhaps not be beside the purpose to 

 prefix to the account of Lieutenant Kotzebue's 

 voyage the View which, as mentioned in the be- 

 p-inning of the Introduction, I have drawn up of 

 all the voyages towards the north pole, undertaken 

 solely with a view to the discovery of a shorter 

 way to the Chinese and Indian seas. I have 

 judged it best to make but short mention of most 

 of these voyages ; but, in the three centuries 

 during which this object has been pursued, so 

 many voyages have been undertaken for the pur- 

 pose, by English, Portuguese, Spaniards, and 

 Dutch, and some of them are so peculiarly inte- 

 resting to Russia, that, in spite of all my endea- 

 vours at brevity, this View has taken up more 

 space than I thought I could allow it. The his- 

 tory of the voyages towards the north pole makes 

 a distinct branch of the history of navigation and 

 discovery in the north, upon whicli the elder 



* " "Whose liberal and patriotic spirit is worthy of the high- 

 est admiration," says a celebrated English writer, speaking of 

 the manifold efforts of Count Romanzoff to extend our know- 

 ledge of the north polar regions. 



