A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 15 (of 18) by Robert Kerr

R >> Robert Kerr >> A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 15 (of 18)

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What is now mentioned with regard to the discoveries made by the
Hudson's Bay Company, was well known to the noble lord who presided at
the Board of Admiralty when this voyage was undertaken; and the intimate
connection of those discoveries with the plan of the voyage, of course,
regulated the instructions given to Captain Cook.

And now, may we not take it upon us to appeal to every candid and
capable enquirer, whether that part of the instructions which directed
the captain not to lose time, in exploring rivers or inlets, or upon any
other account, till he got into the latitude of 65 deg., was not framed
judiciously; as there were such indubitable proofs that no passage
existed so far to the south as any part of Hudson's Bay, and that, if a
passage could be effected at all, part of it, at least, must be
traversed by the ships as far to the northward as the latitude 72 deg.,
where Mr Hearne arrived at the sea?

We may add, as a farther consideration in support of this article of the
instructions, that Beering's Asiatic discoveries, in 1728, having traced
that continent to the latitude of 67 deg., Captain Cook's approach toward
that latitude was to be wished for, that he might be enabled to bring
back more authentic information than the world had hitherto obtained,
about the relative situation and vicinity of the two continents, which
was absolutely necessary to be known, before the practicability of
sailing between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, in any northern
direction, could be ascertained.

After all, that search, in a lower latitude, which they who give credit
(if any such there now be) to the pretended discoveries of De Fonte,
affect to wish had been recommended to Captain Cook, has (if that will
cure them of their credulity) been satisfactorily made. The Spaniards,
roused from their lethargy by our voyages, and having caught a spark of
enterprise from our repeated visits to the Pacific Ocean, have followed
us more than once into the line of our discoveries within the southern
tropic; and have also fitted out expeditions to explore the American
continent to the north of California. It is to be lamented, that there
should be any reasons why the transactions of those Spanish voyages have
not been fully disclosed, with the same liberal spirit of information
which other nations have adopted. But, fortunately, this excessive
caution of the court of Spain has been defeated, at least in one
instance, by the publication of an authentic journal of their voyage of
discovery upon the coast of America, in 1775, for which the world is
indebted to the honourable Mr Daines Barrington. This publication, which
conveys some information of real consequence to geography, and has
therefore been referred to more than once in the following work, is
particularly valuable in this respect, that some parts of the coast
which Captain Cook, in his progress northward, was prevented, by
unfavourable winds, from approaching, were seen and examined by the
Spanish ships who preceded him; and the perusal of the following extract
from their journal may be recommended to those (if any such there be)
who would represent it as an imperfection in Captain Cook's voyage, that
he had not an opportunity of examining the coast of America, in the
latitude assigned to the discoveries of Admiral Fonte. "We now attempted
to find out the straits of Admiral Fonte, though, as yet, we had not
discovered the Archipelago of St Lazarus, through which he is said to
have sailed. With this intent, we searched every bay and recess of the
coast, and sailed round every headland, lying-to in the night, that we
might not lose sight of this entrance. After these pains taken, and
being favoured by a north-west wind, it may be pronounced that no such
straits are to be found."[44]

[Footnote 44: Journal of a voyage in 1775 by Don Francisco Antonio
Maurelle, in Mr Barrington's Miscellanies, p. 508.--D.]

