Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 1.djvu/195

] should have expected their national pride would have caused them rather to have chosen any other path in the wide field before them, than one thus pointed out, if no higher consideration had power to prevent such an interference.

They had, however, the unquestionable right to select any point they thought proper, at which to direct their efforts, without considering the embarrassing situation in which their conduct might have placed me. Fortunately, in my instructions, much had been left to my judgment under unforeseen circumstances; and impressed with the feeling that England had ever led the way of discovery in the southern as well as in the northern regions, I considered it would have been inconsistent with the pre-eminence she has ever maintained, if we were to follow in the footsteps of the expedition of any other nation. I therefore resolved at once to avoid all interference with their discoveries, and selected a much more easterly meridian (170° E.), on which to endeavour to penetrate to the southward, and if possible reach the magnetic pole.

My chief reason for choosing this particular meridian in preference to any other was, its being that upon which Balleny had in the summer of 1839, attained to the latitude of sixty-nine degrees, and there found an open sea; and not, as has been asserted, that I was deterred from any apprehension of an equally unsuccessful issue to any attempt we might make where the Americans and French had so signally failed to get beyond even the