THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 
9 
It could not but occur to us as a lingular and affe&ing 1776. 
circumftance, that at the very inftant of our departure up- , -^ ly ‘ , 
on a voyage, the objecft of which was to benefit Europe by 
making frefh difcoveries in North America, there fhould 
be the unhappy neceflity of employing others of his Ma- 
jefty’s fliips, and of conveying numerous bodies of land 
forces, to fecure the obedience of thofe parts of that con¬ 
tinent which had been difcovered and fettled by our coun¬ 
trymen in the laft century. On the 6th, his Majefty’s fhips Saturday 6, 
Diamond, Ambufcade, and Unicorn, with a fleet of tranf- 
ports, confifting of fixty-two fail, bound to America, with 
the laft divifion of the Heftian troops, and fome horfe, were 
forced into the Sound by a ftrong North Weft Wind. 
On the 8th, I received, by exprefs, my inftrucftions * for Monday s. 
the voyage, and an order to proceed to the Cape of Good 
Hope with the Refolution. I was alfo directed to leave an 
order for Captain Clerke to follow us, as foon as he fhould 
join his fhip; he being, at this time, detained in London. 
Our firft difcoverers of the New World, and navigators 
of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, were juftly thought to 
have exerted fuch uncommon abilities, and to have accom- 
plifhed fuch perilous enterprizes, that their names have 
been handed down to pofterity as fo many Argonauts. 
Nay, even the hulks of the fliips that carried them, though 
not converted into conftellations in the Heavens, ufed to be 
honoured and vifited as facred reliques upon earth. We, 
in the prefent age of improved navigation, who have been 
inftrudted by their labours, and have followed them as our 
guides, have no fuch claim to fame. Some merit, however, 
being ftill, in the public opinion, confidered as due to thofe 
* See the inflruclions, in the Introduction, 
VOL. I. 
c 
who 
