DRAKE, PELHAM, HENRY, BERENGER.
A New Universal Collection of Authentic and Entertaining Voyages and Travels, by Edward Cavendish Drake, London, 1771, folio, with cuts, consists of a number of abridged narratives, each forming a division by itself, with special chapters, but without a defined arrangement. The aim, while seeking to embrace all regions of the globe, is to please the ordinary reader by exciting and curious accounts, including stories of semi-human beasts, as shown by the illustrations, engraved by Grignon. America, which covers fully one third of the text, is on the mappemonde projected into two branches, the northward one connected with Greenland, and the other with a land made to extend over all the pole. Beginning with Columbus the editor takes up the circumnavigators to Anson, and then returns to the conquest of the Isthmus, Mexico, and Peru. After this come the Portuguese conquest, the English settlements, Wafer's adventures in Darien, and the north-west and north-east searches. The rest concerns the three old continents.
New Voyages and Travels; Consisting of Originals, Translations, and Abridgments, 9 vols, 8vo, explain their appearance very correctly, and the need of a periodical publication of recent voyages, to which they are confined. Each original, or set of compiled narratives, forms a separately paged part, but follows no order, the object being to give in each volume pieces relating to several parts of the world, and America is accordingly represented in every one. Kotzebue and Roquefeuil's voyages, in vi. and ix. respectively, are the only ones relating to my field.
The World; or the Present State of the Universe. Being a General and Complete Collection of Modern Voyages and Travels, by Cavendish Pelham, London, 1808-10, 2 vols, 4to, has in view not only to present the most recent narratives, in abridged form, but to give a modern account of every country, in a geographic, politic, and social aspect. Beginning with a lengthy relation of La Pérouse's voyage and the search for him, the editor continues with a tour in Kamchatka, and with Portlock and Dixon's voyage, followed by a medley of narratives on Africa, Asia, and particularly Europe. Toward the end is given an outline of physical and political geography, whereof America receives seven pages; and last comes a sketch of the leading voyages not already given.
An appropriate subdivision of voyages is presented in An Historical Account of all the Voyages round the World, performed by English Navigators. London, 1773-4, 4 vols, 8vo, maps and engravings. Volume i. contains Drake, Cavendish, and Dampier, with briefer references to Cowley and Roggewein, while Cook's voyages occupy not only the greater part of iii., but part of iv., and the whole of a fifth and sixth volume added in 1775 and 1781 by David Henry, the editor of the first two.
Berenger, Collection de tous les Voyages faits autour du Monde, Paris, 1788-9, 9 vols, embraces circumnavigations by all nations, but shows itself even more disproportionate in its arrangement than Henry's. Magellan's all-important voyage is so hastily disposed of as to create a belief that the work was never based upon a plan; nor have any prefatory remarks been given to assist the wondering reader. Drake and Cavendish are not shown much more favor, while the doubtful voyage of Carreri occupies the whole of ii., and Cook's three voyages fill the last three volumes.
An Historical Account of the Circumnavigation of the Globe, and of the Progress of Discovery in the Pacific Ocean, from Magellan to Cook, Edinburgh, 1837, 12mo, has for its chief aim the relation of Cook's voyages, to which half the volume is devoted. It is claimed that several original papers and points were obtained from the family of the great navigator for the perfection of the narrative. The book opens with a brief review of the progress of navigation till the discovery of the South Sea by Balboa, and then begins the narrative proper with Magellan's voyage, and with voyages that have assisted in opening the Pacific Ocean. The freely sprinkled foot-notes indicate that, although the work is small, considerable care has been bestowed upon it. A continuation was issued under the title of Voyages round the World from the Death of Captain Cook to the Present Time, Edinburgh, 1843, which gives even greater attention to scientific features and to generalizations, than to details of voyages; yet a sufficient number of curious and exciting incidents are introduced to attract the ordinary reader.
FORSTER, BURNEY, DALRYMPLE, DELAPORTE.
