The following testimony to the merits of those who may be deemed the pioneers in North-polar navigation, is borne by one competent to offer an authoritative opinion on the subject; having pursued the same tracks, and having achieved renown in the same service. The spirit of justice which pervades these remarks; the cordiality with which praise is awarded to the distinguished ancients; and the modest estimate which is formed of the efforts of the moderns, by one conspicuous among them for his talents and success, are circumstances that will be duly appreciated, and must be viewed as conferring honour on the writer.

Captain Sir Edward Parry remarks: “In revisiting many of the spots discovered by our early British navigators in the Polar regions, and in traversing the same tracks which they originally pursued, I have now and then, in the course of my Narratives, had occasion to speak of the faithfulness of their accounts, and the accuracy of their hydrographical information. I should, however, be doing but imperfect justice to the memory of these extraordinary men, as well as to my own sense of their merits, if I permitted the present opportunity to pass without offering a still more explicit and decided testimony to the value of their labours. The accounts of Hudson, Baffin, and Davis are the productions of men of no common stamp.