laudably been afforded.  The same enlarged and benevolent spirit, which ordered these several expeditions to be undertaken, has also taken care that the result of their various discoveries should be authentically recorded.  And the transactions of these voyages round the world, having, in due time, been communicated, under the authority of his majesty’s naval minister; those of the present, which, besides revisiting many of the former discoveries in the southern, carried its operations into untrodden paths in the northern hemisphere, are, under the same sanction, now submitted to the public in these volumes.

One great plan of nautical investigation having been pursued throughout, it is obvious, that the several voyages have a close connection, and that an exact recollection of what had been aimed at, and effected, in those that preceded, will throw considerable light on our period.  With a view, therefore, to assist the reader in forming a just estimate of the additional information conveyed by this publication, it may not be improper to lay before him a short, though comprehensive, abstract of the principal objects that had been previously accomplished, arranged in such a manner, as may serve to unite into one point of view, the various articles which lie scattered through the voluminous journals already in the hands of the public; those compiled by Dr Hawkesworth; and that which was written by Captain Cook himself.  By thus shewing what had been formerly done, how much still remained for subsequent examination will be more apparent; and it will be better understood on what grounds, though the ships of his majesty had already circumnavigated the world five different times, in the course of about ten years, another voyage should still be thought expedient.

There will be a farther use in giving such an abstract a place in this introduction.  The plan of discovery, carried on in so many successive expeditions, being now, we may take upon us to say, in a great measure completed, by summing up the final result, we shall be better able to do justice to the benevolent purposes it was designed to answer; and a solid foundation will be laid, on which we may build a satisfactory answer to a question, sometimes asked by peevish refinement, and ignorant malevolence, What beneficial consequences, if any, have followed, or are likely to follow, to the discoverers, or to the discovered, to the common interests of humanity, or to the increase of useful knowledge, from all our boasted attempts to explore the distant recesses of the globe?

The general object of the several voyages round the world, undertaken by the command of his majesty, prior to that related in this work, was to search for unknown tracts of land that might exist within the bosom of the immense expanse of ocean that occupies the whole southern hemisphere.