DEDICATION. 



protection there, the place was fo unhappily cut off 

 from the reft of mankind, that even Your Majesty's 

 name and virtues had never yet been known or heard 

 of there. 



The fituation of the country was barely known, 

 no more : placed under the moft inclement fkies, in 

 part furrounded by impenetrable forefts, where, from 

 the beginning, the beafts had eftablifhed a fovereign- 

 ty uninterrupted by man, in part by vaft deferts of 

 moving fands, where nothing was to be found that 

 had the breath of life, thefe terrible barriers inclofed 

 men more bloody and ferocious than the beafts them- 

 felves, and more fatal to travellers than the fands 

 that encompafled them ; and thus fhut up, they had 

 been long growing every day more barbarous, and 

 defied, by rendering it dangerous, the curiofity of 

 travellers of every nation. 



Although the leaft conliderable of your Maje- 

 sty's fubjecls, yet not the leaft defirous of proving 

 my duty by promoting your Majesty's declared 



plan 



