xlviii 
INTRODUCTION. 
[Prior Discoveries, 
Conclusive country possessing five hundred leagues of sea-coast ; and placed 
in a climate and neighbourhood, where the richest productions of 
*both the vegetable and mineral kingdoms were known to exist. A 
voyage which should have had no other view, than the survey of 
Torres' Strait and the thorough investigation of the North Coast of 
Terra Australis, could not have been accused of wanting an object 
worthy of national consideration. 
