been brought into Europe; and it may at first feem ftrange, that no fuch evidence of their uncommon ftature fhould have been produced, as it is known that feveral of them who had been made prisoners by the Commanders of European veffels, died on board foon after they came into a hot climate; but the wonder will ceafe, when it is confidered that all mariners have a fuperftitious opinion that the compass will not traverse if there is a dead body on board the veffel." Upon the whole, it may reasonably be prefumed, that the concurrent teftimony of late navigators, particularly Commodore Byron, Captain Wallis, and Captain Carteret, Gentlemen of unquestionable veracity, who are ftill living, and who not only faw and converfed with these people, but meafured them, will put an end to all the doubts that have been hitherto entertained of their exiftence.

Having thus brought together the whole of the evidence for and against a fact which has long been the object both of popular and philofophical curiosity, I shall not anticipate any opinion that the Reader may form concerning future navigations in the track which has been defcribed by any of the veffels whofe voyages are here related, except that although it is the opinion of Commodore Byron, who spent feven weeks and two days in paffing through the Streight of Magellan, that it may be passed in three weeks at the proper season; yet the paffage coft Captain Wallis near four months,

months, though he performed it precisely at the time recommended by the Commodore, having reached the eastern entrance about the middle of December.

I cannot however difmifs my Readers to the following narratives, without expreffing the regret with which I have recorded the deftruction of poor naked favages, by our fire-arms, in the course of these expeditions, when they endeavoured to reprefs the invaders of their country; a regret which I am confident my Readers will participate with me: this however appears to be an evil which, if difcoveries of new countries are attempted, cannot be avoided: refiftance will always be made, and if those who resist are not overpowered, the attempt must be relinquished. It may perhaps be faid, that the expence of life upon these occafions is more than is neceffary to convince the natives that farther conteft is hopeless, and perhaps this may fometimes have been true: but it must be confidered, that if fuch expeditions are undertaken, the exécution of them must be intrusted to perfons not exempt from human frailty; to men who are liable to provocation by fudden injury, to unpremeditated violence by fudden danger, to error by the defect of judgment or the strength of paffion, and always disposed to transfer laws by which they are bound themselves, to others who are not fubject to their obligation; so that every excess thus produced is also an inevitable evil.

VOL. I.

If

If it should be faid, that fuppofing these mif chiefs to be inevitable in attempting difcoveries, discoveries ought not to be attempted; it muft be confidered, that upon the only principles on which this opinion can be fupported, the rifk of life, for advantages of the fame kind with those proposed in discovering new countries, is in every other inftance unlawful. If it is not lawful to put the life of an Indian in hazard, by an attempt to examine the country in which he lives, with a view to in, crease commerce or knowledge; it is not lawful to rifk the life of our own people in carrying on commerce with countries already known. If it be faid that the risk of life in our own people is voluntary, and that the Indian is brought into danger without his confent, the confequence will fill follow, for it is univerfally agreed, at least upon the principles of Christianity, that men have no more right over their own lives than over the lives of others, and suicide being deemed the worst fpecies of murder, a man must be proportionably criminal in expofing his own life, for any purpose that would not justify his expofing the life of another. If the gratification of artificial wants, or the increase of knowledge, are juftifiable caufes for the rifk of life, the landing by force on a newly difcovered country, in order to examine its produce, may be juftified; if not, every trade and profeffion that expofes life for advantages of the fame kind is unlawful; and by what trade or profeffion is not life exposed? Let us examine all

the

the multitudes that art has employed, from the refiner who sweats at the furnace to the fedentary artificer who grows pale at the loom, and perhaps none can be found in which life is not in fome degree facrificed to the artificial neceffities of civil fociety. But will it therefore be faid, that civil fociety, to which this facrifice is made, is for that reafon a combination contrary to the great original principles of morality, which are the bafis of all duty? Will it be faid, that to exercise the faculties which are the distinguishing characteristics of our nature is unnatural ? and that being endowed with the various powers which in civil focieties only can be brought into action, it was incongruous to the will of our Creator that any fuch fociety fhould be formed, and that it would be pleafing to him if, ftill continuing in a favage ftate, these powers should lie torpid in our nature, like life in an embrio, during the whole of our exiftence? This furely muft appear extravagant and abfurd in the highest degree, especially as it must be allowed, that although commerce and arts in fome inftances expofe life, in others they preferve it; they supply the wants of Nature, without rapine and violence, and by producing a common interest, they prevent the inhabitants of the fame country from being divided into different clans, which among favages are almost perpetually committing hostilities against each other, with a ferocious cruelty which is not to be found where civil government and literary knowledge have meliorated

b 2

meliorated the manners of mankind. Upon the whole, therefore, it seems reasonable to conclude, that the increase of knowledge and commerce are ultimately common benefits; and that the lofs of life which happens in the attempt, is among the partial evils which terminate in general good.

I have now only to request of such of my Readers as may be difpofed to cenfure me for not having attributed any of the critical escapes from danger that I have recorded, to the particular interpofition of Providence, that they would, in this particular, allow me the right of private judgment, which I claim with the greater confidence, as the very fame principle which would have determined them to have done it, has determined me to the contrary. As I firmly believe the divine precept delivered by the Author of Christianity," there is not a fparrow falls to the ground without my Father," and cannot admit the agency of chance in the government of the world, I must neceffarily refer every event to one cause, as well the danger as the escape, as well the fufferings as the enjoyments of life and for this opinion, I have, among other refpectable authori ties that of the Bible. "Shall we," fays Job, "receive good from the hand of God and shall we not receive evil?" The Supreme Being is equally wife and benevolent in the difpenfation of both evil and good, as means of effecting ultimate purposes worthy of his ineffable perfections; so that whether we confider ourfelves as chriftians or philofophers,