88 SIEGE OF THE SOUTH POLE 
many as 40,000 seal-skins, and 2800 tons of sea-elephant 
oil, the latter valued at £40,000, and by 1801 the import 
of oil from those regions reached 6000 tons, worth 
£172,500. In 1791 no less than 102 vessels, averaging 
200 tons burden and manned by 3000 sailors, were en- 
gaged in securing fur-seals and oil in the Southern Ocean, 
and the value of their cargoes in that year was estimated 
at £235,000. The voyage of Cook, which cost under 
£20,000, thus had proved a very profitable investment for 
the nation as a mere matter of money, apart from the 
prestige acquired, especially in France, notwithstanding 
the war, by Cook's services to science and to humanity. 
With so rich a harvest waiting to be gathered at the very 
edge of the icy seas the sealers naturally felt little tempta- 
tion to wander farther afield and incur certain dangers 
for uncertain gain. Thus there is no sure knowledge 
of any discovery having been made by British sealers up 
to the end of the eighteenth century. 
When commerce begins to assert itself the history of 
exploration inevitably becomes troubled and contradic- 
tory. The commercial explorer owes his first duty to 
the firms employing him, and in order to safeguard their 
interests he must keep silence amongst outsiders as to 
what he has seen. He may even consider it expedient to 
permit a suggestio falsi to arise in quarters v/here judi- 
cious discouragement might secure him freedom from 
competition. “ It is much to be regretted," says Weddell, 
“ that any men should be so ill advised as to propagate 
hydrographical falsehoods; and I pity those who, when 
they meet with an appearance that is likely to throw some 
light on the state of the globe, are led through pusillanim- 
ity to forego the examination of it. But the extreme 
reluctance I have to excite painful feelings anywhere, 
