Safe and
expeditious than it formerly was; there are, however, other circumstances
which tend to the same object; the more full, accurate, and minute
knowledge of the prevalent winds at different times of the year, and in
various parts of the ocean; the means of foretelling changes of weather;
and, principally, a knowledge of the direction and force of the currents
must be regarded as of essential advantage to the seaman. When to these we
add, the coppering of ships, which was first practised about the year 1761,
and other improvements in their built and rigging, we have enumerated the
chief causes which enable a vessel to reach the East Indies in two-thirds
of the time which was occupied in such a voyage half a century ago.
Nor must we forget that the health of the seamen has, during the same
period, been rendered infinitely more secure; so that mortality and
sickness, in the longest voyages, and under great and frequent changes of
climate, and other circumstances usually affecting health, will not exceed
what would have occurred on land during the same time.
The great advantages which the very improved state of all branches of
physical science, and of natural history, bestow on travellers in modern
times, are enjoyed, though not in an equal degree, by navigators and by
those who journey on land.