In this journal, the Spaniards boast of "having reached so high a
latitude as 58 deg., beyond what any other navigators had been able to
effect in those seas."[45] Without diminishing the merit of their
performance, we may be permitted to say, that it will appear very
inconsiderable indeed, in comparison of what Captain Cook effected, in
the voyage of which an account is given in these volumes. Besides
exploring, the land in the South Indian Ocean, of which Kerguelen, in
two voyages, had been able to obtain but a very imperfect knowledge;
adding also many considerable accessions to the geography of the
Friendly Islands; and discovering the noble group, now called Sandwich
Islands, in the northern part of the Pacific Ocean, of which not the
faintest trace can be met with in the account of any former voyage;
besides these preliminary discoveries, the reader of the following work
will find, that in one summer, our English navigator discovered a much
larger proportion of the north-west coast of America than the Spaniards,
though settled 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 Tscherikoff had really discovered the continent
of America in 1741, and has also established the prolongation of that
continent westward opposite Kamschatka, which speculative writers,
wedded to favourite systems, had affected so much to disbelieve, and
which, though admitted by Muller, had, since he wrote, been considered
as disproved, by later Russian discoveries;[46] that, besides
ascertaining the true position of the western coasts of America, with
some inconsiderable interruptions, from latitude 44 deg. up to beyond the
latitude 70 deg., he has also ascertained the position of the northeastern
extremity of Asia, by confirming Beering's discoveries in 1728, and
adding extensive accessions of his own; that he has given us more
authentic information concerning the islands lying between the two
continents, than the Kamtschatka traders, ever since Beering first
taught them to venture on this sea, had been able to procure; that, by
fixing the relative situation of Asia and America, and discovering the
narrow bounds of the strait that divides them, he has thrown a blaze of
light upon this important part of the geography of the globe, and
solved the puzzling problem about the peopling of America, by tribes
destitute of the necessary means to attempt long navigations; and,
lastly, that, though the principal object of the voyage failed, the
world will be greatly benefited even by the failure, as it has brought
us to the knowledge of the existence of the impediments which future
navigators may expect to meet with, in attempting to go to the East
Indies through Beering's strait.[47]

[Footnote 45: _Ibid_. p. 507. We learn from Maurelle's Journal, that
another voyage had been some time before performed upon the coast of
America; but the utmost northern progress of it was to latitude
55 deg..--D.]

[Footnote 46: See Coxe's Russian Discoveries, p. 26, 27, &c. The
fictions of speculative geographers in the southern hemisphere, have
been continents; in the northern hemisphere, they have been seas. It may
be observed, therefore, that if Captain Cook in his first voyages
annihilated imaginary southern lands, he has made amends for the havock,
in his third voyage, by annihilating imaginary northern seas, and
filling up the vast space which had been allotted to them, with the
solid contents of his new discoveries of American land farther west and
north than had hitherto been traced.--D.]

[Footnote 47: The Russians seem to owe much to England, in matters
respecting their own possessions. It is singular enough that one of our
countrymen, Dr Campbell, (see his edition of Harris's voyages, vol. ii.
p. 1021) has preserved many valuable particulars of Beering's first
voyage, of which Muller himself, the historian of their earlier
discoveries, makes no mention; that it should be another of our
countrymen, Mr Coxe, who first published a satisfactory account of their
later discoveries; and that the King of Great Britain's ships should
traverse the globe in 1778, to confirm to the Russian empire the
possession of near thirty degrees, or above six hundred miles, of
continent, which Mr Engel, in his zeal for the practicability of a
north-east passage, would prune away from the length of Asia to the
eastward. See his _Alanoires Geographiques_, &c. Lausanne 1765; which,
however, contains much real information, and many parts of which are
confirmed by Captain Cook's American discoveries.--D.

It shews some inconsistency in Captain Krusenstern, that whilst he
speaks of the too successful policy of the commercial nations of Europe
to lull Russia into a state of slumber as to her interests, he should
give us to understand, that the same effect which Captain Cook's third
voyage produced on the speculative and enterprising spirit of English
merchants, had been occasioned among his countrymen forty years sooner,
by the discovery of the Aleutic islands and the north-west coast of
America. But, in fact, it is the highest censure he could possibly have
passed on his own government, to admit, that it had been subjected to
such stupifying treatment. This it certainly could not have been,
without the previous existence of such a lethargy as materially
depreciates the virtue of any opiate employed. There is no room,
however, for the allegation made; and the full amount of her slumber is
justly imputable to the gross darkness which so long enveloped the
horizon of Russia. Whose business was it to rouse her? What nation could
be supposed to possess so much of the spirit of knight-errantry, as to
be induced to instruct her savages as to the advantages of cultivating
commerce, without a cautious regard to its own particular interests in
the first place? But the bold, though somewhat impolitic seaman, has
perhaps stumbled on the real cause of the slow progress which she has
hitherto made in the course which his sanguine imagination has pointed
out for her. Speaking of her inexhaustible springs and incentives to
commerce, he nevertheless admits, that there are obstacles which render
it difficult for her to become a trading nation. But these obstacles, he
says, do not warrant a doubt of the possibility of removing them. "Let
the monarch only express his pleasure with regard to them, and _the most
difficult are already overcome!_" The true prosperity of Russia, it is
indubitably certain, will be infinitely more advanced by fostering her
infant commerce, than by any augmentation of territories which the
policy or arms of her sovereign can accomplish. But he will always
require much self-denial to avoid intermeddling with the concerns of
other nations, and to restrict his labours to the improvement of his own
real interests.--E.]

