4 



EEMARKS. 



rections for the whole of those coasts. But, upon 

 revising the materials in my possession, I find they 

 are very far from being sufficiently copious and ex- 

 act for such a purpose. My time and attention, in- 

 deed, were so much occupied by matters in no re- 

 spect favourable to such inquiries, that I was often 

 under the mortifying necessity of letting occasions 

 pass, where, if I could have devoted sufficient lei- 

 sure to the subject, much useful information might 

 have been collected. I do not think it right, how- 

 ever, on this account, to abandon altogether the in- 

 tention I had first formed. Our opportunities, in fact, 

 were so very extensive, that I think a simple de- 

 scription of each passage, together with such colla- 

 teral remarks as circumstances suggested, cannot be 

 otherwise than useful to future navigators similarly 

 circumstanced with ourselves. And there can be 

 no doubt, that, if every one, who has equal means, 

 will, in like manner, record and bring forward 

 merely his own information, we shall soon possess 

 all the knowledge we can desire upon the subject. 



Officers are too apt to undervalue the nautical 

 knowledge which they acquire in the ordinary course 

 of service ; and to forget, that every piece of correct 

 information which they obtain, especially on distant 



