Primary tabs
Transcription
[Page 1]
Dr Sr When I consider the multiplicity of Yr engagements I cannot enough express my acknowledgements for hr letter wch I recd in Staffordshire on my road to this place. Concerned as I am that our Country must lose you for another 3 years, I applaud yr spirit for the advancement of science, & heartily wish it was in my power to aid so noble a design. But my heralth in a great measure disables me from enquiry, & you well know that natural history is not to be acquired in a Closet. However as you are kind enough to permit me to write freely, I shall place so much confidence in your Candour as to offer my thoughts without reserve. If we consider natural history in an enlarged view, it includes Astronomy & Geography the knowledge of Climates, & every material object in the known world. A voyage like yours unattempted before will doubtedly embrace every possible object, & as the knowledge of the Longitude is a necessary adjunct to Geography: I should think Mr. Harrisons clock should be part of your equipage. I should not have ventured on this hint only from being informed you had it not in the last voyage. Some years since I saw in a Chronicle, letter of Manperluis to the King of Prussia on the yet undiscovered countries wch I then thought contained some usefull hints to future Navigators. If I am not mistaken Buache has drawn up an analogy between the two poles. Considering how little we know of the North pole, such an attempt seems to be like explaining ignolam per ignolum, but as in such subject we must hazard conjectures, even those may be serviceable for want of better information. I remember he gave pretty strong evidence of a Portuguese vessel having found a North passage to China, having discovered an open sea near the pole. Indeed if we knew the North seas ever so well, the analogy must still be uncertain, for we find none