The extended review we have taken of the preceding voyages, and the
general outline we have sketched out, of the transactions of the last,
which are recorded at full length in these volumes, will not, it is
hoped, be considered as a prolix or unnecessary detail. It will serve to
give a just notion of the whole plan of discovery executed by his
majesty's commands. And it appearing that much was aimed at, and much
accomplished, in the unknown parts of the globe, in both hemispheres,
there needs no other consideration, to give full satisfaction to those
who possess an enlarged way of thinking, that a variety of useful
purposes must have been effected by these researches. But there are
others, no doubt, who, too diffident of their own abilities, or too
indolent to exert them, would wish to have their reflections assisted,
by pointing out what those useful purposes are. For the service of such,
the following enumeration of particulars is entered upon. And if there
should be any, who affect to undervalue the plan or the execution of our
voyages, what shall now be offered, if it do not convince them, may, at
least, check the influence of their unfavourable decision.

1. It may be fairly considered, as one great advantage accruing to the
world from our late surveys of the globe, that they have confuted
fanciful theories, too likely to give birth to impracticable
undertakings.

After Captain Cook's persevering and fruitless traverses through every
corner of the southern hemisphere, who, for the future, will pay any
attention to the ingenious reveries of Campbell, de Brosses, and de
Buffon? or hope to establish an intercourse with such a continent as
Manpertuis's fruitful imagination had pictured? A continent equal, at
least, in extent, to all the civilized countries in the known northern
hemisphere, where new men, new animals, new productions of every kind,
might be brought forward to our view, and discoveries be made, which
would open inexhaustible treasures of commerce?[48] We can now boldly
take it upon us to discourage all expeditions, formed on such reasonings
of speculative philosophers, into a quarter of the globe, where our
persevering English navigator, instead of this promised fairy land,
found nothing but barren rocks, scarcely affording shelter to penguins
and seals; and dreary seas, and mountains of ice, occupying the immense
space allotted to imaginary paradises, and the only treasures there to
be discovered, to reward the toil, and to compensate the dangers, of the
unavailing search.

[Footnote 48: See Maupertuis's Letter to the King of Prussia. The author
of the Preliminary Discourse to Bougainville's _Voyage aux Isles
Malouines_, computes that the southern continent (for the existence of
which, he owns, we must depend more on the conjectures of philosophers,
than on the testimony of voyagers) contains eight or ten millions of
square leagues.--D.]

Or, if we carry our reflections into the northern hemisphere, could Mr
Dobbs have made a single convert, much less could he have been the
successful solicitor of two different expeditions, and have met with
encouragement from the legislature, with regard to his favourite passage
through Hudson's Bay, if Captain Christopher had previously explored its
coasts, and if Mr Hearne had walked over the immense continent behind
it? Whether, after Captain Cook's and Captain Clerke's discoveries on
the west side of America, and their report of the state of Beering's
Strait, there can be sufficient encouragement to make future attempts to
penetrate into the Pacific Ocean in any northern direction, is a
question, for the decision of which the public will be indebted to this
work.

