A VOYAGE TO THE 



voyages of the prefcnt reign, as they were profecuted with 

 views the moft dilinterefted, were expofed to the world 

 without referve. And every nation and every individual 

 had thus an opportunity of forming new defigns, either 

 for the cultivation of fcience, or for the advantage of 

 traffic. 



If Great Britain owe fomething to France for her dif- 

 coveries in former times, the French are much indebted, 

 in the prefent, to the Britifh mariners for laying open the 

 whole globe to human eyes and to human induftry. The 

 French king, with a noble emulation, feems to have fent 

 out feveral officers with fuitable accommodations, to fol- 

 low the trails of the fucceffive voyages which had been 

 fo happily atchieved under his Majefty's aufpices; though 

 an Englifh feaman may be allowed to fay, that the French 

 navigators failed in their wake at a great diftance aftern. 

 No fooner were the voyages of Cook, of Clerk, of Gore, and 

 of King accomplifhed, and their narratives publifhed, than 

 a new expedition was, in 1785, difpatched from France, 

 under the condudt of Meffi-s. Peyroufe and De Langle, 

 in order to glean on this ample field what the misfor- 

 tune of Cook had left unattained. 



As early indeed as 1781, a well-known individual, 

 Mr. Bolts, attempted an adventure to the North Pacific 

 Ocean from the bottom of the Adriatic, under the 

 emperor's flag ; but this feeble effort of an imprudent 

 man failed prematurely, owing to caufes which have not 

 yet been fufficiently explained. The projed; of Bolts ap- 

 pears to have been early adopted by the Britifh fubjedls 

 who are fettled in Afia, and who ftand high in an adlive 



5 age 



