INTRODUCTION. 
IviL 
to difcburage all expeditions, formed on fuch reafonings 
of fpeculative philofophers, into a quarter of the globe, 
where our perfevering Englifh navigator, in head of this 
promifed fairy land, found nothing but barren rocks, 
fcarcely affording fhelter to penguins and feals; and dreary 
feas, and mountains of ice, occupying the immenfe fpace 
allotted to imaginary paradifes, and the only treafures there 
to be difcovered, to reward the toil, and to compenfate the 
dangers of the unavailing fearch. 
Or, if we carry our refle6tions into the Northern hemi- 
fphere, could Mr. Dobbs have made a fingle convert, much 
lefs could he have been the fuccefsful folicitor of two dif¬ 
ferent expeditions, and have met with encouragement from 
the legiflature, with regard to his favourite paffage through 
Hudfon’s Bay, if Captain Chriftopher had previoufly ex¬ 
plored its coafls, and if Mr. Hearne had walked over the im¬ 
menfe continent behind it ? Whether, after Captain Cook’s 
and Captain Clerke’s difcoveries on the Weft fide of Ame¬ 
rica, and their report of the ftate of Beering’s Strait, there 
can be fufficient encouragement to make future attempts 
to penetrate into the Pacific Ocean in any Northern direc¬ 
tion, is a queftion, for the decilion of which the Public will 
be indebted to this work. 
i. But our voyages will benefit the world, not only by 
difcouraging future unprofitable fearches, but alfo by lef- 
fening the dangers and diftreffes formerly experienced in 
thofe feas, which are within the line of commerce and na¬ 
vigation, now actually fubfifting. In how many inftances 
have the miftakes of former navigators, in fixing the true 
fituations of important places, been re6tified ? What accef- 
fion to the variation chart? How many nautical obferva- 
tions have been collected, and are now ready to be confulted, 
Vol. I. h in 
