After this long detention, and the great expences which accompanied it, I ſhould not have been induced to undertake ſuch a voyage, for the mere caſual advantages which the fiſhery might produce, if I had not received the ſtrongeſt aſſurances from the beginning, that, if I executed the commiſſion aſſigned me by the Board of Admiralty, I ſhould not fail of particular promotion; and that in any general promotion which might take place, during my abſence, I ſhould not be forgotten.
Though my former voyages were principally undertaken with the views of commercial advantage, I was never inattentive to the advancement of nautical ſcience: my obſervation was always awake to every object which might inſtruct myſelf and enable me to inſtruct others; and I conſtantly committed my thoughts to paper as they aroſe in my mind from the appearance of things around me, or the circumſtances, whatever they might be, in which I happened to be involved. I cannot be
