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."[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° up to beyond the latitude 70°, 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°.--D.]
[Footnote 46: See Coxe's Russian Discoveries, p. 26, 27, etc. 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, etc. 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.