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TUP ADVANA AND TESTK IN AND ALTER

EXPLORATIONS AND DISCOVERIES

DURING THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

BEING DETAILED ACCOUNTS OF

THE SEVERAL EXPEDITIONS TO THE NORTH SEAS,

BOTH ENGLISH AND AMERICAN, CONDUCTED BY

ROSS, PARRY, BACK, FRANKLIN, M'CLURE AND OTHERS.

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AUTHOR OF "COURT AMD REIGN OF CATHERINE II.,

"NICHOLAS L., ""MEMORABLE
SCENES IN FRENCH HISTORY," "HISTORY OF THE MORMONS," ETO.

NEW YORK AND AUBURN :

MILLER, ORTON & CO.,

New York: 25 Park Row-Auburn: 107 Genesee-st.

1857.

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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven,

BY MILLER, ORTON & CO.,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Northern District of New York.

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THE records of maritime adventure and discovery constitute one of the most attractive pages in literature. Nearly three thousand years before the birth of Christ, the bold Tyrians and Phoenicians deserted the confines of their native continent to explore new realms, and to obtain from the then unknown land of Spain, the means of augmented splendor, luxury, and wealth. From that remote period, down through succeeding ages until the present, the most enterprising and dauntless of human spirits have found their congenial field of labor and activity in adventuring into untrodden and unfamiliar re gions in search of riches, celebrity, and conquest.

It was this spirit which has in the past given birth to many great states and empires. It was this spirit which planted Carthage on the northern shores of Africa, and eventually rendered her the dangerous and not unworthy rival of Rome. It was this spirit which built Marseilles, Arles, Nismes, and many of the most important cities of

France, which contain to this day impressive monuments of Roman origin and supremacy. It was this spirit which made England pass successively under the resistless sway of her Roman, Saxon, Danish, and Norman conquerors. But more especially was it this restless and insatiable genius of adventure which created the greatness of the chief maritime cities of modern Italy, of Genoa and Venice, as well as that of the kingdom of Portugal and Spain. To this same desire for discovery the world is indebted for the glorious achievements of Columbus, Vespucius, and De Soto; and for the revelation of the magnificent novelties and unparalleled beauties of these western continents, ladened with the most valuable treasures and products of the earth, which they threw open to the knowledge and the possession of mankind.

After the discovery of the American continents, and after the thorough exploration of the Southern and Pacific oceans, it was generally supposed that the materials for further adventures of this description had all been exhausted. The whole habitable globe seemed then to have been made accessible and familiar to men, both as apostles of science and as emissaries of commerce. It was thought that the era of maritime discovery, the days of Vasco de Gama, of Marco Polo, and of Sydney, had ended forever. But this supposition was erroneous. One additional field of this description yet remained. It was indeed a gloomy and repulsive one. It was totally devoid of the attractive and romantic splendors which in other days had allured men to sail through tranquil oceans to fragrant islands, which bloomed like gardens on the bosom of summer seas; or to continents which were, covered with the richness of tropical vegetation and luxu

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