II—MARITIME DISCOVERY.
This subdivision of the plan is intimately and essentially connected with the preceding. The Adventures and Discoveries of Navigators are not only highly entertaining in themselves, as they abound in perils and disasters, and give rise to extraordinary displays of heroism and intrepidity; but they serve to correct and enlarge our knowledge of history, by throwing new lights on the realities of nature and of human life. To this very interesting and important subject two volumes of the Cabinet Library have already been assigned. The Series opened with a description of the Polar Seas and Regions,—giving a connected narrative of the successive voyages to those remote parts for the purposes of colonization or discovery; a view of the climate and its phenomena; the geological structure and other remarkable features peculiar to the sublime scenery of the Polar latitudes; with a copious account of the whale-fishery. To complete the history of Arctic adventure, the subject was resumed in the ninth volume, which delineates, in the same condensed manner, the Progress of Discovery on the more Northern Coasts of America, including a detail of the numerous expeditions undertaken by the nations of Europe, and particularly by Britain, to trace the extreme limits of that vast continent, partly by land, and partly by coast and river navigation. In these two volumes are contained a full and consecutive view of the various efforts that have been made to explore the Arctic Regions, from the times of Cabot and Cortereal to those of Parry, Franklin, and Beechey.
There is now also in preparation a minute narrative of The Circumnavigation of the Globe, from the Earliest Period to the Present Time. This work has a twofold object;—first, to present to the reader an accurate account of the various commanders who have sailed round the world, their achievements and adventures; and, secondly, to describe the progress of discovery in the South Sea, as well as to give a concise view of the actual condition of the interesting communities of Polynesia. This, combined with the Lives of Drake, Cavendish, and Dampier, already published, and with a work on Australasia, now preparing, will complete the account of Oceanica, which modern cosmographers have recognised as a fifth geographical division of the globe. In this department will be exhibited, in a popular and authentic shape, a general survey of all that is most curious or valuable in the annals of naval enterprise.