INTRODUCTION. 
lxxix 
was intended as a kind of epilogue to our Voyages of dif- 
covery. He muft be permitted, however, to fay, that he 
confiders himfelf as intitled to no inconfiderable fliare of 
candid indulgence from the Public; having engaged in a 
very tedious and troublefome undertaking upon the molt 
difinterejted motives ; his only reward being the fatisfadtion 
he feels, in having been able to do an elfential fervice to the 
family of our great navigator, who had honoured him, in 
the journal of this voyage, with the appellation of Friend. 
They who have repeatedly alked why this publication 
has been fo long delayed, need only look at the volumes, and 
their attendant illuftrations and ornaments, to be fatisfied 
that it might, with at leaft equal reafon, be wondered at, 
that it has not been delayed longer. The journal of Captain 
Cook, from the firft moment that it came into the hands of 
the Editor, had been ready for the Prefs ; and Captain King- 
had left with him his part of the narrative, fo long ago as 
his departure for the Weft Indies, when he commanded the 
Refiftance man of war. Buf much, befides, remained to be 
done. The charts, particularly the general one, were to be 
prepared by Mr. Roberts, who gives an account of his work 
in the note *; the very numerous and elegant drawings of 
^Mr. 
* Soon after our departure from England, I was inftru&ed by Captain Cook to com¬ 
plete a map of the world as a general chart, from the belt materials he was in pofTeffion 
of for that purpofe ; and before his death this bufmefs was in a great meafure accom- 
plifhed: That is, the grand outline of the whole was arranged, leaving only thofe parts 
vacant or unfinifhed, which he expected to fall in with and explore. But on our return 
home, when the fruits of our voyage were ordered by the Lords Commiffioners of the 
Admiralty to be publifhed, the care of the general chart being configned to me, I was 
dire&ed to prepare it from the lateft and beft authorities ; and alfo to introduce Captain 
Cook’s three fucceflive tracks, that all his difcoveries, and the different routes he had 
taken, might appear together ; by this means to give a general idea of the whole. This 
tafk having been performed by me, it is neceffary, for the information of the Reader, to 
3 ftate 
