But whoever is experienced in these matters,
or considers things impartially, will be of a very different opinion. And
anyone who is sensible how backward and refractory the seamen are apt to
be in long voyages when they know not whither they are going, how
ignorant they are of the nature of the winds and the shifting seasons of
the monsoons, and how little even the officers themselves generally are
skilled in the variation of the needle and the use of the azimuth
compass; besides the hazard of all outward accidents in strange and
unknown seas: anyone, I say, who is sensible of these difficulties will
be much more pleased at the discoveries and observations I have been able
to make than displeased with me that I did not make more.
Thus much I thought necessary to premise in my own vindication against
the objections that have been made to my former performances. But not to
trouble the reader any further with matters of this nature; what I have
more to offer shall be only in relation to the following voyage.
For the better apprehending the course of this voyage and the situation
of the places mentioned in it I have here, as in the former volumes,
caused a map to be engraven with a pricked line representing to the eye
the whole thread of the voyage at one view, besides charts and figures of
particular places, to make the descriptions I have given of them more
intelligible and useful.
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