INTRODUCTION. 
Ht 
the fainteft trace can be met with in the account of any 
former voyage; betides thefe preliminary difcoveries, the 
Reader of the following work will find, that in one fum- 
mer, our Englifh Navigator difcovered a much larger pro¬ 
portion of the North Weft coaft of America than the Spa-, 
iiiards, though fettled in the neighbourhood, had, in all 
their attempts, for above two hundred years, been able to 
do ; That he has put it beyond all doubt that Beering and 
TiclierikofF had really difcovered the continent of America 
in 1741, and has alfo eftablifhed the prolongation of that 
continent Weftward oppofite Kamtfchatka, which fpecula- 
tive writers, wedded to favourite fyftems, had affefted fo 
much to difbelieve *, and which, though admitted by Mul¬ 
ler, had, fince he wrote, been confidered as difproved by 
later Ruffian difcoveries t; That, befides afcertaining the 
true polition of the Weftern coafts of America, with fome 
inconfiderable interruptions, from latitude 44 0 up to beyond 
the latitude 70°, he has alfo afcertained the polition of the 
North Eaftern extremity of Alia, by confirming Beering’s 
difcoveries in 1728, and adding extenfive acceffions of his 
own; That he has given us more authentic information 
concerning the illands lying between the two continents, 
than the Kamtfchatka traders, ever fince Beering firft taught 
* Dr. Campbell, fpeaking of Beering’s voyage in 1741, fays, “Nothing can be plainer 
“ than this truth, that his difcovery does not warrant any fuch fuppofition, as that the 
“ country he touched at was a great continent making part of North America.” 
f See Coxe’s Ruffian Difcoveries, p. 26, 27, &c. The fictions of fpeculative geo¬ 
graphers in the Southern hemifphere, have been continents ; in the Northern hemifphere, 
they have been feas. It may be obferved, therefore, that if Captain Cook in his firft 
voyages annihilated imaginary Southern lands, he has made amends for the havock, in his 
third voyage, by annihilating imaginary Northern feas, and filling up tire vaft fpace, 
which had been allotted to them, with the folid contents of his new difcoveries of Ame¬ 
rican land farther Weft and North than had hitherto been traced. 
them 