The preceding work on circumnavigations shows the value of a subdivision of the collections and histories of voyages, wherein the attempt to embrace too much naturally leads to superficiality, to a neglect of important points, and wherein the arrangement forbids a comprehensive view of particular sections. A subdivision affords better opportunity for the proper study of special subjects and regions in connection with history and sciences. Such works as Recueil de Voiages an Nord are convenient for this purpose, to be used by scholars for the preparation of more complete and critical works, as Forster, Geschichte der Entdeckungen und Schiffahrten im Norden, Francfurt, 1785, translated into English in 1786, and into French in 1789. The latter opens with a review in books i. and ii. of the beginning of discovery voyages among the ancients, and their progress during the middle ages, particularly under the Italians, among them the brothers Zeno. In book iii. follows at greater length the history of voyages to northern regions in modern times, each nation engaged receiving a chronologically arranged chapter. Most of the voyages are of course directed to the search for a north-east or north-west passage, but they also include those that have merely been directed northward, as Ulloa's and Alarcon's in 1539 and 1540, which did not pass beyond Lower California. The latter occur in the Spanish chapter, embracing the several American voyages from Gomez in 1524 to Bodega in 1775, and including Fuca's and Fuente's. The voyages close with the Russian entry into Alaska. Like most German works of research it has received careful study, and forms an authority for its field. John Reinhold Forster was one whose talents and investigations had met with the recognition of membership in several learned societies. He had made the geography of the north his particular study, and had accompanied Cook round the world, in 1772-75, as a naturalist, and with a view to prepare a philosophic history of the voyage. He also wrote Observations Made during a Voyage round the World, London, 1778, 4to, dedicated to the Royal Society of London, and relating to geography, ethnology, and ethics. The journal kept by him during this voyage, together with the reports to the government and to societies, was elaborated by his son and voyage companion into the Reise um die Welt, a work to which Humboldt gratefully ascribes the first impulse to his love for nature. Besides several books on Egypt and Africa, Forster issued the Magazin von Reisebeschreibungen, Berlin, 1790-1802, 24 vols, which is not prepared with the care due to his fame.
A Chronological History of the Discoveries in the South Sea, by James Burney, London, 1803-17, 5 vols, 4to, owes its existence, like several of Forster's works, to companionship with Cook. The later Admiral Burney sailed as lieutenant with the great navigator during the last two voyages, and having made geographic discoveries a particular study, his attention was naturally directed to the Pacific. Stimulated by Forster's example, he determined to write a history of voyages to cover this field, a project which received the encouragement of Sir Joseph Banks, who opened his library and lent his influence, receiving in return the grateful dedication of the work. After some preliminary remarks on attempts between 1492 and 1517 to find a passage to the South Sea, the chronologic account of voyages therein is begun with Magellan's. Amongst the earliest cruises are those in search of a route to the Philippines, and of a passage to the Atlantic, north of Mexico, both bearing good fruit in the extension of geographic knowledge. With Drake is resumed the lengthy series of circumnavigations to which the second volume is chiefly devoted, interspersed with minor expeditions, and with cautious reviews of the doubtful narratives of Maldonado and Fuca. Volume iii. gives considerable attention to the Asiatic coast, and to the unfolding of the Australian group, and the following is swelled with a full history of the buccaneers, which concerns chiefly the Antilles; but after this Pacific voyages are resumed with Dampier, Shelvocke, Roggewein, Anson, and minor local expeditions until about 1766, when their increasing number called for a different treatment, and they were therefore left for another pen. The whole forms an able digest, not only of maritime expeditions, but of the progress and condition of settlements along the coast. The author is not perhaps so consistent with his plan of thoroughness and comprehensiveness as the very sensible preface leads us to expect, nor is the lengthy account of the Antilles quite relevant to the subject when so much matter to the point might have been included. These objections are more than balanced, however, by an evident research, and a study of the material, manifest also in the sound comments and conclusions. As supplementary works may be regarded A Chronological History of North-Eastern Voyages of Discovery; London, 1819; A Memoir on the Geography of the North-eastern Part of Asia, London, 1818; A Memoir of the Voyage of d'Entrecasteaux, London, 1820. The continuation of the work is supplied by Hawkesworth's collection, Bougainville's voyage, and later publications.