158 Progress of Geographical Discovery 



of which the author, whos6 recent departure has deprived us of 

 seeing him in this assembly, has submitted the vast plan to your 

 central commission. You will immediately perceive, that I 

 allude to Mr Buckingham, a most indefatigable traveller, in the 

 prime of life, and who, after having explored a great part of the 

 globe, wishes to make a voyage round the world, which is to last 

 five years at the least. This interesting navigator, whom numerous 

 auditors have heard speak in public on new subjects, vfith a 

 facility so rare in a foreign language, has found in M. Dumont 

 d'Urville a conscientious and enlightened judge of his project, 

 which at once embraces the interests of science and of civili- 

 zation, and the advantages of commerce so essentially important 

 to England. 



It is not necessary for me to speak here of M. d'Urville's 

 report in detail, nor of the plan, with the examination of which 

 he was intrusted. The monthly bulletin of the Society will 

 supersede an analysis of these observations, otherwise too com- 

 plete and extensive to be presented in an abridged form in this 

 report.* 



It still remains for me, gentlemen, to recapitulate to you 

 briefly the labours of the central commission, to which several 

 among you have privately devoted yourselves. First, we should 

 address our thanks to those members and correspondents who 

 have furnished us with useftd documents ; amongst whom I may 

 be allowed here to mention the communications of Mr Warden, 

 on America ; of M. Jomard, on Africa ; of M. Bianchi, on the 

 East ; of M. Cadet of Metz, on the Voyages to the North Pole ; 

 and the reports of MM. Brue, Coraboeuf, Coquebert-Montbret, 

 Girard, d'Ur\ille, and Theologue. -^^ 



Among the individual labours of the members of the society^ 

 it is my duty to mention the beautiful maps of Colonel Lapie, 

 (Egypt and Arabia Petrea, and the States of Barbary ;) he is 

 engaged at present in the publication of a map of the Itoman 

 empire, in which he has traced the itineraries of Antoninus and 

 of Peutinger. He is also continuing the publication of his 

 Universal Atlas, but the late events have retarded its execution. 

 f" The expedition to Algiers has elicited useful works from 

 ^veral of our coadjutors. Independently of what we have 

 received from Colonel Lapie on that part of Africa, I may 

 mention the map of M. Barbie du Bocage, and the plans and 

 lithographs which M. Bianchi has added to the translation of 

 the Essays of Sha.ler, a work eminently useful at the period of 

 its publication, (the departure of the expedition in May and 

 June last,) and justly esteemed the best which we yet possess, 

 on the regency of Algiers. M. Bianchi, on the return of 

 a mission, in the prosecution of Avhich he nearly perished, 

 laboured diligently at this work, and has, in some degree, 

 made it complete, by giving to the public an interesting relation 

 of the mission, in which he accompanied Admiral de la 



* M. d'Urville is favoiu-able to Mr Buckingham's project. — Ed. 



