relishing its excellencies; or is aware of the high rank
it has always held among compositions of the kind--that its first
reception was such as to take off four large impressions within a
twelvemonth--that it has been repeatedly printed since in a variety of
forms--and that it has been translated into most of the languages of
Europe. The claimants are Mr Walter, chaplain of the Centurion, under
whose name (as is mentioned in this volume of the Collection, p. 201,)
it was originally, and, so far as the editor knows, always published;
and Mr Benjamin Robins, an ingenious mathematician, and author of
several works, much esteemed by men of science. A short statement of
such information as the editor has been able to procure, is all that
the limits of this work will permit to be said on the subject of this
question. The public, being interested in what had been generally
reported through the medium of the periodical publications, respecting
the proceedings and fate of the squadron under Commodore Anson,
had eagerly expected some account of this voyage drawn up under his
notice, or authenticated by his approval. This anxiety, it is likely,
was not a little enhanced by the circumstance of several small, but
curious enough, narratives having been published of the distresses
experienced by part of the squadron, especially the Wager; from which
it was naturally enough inferred, that a judicious and minute account
of the whole could not fail to gratify rational curiosity, and the
common disposition to wonder. Mr Walter, accordingly, who had gone in
the Centurion, the commodore's vessel, as chaplain, and who, it seems,
had been in the habit of keeping memorials of the transactions and
occurrences of the squadron, prepared materials for publication, and
actually procured subscriptions for the liquidation of its expense. He
brought down his narrative to the time of his leaving the Centurion at
Macao, when he returned by another conveyance to England. But as the
public expectation had been raised very high, some persons, it would
appear, suggested that the materials intended to be published should
be carefully examined, and, if need be, corrected, by an adequate
judge of literary and scientific composition. Mr Robins, already well
known as an author of both mathematical and political essays, and much
valued by several distinguished characters of the times, was engaged
to undertake this task, whether with or without the desire of Mr
Wa