Geogra/Ai/. 339 



part of Asia which he dcluieateel, and presented to 

 the public in 17 ST, may be considered as laying the 

 first foundation for anything like accurate acquaint- 

 ance with that portion of the Asiatic continent. 

 The knowledge derived from Strahleneerg has 

 been since greatly improved and extended by the 

 travels of Professor Pallas and others. 



About the year 1716, Dr. Shaw, an English 

 gentleman of character, travelled into Sjp^ia and 

 Palestine, and collected much valuable informa- 

 tion concerning those countries, particularly cal- 

 culated to elucidate and confirm the sacred his- 

 tory. In 1720 Mr. Bell travelled, in the suite 

 of the Russian Ambassador, from Petersburgh to 

 Pekhi, and, in the course of his journey, made 

 many curious observations on that part of Asia 

 through which he passed, which he afterwards 

 presented to the public in a very interesting form. 

 At several later periods Si/ria has been visited, 

 and many additional accounts respecting it given 

 by Mr. Dawkins,"^ the Abbe Mariti, M. Vol- 

 KEY, M. Cassas, and Mr. Browne. During 

 the same period, our knowledge of Arabia 

 has been extended by the travels of Niebuhr, 

 Sauveboeuf, and others. Persia has been also 

 more fully explored than ever before, by FIanway, 

 Count de Ferrieres, Sauveboeuf, Franklin, 

 Gmelin, Pallas, and Forster. The geography 

 and condition of Hindostan have been elucidated 

 in a very interesting manner by Hodges, Barthc- 

 lomeo, Forster, and, above all, by Major Rennel, 

 whose map of that country, and his memoir ac- 

 companying it, have been pronounced, by a good 

 judge, one of the most instructive and valuable 

 geographical presents ever made to the public." 



m The materials collected by this gentleman, who visited Syria in 1751, 

 were compiled into a very respectable and authentic work, entitled the 

 Ituins of Balbeck, and published in 1757, by Mr. Robert Wood. 



j 71 Historical Disquisition concerning India, By WlLHAM RoaERTSON, 



I D.D. F.R. S. 8yo. I79I, Preface. 



