Second and best edition. This is an important source on Russian exploration and expansion into the Northern Pacific, and the attempt to open trade with Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. Coxe, who travelled to Russia as tutor to the Earl of Pembroke's son, took advantage of his stay to collect, compare, and translate journals of voyages subsequent to that of Bering and Tschirikoff in 1741. He collected maps at St. Petersburg, consulted with authorities, and included several narratives "never before given to the public", directing the "curious and inquisitive reader" to compare them to Cook's then unpublished journals.

Second and best edition. This is an important source on Russian exploration and expansion into the Northern Pacific, and the attempt to open trade with Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. Coxe, who travelled to Russia as tutor to the Earl of Pembroke's son, took advantage of his stay to collect, compare, and translate journals of voyages subsequent to that of Bering and Tschirikoff in 1741. He collected maps at St. Petersburg, consulted with authorities, and included several narratives "never before given to the public", directing the "curious and inquisitive reader" to compare them to Cook's then unpublished journals.

Coxe 'also succeeded in securing additional material (for instance the narrative and maps of Krenitzin and Levashev's 'secret' expedition, the first official Russian government expedition since Bering's second expedition of 1741). He was able to secure this particular information, not widely known at the time even in Russia, from Dr. William Robertson, who in turn obtained it through his friend Dr. Rogerson, first physician to Empress Catherine II…' (Lada-Mocarski).

The second part, on Siberia, largely taken from works by Muller and Pallas, includes an interesting account of a Russian-Chinese frontier town in Mongolia (illustrated by a large folding plate) and notes on Chinese-Russian trade.

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