Geography, 531 



viting object both to his love of science and his 

 love of glory and aggrandizement. Accordingly 

 Captains Byron, Wallis, and Carteret, were 

 successively dispatched, with orders to sail round 

 the world, and to explore with particular care the 

 Southern Ocean. The Terra Australis incognita, 

 so fondly sought, continued to elude the search of 

 these enterprising commanders; but they returned 

 laden with much valuable knowledge of the nu- 

 merous islands which they had discovered, and of 

 other coasts and shores which they had viewed, 

 and which were but partially known to preceding 

 adventurers. 



The idea of finding a north-east passage to In- 

 dia w^as, during a great part of the eighteenth 

 century, generally entertained by navigators. It 

 was before remarked, that the Russians, at an 

 early period of the century, made numerous at- 

 tempts to solve this important question in geo- 

 graphy, but without success; excepting that each 

 succeeding attempt rendered the practicability, 

 and especially the safety of such a passage, still 

 more improbable. In 1773 Captain Phipps, 

 since Lord Mulgrave, was dispatched, under 

 the patronage of the British government, toward 

 the North Pole, on a voyage of discovery. He 

 proceeded as far as the 80th degree of north lati- 

 tude, where the mountains of ice presented invin- 

 cible opposition to his further progress. Although 

 the expedition of Phipps confirmed the accounts 

 given by the Russians, Dutch, and others, of the 

 impracticability of a passage to the east, through 

 those seas; and although it considerably increased 

 our acquaintance with that part of the globe, not 

 a few believe that such a passage really exists, and 

 that it may yet be found. 



But of all the circumnavigators aiid geographical 

 discoverers w^ho have distinguished th'j eighteenth 



