LATE DISCOVERIES. 56,9 



tyranny over the lives of our seamen, have proved an insuperable ob- 

 stacle to the prosecution of such enterprises. It was reserved for 

 captain Cook to show the world, by repeated trials, that voyages 

 might be protracted to the unusual length of three or even four years, 

 in unknown regions, and under every change and rigour of the cli- 

 mate, not only without affecting the health, but even without dimi- 

 nishing the probability of life, in the smallest degree." 



NORTH-WEST COAST OF AMERICA. 



FROM the observations made by captain Cook on the inhabitants 

 of the western coast of North America, in the neighbourhood of 

 Prince William's Sound, and to the latitude of 64 degrees north, it 

 appeared that a strong similarity was discernible between them and 

 the Esquimaux on the eastern coast ; whence it was conjectured by 

 some that a communication by sea existed between the eastern and 

 western sides of that continent. In support of this conjecture old 

 accounts were revived of the discoveries of John de Fuca, and De 

 Fonte or De Fuentes ; the one a Greek pilot, who made his voyage 

 in 1592, and the other a Spanish or Portuguese admiral, who sailed 

 in 1640. John de Fuca had related that between the 47th and 48th 

 degrees of north latitude he had entered a broad inlet which led him 

 into a far broader sea, wherein he sailed above twenty days; and De 

 Fonte had sailed through crooked channels in an extensive archipe- 

 lago 260 leagues, and 60 leagues up a navigable river which flowed 

 into it, in 53 degrees of north latitude, and communicated, by other 

 lakes and rivers, with a passage, in which a ship had arrived from 

 Boston in New England. The truth of these ancient accounts ap- 

 peared to be strongly corroborated, some years since, by the disco- 

 very said to be made by one Mr. Etches, who had fitted out some 

 ships for the fur trade, that all the western coast of America, from 

 latitude 48° to 57° north, was no continued tract of land, but a chain 

 of islands which had never been explored, and that these concealed 

 the entrance to a vast inland sea, like the Baltic or Mediterranean in 

 Europe, and which seemed likewise to be full of islands. Among 

 these, Mr. Etches's ship, the Princess Royal, was said to have pene- 

 trated several hundred leagues, in a north-east direction, till they 

 came within 200 leagues of Hudson's Bay ; but as the intention of 

 their voyage was merely commercial, they had not time fully to ex- 

 plore the archipelago just mentioned, nor did they arrive at the ter- 

 mination of this new Mediterranean sea. 



The existence of any such inland sea is, however, now completely 

 disproved by the voyage of the late captain Vancouver, who, during 

 the summers of 1792, 1793, and 1794, explored and accurately sur- 

 veyed the whole western coast of North America, from latitude 30° 

 to 60°. Between the 47th and 57th degrees of north latitude, there 

 is indeed an archipelago, composed of innumerable islands and 

 crooked channels ; but he no where found either the inlet of John de 

 Fuca, the river of De Fonte, or the inland sea of Mr. Etches's ship. 

 " The precision," says captain Vancouver, " with which the survey 

 of the coast of North West America has been carried into effect, 



