28 INTRODUCTION. 



Before I conclude, I may be allowed to express 

 a wish, which, in me at least, will be found ex- 

 cusable * ; setting aside the predilection for voy- 

 ages of discovery which is so natural in me, it 

 may be safely affirmed that the bounds of human 

 knowledge are more effectually extended by them 

 than by other enterprizes which have science for 

 their object. When it is considered what the sci- 

 ences have gained by the voyages of Cook and his 

 successors, my assertion will not be thought exag- 

 gerated. Russia, too, has begun to cultivate this 

 productive field, but only under the reign of 

 Alexander. It was at the very commencement of 

 his auspicious and glorious reign, that the Russians 

 opened the way to distant seas, which they had 

 never before navigated, and so performed their 

 first voyage round the world, t Since that time 



* What I here say of a new voyage of discovery is so far 

 useless, as, since I wrote this, (Nov. 1818,) such a one has, in 

 fact, been undertaken by us ; but as we have no further ac- 

 count of this voyage, than that two ships are gone towards the 

 north pole, and two towards the south pole, what I have here 

 said of such a scientific voyage may still be not misplaced ; and 

 the less so, as the main object of the expedition in question 

 may, perhaps, make it impossible for the commander to pay 

 attention to all that must still be done, to complete the geography 

 of the South Sea, and of the northern coasts of that ocean, of 

 which I have here given a slight sketch. (Note in 1819.) 



■f It has lately been attempted to deny to the expedition of 

 the Nadeshda and the Newa, the honour of having been the 

 first Russian voyage round the world ; and this because the 

 ships were not built in Russia, and because a commercial com- 

 pany obtained permission to take part in it. I think it scarcely 

 necessary to refute so strange an assertion, 



