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 Maupertuis’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.[[56]] 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.
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 time, be attempted, and successively 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.
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 tracks 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.”[[57]] 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, which will be completed in these volumes, has the justest pretensions to be called κτῆμα ἐς ἀεὶ, as it will convey to latest posterity a treasure of interesting information.
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 minutiæ 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 inquiries 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[[58]] were engaged, who, by their drawings, might illustrate what could only be imperfectly described; mathematicians[[59]] 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.
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.
“That branch of natural knowledge which may be called nautical astronomy, was undoubtedly in its infancy, when these voyages were first undertaken. Both instruments and observers, which deserved the name, were very rare; and so late as the year 1770, it was found necessary, in the appendix to Meyer’s Tables, published by the Board of Longitude, to state facts, in contradiction to the assertions of so celebrated an astronomer as the Abbé de la Caille, that the altitude of the sun at noon, the easiest and most simple of all observations, could not be taken with certainty to a less quantity than five, six, seven, or even eight minutes.[[60]] But those who will give themselves the trouble to look into the astronomical observations made in Captain Cook’s last voyage, will find, that there were few, even of the petty officers, who could not observe the distance of the moon from the sun, or a star, the most delicate of all observations, with sufficient accuracy. It may be added, that the method of making and computing observations for finding the variation of the compass, is better known, and more frequently practised by those who have been on these voyages, than by most others. Nor is there, perhaps, a person who ranks as an officer, and has been concerned in them, who would not, whatever his real skill may be, feel ashamed to have it thought that he did not know how to observe for, and compute the time at sea; though, but a short while before these voyages were set on foot, such a thing was scarcely ever heard of amongst seamen; and even first-rate astronomers doubted the possibility of doing it with sufficient exactness.[[61]]