Symzonia: Voyage of Discovery

Be it remembered, that on the second day of November, in the forty-fifth year of the Independence of the United States of America, Jonathan Seymour, of the said District, hath deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as proprietor, in the words following, to wit:

"Symzonia; a Voyage of Discovery. By Captain Adam Seaborn."

In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, entitled "An Act for the encouragement of Learning, by securing the Copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the time therein mentioned." And also to an Act, entitled "an Act, supplementary to an Act, entitled an Act for the encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned, and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints."

GILBERT LIVINGSTON THOMPSON, Clerk of the Southern District of New-York.

ADVERTISEMENT.

The Author of this work, and of the discoveries which it relates, leaves it to his readers to decide whether he excels most as a navigator or a writer, and whether he amuses as much as he instructs. If he has any professional vanity, arising from his enterprises upon the sea, it does not tempt him to conceal that, in the achievements here recorded, he availed himself of all the lights and facilities afforded by the sublime theory of an internal world, published by Captain John Cleve Symmes, and by the application of steam to the navigation of vessels, for which the world is indebted to Fulton. Far from coveting what does not belong to himself, he feels, after having discovered and explored a world before unknown, that he can well afford to bestow on others the praise to which they are entitled. He has one consolation, in which he is confident of the sympathy of those who wish him well; namely, that if the book is not bought and read, it will not be because it is not an American book. He gives notice that he has no intention to relinquish his right to the invention of oblique paddles for steam ships, though the circumstances narrated at the close of the volume hinder him from taking out a patent at present.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

The Author's reasons for undertaking a voyage of discovery.--He builds a vessel for his purpose upon a new plan.--His departure from the United States. Page 13

CHAPTER II.

The Author arrives at the Falkland Islands--Describes West Point Island, and States harbour--Visits the city of the Gentoo Penguins on the Grand Jason--Gives some account of the polity and habits of those civilized amphibia--Sails for South Georgia. Page 21

CHAPTER III.

The Author passes South Georgia, and proceeds in search of Sandwich land--States to his officers and men his reasons for believing in the existence of great bodies of land within the antarctic circle, and for the opinion that the polar region is subject to great heat in summer.--Crew mutiny at the instigation of Mr. Slim, third mate.--Happy discovery of a southern continent, which, at the unanimous and earnest solicitation of his officers and men, he names Seaborn's Land. Page 37

CHAPTER IV.

The Author in great peril, from the vast rise and fall of the tide in the polar sea--Brief account of his observations at Seaborn's Land.--He takes formal possession of the country, in the manner usual in such cases, in the name and on behalf of the United States.--Leaves a sealing party on one of the islands near the coast, and proceeds to the south, to extend his discoveries. Page 58