INTRODUCTION. 
With a well-founded pride may an Englishman point to 
his country, as the source from which the light of knowledge 
has beamed upon the inhabited world,—as the cradle, in 
which the sciences have been fostered until they have at¬ 
tained a power and strength, which appear to bring all nature 
under their control, and to cast a wholly new character upon 
the history of the human race. Great and valuable as may 
have been the discoveries of our enterprising predecessors, 
the present century will ever stand distinguished for a most 
extraordinary display of the active spirit of discovery, which 
has explored the remotest regions of the earth, which has 
produced a rapid improvement in every branch of the 
sciences, and been the means of a more general diffusion of 
useful knowledge. Our discoveries have been grand and 
momentous; they have made important accessions to our 
acquaintance with the globe; they have materially contri¬ 
buted to the extension of our commerce, our riches, and 
our revenue, to the means of private accommodation and 
public security; they have promoted our intimacy with the 
highest study of mankind ; they have increased our conver¬ 
sation with countries and manners before little known, and 
they have finally presented to our view, man in conditions 
in which he was never before seen. A mutual intercourse 
has been also established, in many instances, on the solid 
basis of a reciprocity of benefits, and the productive labour 
of the civilized world has found new markets for the dis¬ 
posal of its manufactures. 
The attempt, however, to discover the North .West Pas¬ 
sage carries with it a character peculiarly its own, nor can 
it be measured by any of the standards, which have been 
applied to other voyages; its principal aim being the solu¬ 
tion of a great geographical problem, without the expecta¬ 
tion of its being attended by any of those advantages of a 
commercial character, for which other discoveries have been 
