This work originated on a visit to St Petersburg, where the historian William Coxe (1748-1828) found up-to-date information on Russian exploration through Siberia, Kamchatka and the American Arctic, and on trade with China. The book, first published in 1780, is reissued here in the revised third edition of 1787.

The historian William Coxe (1748-1828) was also an Anglican priest, and had travelled widely in Europe as tutor to various young noblemen on the Grand Tour. (His Anecdotes of George Frederick Handel, and John Christopher Smith is also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection.) This work originated on a visit to St Petersburg, where Coxe had obtained sight of journals by Russian explorers, and also found an anonymous German work on Russian Arctic voyages between 1745 and 1770. Having checked its authenticity with the Russian authorities, he translated it to form part of this book, first published in 1780 and reissued here in its revised third edition of 1787. He also provides various journals and accounts of exploration in Siberia, Kamchatka and the American Arctic, together with information on trade between Russia and China. Readers will gain insights into a rarely considered aspect of Arctic exploration and economic exploitation.