268 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



detriment. Many good feamen of knowledge and enter- 

 prife have been in that fea, withinthefe few years. Let then* 

 fay, candidly, what were their ihftruments, what their dif- 

 ficulties were, where they had doubts, where they fuccecd--' 

 ed, and where they were difappointed ? Were thefe acknow- 

 ledged by one, they would be fpeedily taken up by others,- 

 and reclined by the help of mathematicians and good ob- 

 fcrvers on more. 



Mr Niebuhr has contributed much, but we mould reform 

 the map on both fides ; though- there is a great deal done, 

 yet much remains Hill to do. I hope that my friend Mr 

 Dalrymple, when he can afford time, ■•will give us a founda- 

 tion more proper to build upon, than that old rotten one,' 

 however changed in form, and fuppofed to have been im- 

 proved, if he really has a number of obfervations by him 

 that can be relied on, otherwife it is but continuing the 

 delufion and the danger, 



If mips of war afterwards, that keep the channel, fhall 

 come, manned with flout and able feamen, and expert young 

 officers, provided with lines, glaffes, good compaffes, and a 

 number of boats, then we mail know thefe foundings, at 

 leaf! in part. And then alfo we fhall know the truth of 

 what I now advance, viz. that mips like thofe employed 

 hitherto in trading from India (manned and provided as 

 the bell of them are) were incapable, amidfl unknown tides 

 and currents, and going before a monfoon, whether fouihi 

 ern or northern, of knowing within three leagues where 

 any one of them had ever dropt his founding line, unlefs he 

 was clofe on board fome ifland, fhoal, remarkable point, or 

 in a harbour. 



2 Till 



