10 
A VOYAGE TO SPITZBERGEN 
After all that the industry of Hakluyt and Purchas 
collected from their contemporaries, there must be 
many maritime records of their period which they did 
not find, or were unable to use, that are worthy of pre¬ 
servation in print, and of translation if in foreign 
tongues. It is to be hoped that the issues of the 
Hakluyt Society will long continue to be enriched from 
such sources. 
From Hakluyt and Purchas later writers have chiefly 
derived the earlier portions of their compilations ; in 
many instances adopting their errors with their facts. 
In regard to the Northern regions of both hemispheres, 
no small amount of misconception has attended nearly 
every effort to elucidate the history of their discovery. 
Kheinhold Forster 9 is often criticized and condemned 
by Sir John Barrow, and not by him alone ; and 
Barrow * 1 (the accurate Barrow, as he has been termed) 
is seriously taken to task by the author of “ A Me¬ 
moir of Sebastian Cabot.” 2 In all the summaries of 
polar expeditions, that, in one form and another, have 
been introduced into modern narratives, there is a want 
of satisfactory fulness or clearness. A careful study of 
each particular voyage, with a candid comparison of all 
that have been accomplished, or that are claimed as 
having been accomplished, by different nations, is still a 
desideratum in this field of research. 3 
9 History of Voyages and Discoveries in the North, translated from the German. 
London, 1786. 
1 A Chronological History of Voyages into the Arctic Regions. London, 1818. 
2 Richard Biddle. 
3 The geographical history of the Western continent very much needs such an 
analytical exposition; and it is to be regretted that a work on the subject, prepared - 
