PREFACE

TO THE

SECOND EDITION.

SIN

INCE the publication of the first edition of this work, a quarto pamphlet has appeared, a under the title of "A Letter from Mr. Dalrymple "to Dr. Hawkefworth, occafioned by fome

66

groundless and illiberal Imputations in his Ac"count of the late Voyages to the South Seas."

Upon reading this letter I found that the Imputations faid to be groundless and illiberal were imputed to me; that I was charged with having formed fuppofitions injurious to Mr. Dalrymple, with contradicting a known fact, with ignorant criticisins on his observations, and with fuppreffing whatever would do him credit. As I had declared in my general Introduction, that "the ac"count was drawn up from the journals kept by "the Commanders of the several ships, and from "other affiftance, (the papers of Mr. Banks) "with liberty however of interspersing such sen"timents and obfervations as my subject should "fuggeft," I wondered at first at this Gentleman's hafte to vent his refentment against me, before he had informed himself whether I was in fault,

which not only in candour but in justice he should certainly have done, especially as both my perfon and place of abode are well known to him, but I foon discovered that my book found him in an illhumour. He pathetically complains of an influence which prevented him from going in the Endeavour; of an injury done him in depriving him of the ship he had chofen for the voyage, on pretence of his not having been bred up in the Royal Navy, and of the infinuations of cunning men who would have endeavoured to throw an odium on him, if the expedition, in the mode it was propofed, had not been fuccefsful, and attributed all the merits to their own tools.

This brought to my remembrance an old woman whofe mind had contracted a fplenetic turn by her having been almost all her life at law: fhe frequently vifited my grandmother, and her lawfuits being conftantly uppermoft, fhe, used to make them the fubject of her difcourse to all who happened to be prefent; and grawing angry at the fuppofed injuries fhe had received, fhe never failed to pick a quarrel with them, and was by no means fparing of her abufe. I cannot but impute the illiberal turn of Mr. Dalrymple's Letter to a fimilar caufe; he is as fore upon the fubject of a fouthern continent as the old woman was upon that of the law, and confequently as foon grows angry when it happens to be started: I am very forry for the difcontented ftate of this good Gentleman's mind, and moft

fincerely

fincerely wish that a fouthern continent may be found, as I am confident nothing elfe can make him happy and good-humoured. In the mean

time I affure him that I have no concern in the queftion, that I have not advanced any fentiment or opinion of my own about it, and that, as I never read his book, his charge that I wilfully fuppreffed whatever I thought could do him credit, is wholly without foundation. I have incorporated the journals of each voyage, and expreffed the fentiments of the writers on the fubject in the best manner I was able; that I have faithfully related the facts the journals themfelves indubitably prove, and that I have not mistaken the sentiments may fairly be inferred from the acquiefcence of the Gentlemen who kept them, to whom my manufcript was read, to whom it was afterwards delivered, and in whofe poffeffion it continued till they thought fit to return it.

Mr. Dalrymple fays, "that he did not expect "to find himself mentioned by name in the work "I have juft published;" but whatever this Gentle man's expectations may have been, no other perfon furely can think it firange that an author should be mentioned by name, when the fubject on which he has profeffedly written is under confideration; nor can any perfon but himself fuppofe me to blame for not fuppreffing a fentiment of the Navigator, from whofe journal I had undertaken to draw up an account of his voyage, merely because it contained this name, or infinuated that the

wonderful

PREFACE TO THE

wonderful perfonage to whom it belonged, was, like other mortals, liable to error; that nothing more is imputed to him than mere mistake, without any expreffion that implies difrespect, the Reader will fee if he reads the five laft pages of the fecond book, beginning Vol. III. p. 412*.

Mr. Dalrymple imputes a fuppofition to me concerning the fituation of Captain Cook's ship in the beginning of September 1769, which he fays is highly improbable; if he means that I have affigned this fituation to the ship by a conjecture of my own, the contrary will appear from the book; if he means that this fituation results from what is there inferted, it is fufficient for my juftification to say that I took this part from the journal before me, and, with all the reft, fubmitted it to Captain Cook's revifion.

Mr. Dalrymple fays, p. 23. that the declaration imputed to Captain Cook, that in March 1769, though it was a general opinion that there was land to the windward he did not think himself at liberty to search for what he was not sure to find, if not foifted in by me, would almost preclude him from taking any further notice of Captain Cook's conduct or opinions: this Gentleman is certainly unfortunate in his partialities: with refpect to himself, he refents as illiberal, not only an infinuation that he is mistaken, but the mere naming him without commendation: with respect to Captain

* First Edition, p. 477. Second Edition, p. 73.

Cook,