2. But our voyages will benefit the world, not only by discouraging
future unprofitable searches, but also by lessening the dangers and
distresses formerly experienced in those seas, which are within the line
of commerce and navigation, now actually subsisting. In how many
instances have the mistakes of former navigators, in fixing the true
situations of important places, been rectified? What accession to the
variation chart? How many nautical observations have been collected, and
are now ready to be consulted, in directing a ship's course, along rocky
shores, through narrow straits, amidst perplexing currents, and
dangerous shoals? But, above all, what numbers of new bays, and
harbours, and anchoring-places, are now, for the first time, brought
forward, where ships may be sheltered, and their crews find tolerable
refreshments? To enumerate all these, would be to transcribe great part
of the journals of our several commanders, whose labours will endear
them to every navigator whom trade or war may carry into their tracks.
Every nation that sends a ship to sea will partake of the benefit; but
Great Britain herself, whose commerce is boundless, must take the lead
in reaping the full advantage of her own discoveries.

In consequence of all these various improvements, lessening the
apprehensions of engaging in long voyages, may we not reasonably indulge
the pleasing hope, that fresh branches of commerce may, even in our own
time, be attempted, and successfully carried on? Our hardy adventurers
in the whale-fishery have already found their way, within these few
years, into the South Atlantic; and who knows what fresh sources of
commerce may still be opened, if the prospect of gain can be added, to
keep alive the spirit of enterprise? If the situation of Great Britain
be too remote, other trading nations will assuredly avail themselves of
our discoveries. We may soon expect to hear that the Russians, now
instructed by us where to find the American continent, have extended
their voyages from the Fox Islands to Cook's River, and Prince William's
Sound. And if Spain itself should not be tempted to trade from its most
northern Mexican ports, by the fresh mine of wealth discovered in the
furs of King George's Sound, which they may transport in their Manilla
ships, as a favourite commodity for the Chinese market, that market may
probably be supplied by a direct trade to America, from Canton itself,
with those valuable articles which the inhabitants of China have
hitherto received, only by the tedious and expensive circuit of
Kamtschatka and Kiachta.[49]

[Footnote 49: It is not unlikely that Captain Krusenstern was indebted
to the hint now given, for his proposal to establish a direct commercial
intercourse with China. The reader who desires information respecting
the nature of the fur trade carried on betwixt the north-west coast of
America, the neighbouring islands, and China, may consult his
introduction. The affairs of Spain, it may be remarked, long precluded
the requisite attention to her commercial interests, and do not now
promise a speedy recovery under her apparently infatuated government. To
Nootka or King George's Sound, mentioned in the text, that power
abandoned all right and pretensions, in favour of Great Britain, in
1790, after an altercation, which at one time bid fair to involve the
two kingdoms in war. It was during this dispute, and in view of its
hostile termination, that Mr Pitt gave his sanction to a scheme for
revolutionizing the Spanish colonies, an event which, if not now
encouraged by any direct assistance, bears too complacent an aspect on
our commercial interests not to be regarded with a large portion of good
wishes. It is impossible, indeed, excluding altogether every idea of
personal advantage, not to hope highly, at least, of any efforts which
may be made to wrest the souls and bodies of millions from the clutch of
ignorance and tyranny. The fate of these colonists is by no means the
most unimportant spectacle which the passing drama of the world exhibits
to the eye of an enlightened and humane politician.--E.]

These, and many other commercial improvements, may reasonably be
expected to result from the British discoveries, even in our own times.
But if we look forward to future ages, and to future changes in the
history of commerce, by recollecting its various past revolutions and
migrations, we may be allowed to please ourselves with the idea of its
finding its way, at last, throughout the extent of the regions with
which our voyages have opened an intercourse; and there will be abundant
reason to subscribe to Captain Cook's observation with regard to New
Zealand, which may be applied to other tracts of land explored by him,
that, "although they be far remote from the present trading world, we
can, by no means, tell what use future ages may make of the discoveries
made by the present.[50] In this point of view, surely, the utility of
the late voyages must stand confessed; and we may be permitted to say,
that the history of their operations has the justest pretensions to be
called [Greek: chtaema is au], as it will convey to latest posterity a
treasure of interesting information.

[Footnote 50: Cook's second voyage.]

