INTRODUCTION. 
liii 
the perufal of the following extract from their Journal, 
may he recommended to thofe (if any fuch there be) who 
would reprefent it as an imperfection in Captain Cook’s 
voyage, that he had not an opportunity of examining the 
coaft of America, in the latitude afligned to the difcoveries 
of Admiral Fonte. u We now attempted to find out the 
“ ftraits of Admiral Fonte, though, as yet, we had not dif- 
6( covered the Archipelago of St. Lazarus, through which 
u he is faid to have failed. With this intent, we fearched 
66 every bay and recefs of the coaft, and failed round every 
a headland, lying to in the night, that we might not lofe 
u fight of this entrance. After thefe pains taken , and being 
ce favoured by a North Weft wind , it may be pronounced that 
66 no fuch ftraits are to be found 
In this Journal, the Spaniards boaft of u having reached 
a fo high a latitude as 58°, beyond what any other naviga- 
“ tors had been able to effecft in thofe feas t.” Without 
diminifhiftg the merit of their performance, we may be 
permitted to fay that it will appear very inconfiderable, in¬ 
deed, in comparifon of what Captain Cook effected, in the 
voyage of which an account is given in thefe volumes. Be¬ 
tides exploring the land in the South Indian Ocean, of which 
Kerguelen, in two voyages, had been able to obtain but a 
very imperfeCt knowledge ; adding alfo many confiderable 
acceflions to the geography of the Friendly Iflands; and 
difcovering the noble group, now called Sandwich Iflands, 
in the Northern part of the Pacific Ocean, of which not 
* Journal of a voyage in 1775 by Don Francilco Antonio Maurelle, in Mr. Barring¬ 
ton’s Mifcellanies, p. 508. 
t Ibid. p. 507. We learn from Maurelle’s Journal that another voyage had been fome 
time before performed upon the coaft of America ; but the utmoft Northern progrefs of 
it was to latitude 55 0 .. 
the 
