settled in the neighbourhood, had, in all their attempts, for
above two hundred years, been able to do; that he has put it beyond all
doubt that Beering and Tscherikoff had really discovered the continent
of America in 1741, and has also established the prolongation of that
continent westward opposite Kamschatka, which speculative writers,
wedded to favourite systems, had affected so much to disbelieve, and
which, though admitted by Muller, had, since he wrote, been considered
as disproved, by later Russian discoveries;[46] that, besides
ascertaining the true position of the western coasts of America, with
some inconsiderable interruptions, from latitude 44 deg. up to beyond the
latitude 70 deg., he has also ascertained the position of the northeastern
extremity of Asia, by confirming Beering's discoveries in 1728, and
adding extensive accessions of his own; that he has given us more
authentic information concerning the islands lying between the two
continents, than the Kamtschatka traders, ever since Beering first
taught them to venture on this sea, had been able to procure; that, by
fixing the relative situation of Asia and America, and discovering the
narrow bounds of the strait that divides them, he has thrown a blaze of
light upon this important part of the geography of the globe, and
solved the puzzling problem about the peopling of America, by tribes
destitute of the necessary means to attempt long navigations; and,
lastly, that, though the principal object of the voyage failed, the
world will be greatly benefited even by the failure, as it has brought
us to the knowledge of the existence of the impediments which future
navigators may expect to meet with, in attempting to go to the East
Indies through Beering's strait.[47]

[Footnote 45: _Ibid_. p. 507. We learn from Maurelle's Journal, that
another voyage had been some time before performed upon the coast of
America; but the utmost northern progress of it was to latitude
55 deg..--D.]

[Footnote 46: See Coxe's Russian Discoveries, p. 26, 27, &c. The
fictions of speculative geographers in the southern hemisphere, have
been continents; in the northern hemisphere, they have been seas. It may
be observed, therefore, that if Captain Cook in his first voyages
annihilated imaginary southern lands, he has made amends for the havock,
in his third voyage, by annihilating imaginary northern seas, and
filling up the vast space which had been allotted to them, with the
sol