ioi8 
I 
A fuccinSt Account of 
Book III. 
tion, which muft be my Apology to the Reader for the 
Pains I have made him take upon this Occafion, in 
order, through all this Mill of Obfcurity, to bring him 
out again into the Light, and to enable him to make 
the proper Ufe of Captain Behring*s mofl: admirable 
and moil important Difcoveries, without being led away 
by that vain and idle Delufion to which they have moft 
unaccountably given Rife. We may from this Exami- 
nation Oi the Matter, very eafily, and with fome tolerable 
Degree of Certainty, perceive, what will be the Iffue 
of this Defign, in Cafe the Ruffians fhould continue, as 
in all Probability they will, to profecute thefe Difcove- 
ries. What I mean by this, is, that in the Courfe of a 
few Years, they will very probably find out all that is 
yet to be found on that Side, and pafs from one 
Ifland to another, till they have obtain’d an abfolute 
Certainty as to the Situation, Size, and Nature, of the 
Countrji^ that Providence has placed between A/ia and 
Americ^^ amongft which, I will not prefume to al- 
Jedge there may not be one more confiderable than 
the reft, and extending much farther to the North, 
which in that Refpedf: may deferve to be ftiled a 
Continent •, neither will I difpute, than when this fhall 
be done, it may be both poffible and pradicable for the 
Ruffians to obtain a Share in the Commerce of America^ 
though for many Reafons, fome of which I fhall here- 
after mention ; this feems to be a Thing far enough 
from being probable. 
We may likewife difcern from what has been faid, 
how very little the reft of the World have to apprehend, 
from any Pains this Nation may employ to conceal 
their Difcoveries *, for, in the firft Place, if they fhould 
prove confiderable in themfelves, and advantageous in 
their Confequences, that will be a Thing abfolutely im- 
pofTible for whether they derive thofe Advantages 
from Conquefts,or from Commerce, they cannot be hid ; 
and if we once learn that thefe Advantages are derived to 
them, the Manner in which they are derived cannot long 
remain a Secret. On the other Hand,if they proceed flow- 
ty in thefe Difcoveries, and reap no great Profits from them, 
they need not take much Pains about the Matter, fince no 
Secret is fo eafily kept as that which is hardly worth the 
knowing. But as we have already explained the true 
Caufe of that erroneous Notion of the Continent of 
America being at no great Diftance from the North- 
eaft Coafts of the Ruffian Dominions, fo it will be no 
hard Task to find out whence this other Sentiment of 
the Poffibility of concealing Difcoveries has its Original 
the Ruffians have, for the two laft Ages, employed 
themfelves in making Difcoveries and Conquefts to the 
North-eaft, and thefe they have taken great Care, and 
not without confiderable Succefs, to conceal, which 
they might very eafily do, fince it was not poffible for 
any other Nation but themfelves to reach them. Yet 
while they were thus concealed, they proved of no 
mighty Confequence to them *, and the only Fruits of 
their Induftry, in that Refped:, at leaft fo far as we can 
learn, were Want of real Improvements, or fo much 
as acquiring a juft Notion of their Importance. When 
the Czar Peter came to have right Ideas, in refpeft to 
Government, Power, and Commerce, this little narrow 
unprincely Scheme of concealing was immediately ba- 
niflied, and he not only took all the Methods poffible 
to make himfelf and his Minifters thoroughly acquaint- 
ed with the remoteft Parts of his Dominions, but with 
equal Care and Induftry publiftied the Refults of his 
Enquiries to all the World ; and from thence it was 
that he not only raifed a juft and never-fading Reputa- 
tion, but likewife reaped many Advantages, in a very 
fhort Space of Time, that otherwife muft have coft 
•whole Ages in the Form of flow and filent Methods 
to attain. By this Means principally he reached the 
great Point at which he aimed, and came to have right, 
diftinft, and thorough Notions of the Value of the Dif- 
coveries made in the Reigns of his Predeceflfors, which 
were not known to them from their being addidfed to 
that barbarous Policy of hiding andmaking aMyftery of 
what muft be ufelefs in the very fame Proportion that 
it is concealed. 
