Book excerpt: Excerpt from A Narrative of Four Voyages, to the South Sea, North and South Pacific Ocean, Chinese Sea, Ethiopic and Southern Atlantic Ocean Indian and Antarctic Ocean, From the Year 1822 to 1831: Comprising Critical Surveys of Coasts and Islands, With Sailing Directions; And an Account of Some New and Valuable Discoveries, Including the Massacre Islands, Where Thirteen of the Author's Crew Were Massacred IN appearing thus before the public, and for the first time - not only as an author, but as the discoverer of countries the very existence of which was before unknown to the civilized world - the writer of the subsequent pages is aware that he is advancing claims of no ordinary character. With what degree of ability they are about to be sustained remains yet to be seen. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.