3. Admitting, however, that we may have expressed too sanguine
expectations of commercial advantages, either within our own reach, or
gradually to be unfolded at some future period, as the result of our
voyages of discovery, we may still be allowed, to consider them as a
laudable effort to add to the stock of human knowledge, with regard to
an object which cannot but deserve the attention of enlightened man. To
exert our faculties in devising ingenious modes of satisfying ourselves
about the magnitude and distance of the sun; to extend our acquaintance
with the system, to which that luminary is the common centre, by tracing
the revolutions of a new planet, or the appearance of a new comet; to
carry our bold researches through all the immensity of space, where
world beyond world rises to the view of the astonished observer; these
are employments which none but those incapable of pursuing them can
depreciate, and which every one capable of pursuing them must delight
in, as a dignified exercise of the powers of the human mind. But while
we direct our studies to distant worlds, which, after all our exertions,
we must content ourselves with having barely discovered to exist, it
would be a strange neglect, indeed, and would argue a most culpable want
of rational curiosity, if we did not use our best endeavours to arrive
at a full acquaintance with the contents of our own planet; of that
little spot in the immense universe, on which we have been placed, and
the utmost limits of which, at least its habitable parts, we possess the
means of ascertaining, and describing, by actual examination.

So naturally doth this reflection present itself, that to know something
of the terraqueous globe, is a favourite object with every one who can
taste the lowest rudiments of learning. Let us not, therefore, think so
meanly of the times in which we live, as to suppose it possible that
full justice will not be done to the noble plan of discovery, so
steadily and so successfully carried on, since the accession of his
majesty; which cannot fail to be considered, in every succeeding age, as
a splendid period in the history of our country, and to add to our
national glory, by distinguishing Great Britain as taking the lead in
the most arduous undertakings for the common benefit of the human race.
Before these voyages took place, nearly half the surface of the globe we
inhabit was hid in obscurity and confusion. What is still wanting to
complete our geography may justly be termed the _minutiae_ of that
science.

4. Let us now carry our thoughts somewhat farther. It is fortunate for
the interests of knowledge, that acquisitions, in any one branch,
generally, and indeed unavoidably, lead to acquisitions in other
branches, perhaps of still greater consequence; and that we cannot even
gratify mere curiosity without being rewarded with valuable instruction.
This observation applies to the subject before us. Voyages, in which new
oceans have been traversed, and in which new countries have been
visited, can scarcely ever be performed without bringing forward to our
view fresh objects of science. Even when we are to take our report of
what was discovered from the mere sailor, whose knowledge scarcely goes
beyond the narrow limits of his own profession, and whose enquiries are
not directed by philosophical discernment, it will be unfortunate indeed
if something hath not been remarked, by which the scholar may profit,
and useful accessions be made to our old stock of information. And if
this be the case in general, how much more must be gained by the
particular voyages now under consideration? Besides naval officers
equally skilled to examine the coasts they might approach, as to
delineate them accurately upon their charts, artists[51] were engaged,
who, by their drawings, might illustrate what could only be imperfectly
described; mathematicians,[52] who might treasure up an extensive series
of scientific observations; and persons versed in the various
departments of the history of nature, who might collect, or record, all
that they should find new and valuable, throughout the wide extent of
their researches. But while most of these associates of our naval
discoverers were liberally rewarded by the public, there was one
gentleman, who, thinking it the noblest reward he could receive, to have
an opportunity of making the ample fortune he inherited from his
ancestors subservient to the improvement of science, stepped forward of
his own accord, and, submitting to the hardships and dangers of a
circumnavigation of the globe, accompanied Captain Cook in the
Endeavour. The learned world, I may also say the unlearned, will never
forget the obligations which it owes to Sir Joseph Banks.

[Footnote 51: Messrs Hodges and Webber, whose drawings have ornamented
and illustrated this and Captain Cook's second voyage.--D.]

[Footnote 52: Mr Green, in the Endeavour; Messrs Wales and Bayly, in the
Resolution and the Adventure; Mr Bayly, a second time, jointly with
Captains Cook and King in this voyage; and Mr Lyons, who accompanied
Lord Mulgrave.--D.]

What real acquisitions have been gained by this munificent attention to
science, cannot be better expressed than in the words of Mr Wales, who
engaged in one of these voyages himself, and contributed largely to the
benefits derived from them.