K I N G.

SIR,

AFTER the great improvements that have been made in Navigation since the discovery of America, it may well be thought strange that a very considerable part of the globe on which we live should still have remained unknown, that it should still have been the subject of speculation, whether a great portion of the Southern Hemisphere is land or water; and, even where land had been discovered, that neither its extent nor figure should have been ascertained. But the cause has probably been, that sovereign Princes have seldom any other motive for attempting the discovery of new countries than to Conquer them, that the advantages of conquering countries which must first be discovered are remote and uncertain, and that ambition has always found objects nearer home.

It is the distinguishing characteristic of Your Majesty to act from more liberal motives; and having the best fleet, and the bravest as well as most able navigators in Europe, Your Majesty has, not with a view to the acquisition of treasure, or the extent of dominion, but the improvement of commerce and the increase and diffusion of knowledge, undertaken what has so long been neglected, and under Your Majesty's auspices, in little more than seven years, discoveries have been made far greater than those of all the navigators in the world collectively from the expedition of Columbus to the present time.

To have been appointed to record them, and permitted to inscribe the narrative to Your Majesty, is an honour, the sense of which will always be retained with the warmest gratitude, by

YOUR MAJESTY'S,

Most faithful,

and most obliged

Subject and Servant,

JOHN HAWKESWORTH

BROMLEY, KENT,

1st May 1773.

Voyaging Accounts