INTRODUCTION. 
a fatisfa&ory anfwer to a queftion, fometimes afked by 
peevifh refinement, and ignorant malevolence, What bene¬ 
ficial confeqnences, if any, have followed, or are likely to 
follow, to the difcoverers, or to the difcovered, to the com¬ 
mon interefts of humanity, or to the increafe of ufeful 
knowledge, from all our boafted attempts to explore the 
diftant recefles of the globe ? 
The general object of the feveral voyages round the world, 
undertaken by the command of his Majefty, prior to that 
related in this work, was to fearch for unknown traCts of 
land that might exift within the bofom of the immenfe 
expanfe of ocean that occupies the whole Southern hemi- 
fphere. 
Within that fpace, fo few refearches had been made, 
before our time, and thofe few refearches had been made 
fo imperfectly, that the refult of them, as communicated 
to the world in any narration,• had rather ferved to create 
uncertainty, than to convey information; to deceive the 
credulous, rather than to fatisfy the judicious inquirer; by 
blending the true geography of above half the fuperficies 
of the earth with an endlefs variety of plaufible conjectures, 
fuggefted by ingenious fpeculation; of idle tales, handed 
down by obfcure tradition; or of bold fictions, invented by 
deliberate falfehood. 
It would have been very unfortunate, indeed, if five dif¬ 
ferent circumnavigators of the globe, fome of them, at 
leaft, if not all, in tracks little known, and lefs frequented, 
had produced no difcoveries, to reward the difficulties and 
perils unavoidably encountered. But the following review 
will furnifh the moll fatisfaCtory proofs, that his Majefty’s 
inftruCtions have been executed with ability ; and that the 
repeated vifits of his Blips to the Southern hemifphere, 
have 
