“By the time I had completed this survey it was about one in the morning of the 18th; but in these high latitudes, and this time of the year, the sun is always a good height above the horizon. It then came on a thick drizzling rain, with a thick fog; and, as finding the river and sea, in every respect, not likely to be of any utility, I did not think it worth while to wait for fair weather, to determine the latitude exactly by an observation. But, by the extraordinary care I took in observing the courses and distances, walked from Congecathawhachaaga, where I had two good observations, the latitude may be depended on, within twenty miles at farthest.”
From the map which Mr. Hearne constructed of the country through which he passed, in this singular journey, and which we have been permitted to copy upon our general chart, it appears that the mouth of the Copper-mine river lies in the latitude 72°, and above 25° West longitude from the fort, from whence he took his departure.[[48]]
The consequences resulting from this extensive discovery are obvious. We now see that the continent of North America stretches from Hudson’s Bay so far to the north-west that Mr. Hearne had travelled near thirteen hundred miles before he arrived at the sea. His most western distance from the coast of Hudson’s Bay was near six hundred miles[[49]]; and that his Indian guides were well apprized of a vast tract of continent stretching farther on in that direction is certain from many circumstances mentioned in his journal; one of which, as besides establishing this fact, it presents us with a very striking picture of savage life, has been transcribed in the following note.[[50]]
What is now for the first time authentically laid before the public, 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 inquirer, 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°, 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°, 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°, 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 enterprize 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 last 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.[[51]]”
In this Journal, the Spaniards boast of “having reached so high a latitude as 58°, beyond what any other navigators had been able to effect in those seas.”[[52]] 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 Kamtschatka, which speculative writers, wedded to favourite systems, had affected so much to disbelieve[[53]], and which, though admitted by Muller, had, since he wrote, been considered as disproved by later Russian discoveries[[54]]; that, besides ascertaining the true position of the western coasts of America, with some inconsiderable interruptions, from latitude 44° up to beyond the latitude 70°, he has also ascertained the position of the north-eastern 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[[55]]; 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.
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 use 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.