This fbews the Folly and Abfurdity of fuch a Prin- 
ciple, while confined to Difcoveries upon the Continent, 
in which it was very poffible it might be purfired with Sue! 
cefsj but there is nothing eafier than to fhew, that it is 
not barely ridiculous, but abfolutely impradlicable, with 
refpedf to fuch Dilcoveries as are made by Sea. We 
already know enough of their Dilcoveries not to be 
much, if at all in the dark, as to the Sources of any 
Advantages they may reap from them hereafter ; and 
as I obferved at the Clofe of the former Seftion, fo 
long as we preferve our Naval Force, it will be always 
not only pradlicable, but a very eafy Thing for us 
to acquire a Share of thefe Advantages, let them be 
what they will, in fpite of any Pains, or any Means 
they can poffibly ufe to prevent it. For it will be 
always poffible for us, while we have fuch large Pof- 
feffions in the Eafi-Indies, to fit out Ships ; or if it 
was neceflary. Squadrons of Ships, and that with as 
great or greater Advantage than can be done by the 
Ruffians^ and with thefe we may at any Time retrace 
all their Difcoveries, and make them our own, in Cafe 
there fhall appear any good Caufe to exped that Ex- 
peditions of this Kind may turn to our Profit. 
Neither is it Reafon alone that teaches us this ; for 
the fame Leflbn may be learned in the School of Ex- 
perience., The Spaniards and the Portuguefe were the 
original Difeoverers of America and the Eafi Indies, hut 
how long did they remain the foie Proprietors of thofe 
valuable Pofleffions ? And yet they were pofTeffed of 
an Advantage which the Ruffians have not, and which 
it is in a great Meafure out of their Power to attain ; 
that of being the greateft Maritime Powers in Enrope^. 
indeed almoft the only Maritime Powers in Europe,, 
at the Time they made them. Therefore if with this^ 
fingular Advantage, and when making Difcoveries was 
a Thing new, thofe Nations found it impoffible to 
conceal their Difcoveries, or to exclude Strangers from 
fharing with them, how fhould the Ruffians, who on this 
Side of their Dominions neither have, nor in any reafon- 
able Space of Time, can raifeany formidable NavalForce ? 
Yet after all that has been faid, I muft confefs, that 
if the Ruffians continue to proceed in thefe Difcoveries, 
with that Vigour which their great Importance deferves, 
and which the Succefs they have lately met with may 
well encourage them to do, they may poffibly make a 
Difeovery of the higheft Confequence, and perhaps 
conceal it too, and that to the great Advantage of 
themfelves, and the great Detriment of the reft of the 
World, and of the Britifh Nation in particular ; and 
to this I attribute all that Air of Darknefs and Myftery 
that has been of late thrown over moft of their Rela- 
tions. In fhort, I apprehend, and am very fure, that I 
have good Reafon for my Apprehenfions, they are al- 
ready pretty well fatisfied ; or rather, the fewjudicious 
Heads amongft them, are convinced, not of the Pof- 
fibility or Probability, but of the Reality of a North- 
weft PafTage 5 and this it is that makes them fo very 
defirous of promoting a Belief of the running out of 
the two great Continents, till they almoft meet each 
other, and hath alfo put them upon the Scheme of 
ftifling their future Difcoveries, that they may make 
the moft of what they have already difeovered, and not 
lead others to the Knowledge of a Route, which would 
make them Matters of thefe Difcoveries, and of ma- 
ny more. 
XI. After having examined as thoroughly as poffible 
thefe Ruffian Difcoveries, which have made fo much 
Noife in the prefen t Age, and which it is not impof- 
fible may make ftill more Noife in the next, let u$. 
proceed to a few Obfervations on what has been faid 
in order to render it more ufeful and more intelligible 
to the Readers. It is now about two hundred Years 
ago, fince our finding out the Navigation to Rvffia, was 
confidered, as a more furprifing Difeovery, than any of 
which the Ruffians are now in Purfuit ; but then it muft 
be confidered that they had no Dominions upon the 
Baltick, nor hardly any Intercourfe with their Neigh- 
bours, except the Poles and the Swedes. It was pre- 
fently forefeen, that from Archangel, which was the Port 
frequented 
