THE SHIPWRECK, IN THREE CANTOS. THE TIME EMPLOYED IN THIS POEM IS ABOUT SIX DAYS. Quæque ipse miserrima vidi, Et quorum pars magna fui. VIRG. ÆN. lib. ii. Description of the Ship, as seen by the Inhabitants of Candia, on her leaving the Harbour ......... 42 ADVERTISEMENT TO THE SECOND EDITION, PUBLISHED BY A. MILLAR, IN OCTAVO, 1764. WITH A CHARt of the ship'S PATH FROM CANDIA TO CAPE COLONNA. Ir is perhaps necessary to acquaint the public, that the author of this poem designed not at first to enlarge the work with so many notes, and, to avoid this, proposed to refer his readers to any one of the modern dictionaries, which should be thought most proper for explaining the technical terms occasionally mentioned in the poem; but, after strict examination of them all, including a silly inadequate performance that has lately appeared by a sea-officer,* he could by no means recommend their explanations, without forfeiting his claim to the character assumed in the title page, of which he is much more tenacious than of his reputation as a poet. Although it is so frequent a practice to take the advantage of public approbation, and raise the * Can a sea-officer be so ignorant as to mistake the names of the most common things in a ship? |