Within that space, so few researches had been made, before our time, and those few researches had been made so imperfectly, that the result of them, as communicated to the world in any narration, had rather served to create uncertainty, than to convey information; to deceive the credulous, rather than to satisfy the judicious enquirer; by blending the true geography of above half the superficies of the earth with an endless variety of plausible conjectures, suggested by ingenious speculation; of idle tales, handed down by obscure tradition; or of bold fictions, invented by deliberate falsehood.

It would have been very unfortunate, indeed, if five different circumnavigations of the globe, some of them, at least, if not all, in tracks little known, and less frequented, had produced no discoveries, to reward the difficulties and perils unavoidably encountered.  But the following review will furnish the most satisfactory proofs, that his majesty’s instructions have been executed with ability; and that the repeated visits of his ships to the southern hemisphere, have very considerably added to our stock of geographical knowledge.

1.  The south Atlantic ocean was the first scene of our operations.  Falkland’s Islands had been hitherto barely known to exist; but their true position and extent, and every circumstance which could render their existence of any consequence, remained absolutely undecided, till Byron visited them in 1764.  And Captain Macbride, who followed him thither two years after, having circumnavigated their coasts, and taken a complete survey, a chart of Falkland’s Islands has been constructed, with so much accuracy, that the coasts of Great Britain itself, are not more authentically laid down upon our maps.

How little was really known of the islands in the south Atlantic, even so late as the time of Lord Anson, we have the most remarkable proofs, in the history of his voyage.  Unavoidably led into mistake, by the imperfect materials then in the possession of the world, he had considered Pepys’s Island, and Falkland Isles, as distinct places; distant from each other about five degrees of latitude.  Byron’s researches have rectified this capital error; and it is now decided, beyond all contradiction, that, as Captain Cook says, “Future navigators will mispend their time, if they look for Pepys’s Island in latitude 47 deg.; it being now certain, that Pepys’s Island is no other than these islands of Falkland.”

Besides the determination of this considerable point, other lands, situated in the South Atlantic, have been brought forward into view.  If the isle of Georgia had been formerly seen by La Roche in 1675, and by Mr Guyot, in the ship Lion, in 1756, which seems to be probable, Captain Cook, in 1775, has made us fully acquainted with its extent and true position; and, in the same year, he added to the map of the world Sandwich Land, hitherto not known to exist, and the most southern discovery that has been ever accomplished.