Explorers by Sea

Abstract

At the close of the Seven Years’ War (1756–1762), there was at last a period of peace between England and Spain, during the reign of George III. At that time, the British Admiralty was worried that the Spanish, Dutch, and French might overtake England in overseas trade and decided to send Commodore John Byron, who had sailed as a midshipman on Anson’s expedition, to explore the southern Pacific, with the additional task of finding whether a southern continent really existed. This led to another circumnavigation of the globe, and, since the Royal Society gave its support, the expedition is regarded as the first world voyage of scientific investigation. There are suspicions too that the expedition was also expected to keep an eye open for unknown lands which could perhaps be claimed for Britain.

The inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego have ... been spoken of as if they were beings possessed of little more than animal instinct, and incapable of being instructed. This may, perhaps, be the case; arising however, out of the peculiar situation in which they are placed. Give them intercourse with foreigners and they will improve in understanding; for I have found them to be not only tractable and inoffensive, but also, in many of their employments, active and ingenious.

[—James Weddell, A Voyage towards the South Pole. 1825