Hall, Basil

Hall, Basil, 1788–1844, British naval officer and traveler. In the service from 1802 to 1823, he commanded vessels on scientific assignments and voyages of exploration. He wrote of them in his Account of a Voyage of Discovery to the West Coast of Corea and the Great Loo-Choo (1818); in Extracts from a Journal Written on the Coasts of Chile, Peru, and Mexico (2 vol., 1823, repr. 1968); and in Fragments of Voyages and Travels (1831–33), in three series, each series in three volumes. After leaving the navy he traveled in the United States, his Travels in North America (3 vol., 1829) forming a valuable description of America.