INTRODUCTION. 27 



Forster has given us an excellent work. Without 

 exclusively following him, I have scarcely been 

 able to make more than a mere extract from these 

 voyages, and must be satisfied with having called 

 the attention of the reader to them. I must also 

 mention here, that the Introduction which I had 

 drawn up to this View of the Voyages towards the 

 North Pole, and which contained, in a few words, 

 the causes which led to these imdertakings, and 

 some remarks on the state of navigation and com- 

 merce during the hundred years immediately pre- 

 ceding that period, did not satisfy me at the time. 

 I had commenced with the age of the Infant Don 

 Henry of Portugal, and passed over in silence the 

 earlier history of voyages and discoveries. Yet, in 

 my opinion, a short review of those times ought 

 not to be wanting. This vacuum was filled up by 

 my very worthy friend M. Lehrberg, member of 

 our Academy of Sciences, a man profoundly versed 

 in the early histoiy and geography of the north, 

 who, unfortunately for science, has been snatched 

 from us by a premature death. * 



* I have just received Barrow's History of Voyages, which 

 was published last year. Barrow's work is, of course, infinitely 

 more complete than mine, not only with respect to the style, 

 and because what I give is but a short view, Barrow's, on the 

 contrary, a complete history of those voyages, but also, be- 

 cause he had at his command the ample collections of voyages 

 published in England, and, as secretary to the Admiralty, all 

 the MS. journals, whereas I was confined to the limited stores 

 of my own library. (Note in 1819.) 



