presenting to the Corporation the fruits of his seven
years' labour in survey and charting of the coast. The preface to his
work is made noteworthy by his reference to the practice of the day--the
haphazard alterations on the charts that brought many a fine ship to
grief.

". . . I then, as in Duty bound (being a Younger
Brother) did acquaint you with it, and most humbly
laid the Proposals before you; whereupon you were
pleased not only to approve of them, but did most
bountifully advance towards the charge of the work.
. . . I could heartily wish that it might be so
ordered by your Corporation, that all Masters of
Ships, both using Foreign and Home Voyages, might
be encouraged to bring you in their Journals, and a
Person appointed to inspect them; which would be a
great Improvement of Navigation, by imparting
their Observations and Discoveries of the true Form
and Prospect of the Sea Coast . . . and other
dangerous Places. . . . And that those Persons who
make and sell Sea Charts and Maps, were not allowed
to alter them upon the single Report of Mariners,
but with your approbation; by which means our Sea
Charts would be more correct and the common Scandal
of their Badness removed."

In all her enactments and activities, our Alma Mater ever preserved a
worthy pride in her sons. Enthusiasm for a gallant profession, patronage
for advancement in sea-skill and learning, a keen and studied interest
in whatever tended to elevate and ennoble the calling of the sea, were
her inspiring sentiment. Even in wise reproof and cautionary advice, her
words were tempered by a brave note of pride--as though, under so many
difficulties and serious dangers, she gloried in our work being worthily
undertaken. In charge to the seaman, Captain Collins continues his
kindly preface:

"It sometimes happens, and that too frequently,
that when Ships which have made long and dangerous
Voyages, and are come Home richly laden, have been
shipwrecked on their native Coast, whereby both
Merchants, Owners, and Mariners have been
impoverished. All our neighbours will acknowledge,
that no Nation abounds more with skilful and
experienced Seamen than our own; none meeting a
Danger with more Cou