Geography, 34-5 



'amusing and instructive spectacle to the inquiring 

 mind, notwithstanding the occasional errors into 

 which he falls, and the inordinate vanity which 

 appears in every page of his narration. It has 

 been said, that to this ardent and intrepid man we 

 are indebted for more important and more accurate 

 information concerning the interior of Africa, and 

 especially concerning the nations established near 

 the Nile, from its source to its mouths, than all 

 Europe could before have supplied. After Bruce, 

 the next traveller of note, who undertook to ex- 

 plore the same country, and the parts adjacent, 

 W^as Mr. Browne, who w^ent through Abyssinia 

 and Egypt; visited several large districts into 

 which Europeans had never before penetrated; 

 and, by the account given to the public of his 

 travels, has considerably enlarged the sum of our 

 geographical knowledge. 



In 1788 a number of the nobility, and other 

 gentlemen of liberal curiosity, in Great-Britain, 

 formed an association, the express object of which 

 was to explore the interior of Africa. This ob- 

 ject they have pursued with a laudable zeal, and 

 wnth a very honourable and gratifying success.''' 

 The successive travels of Houghton, Lucas, Led- 

 yard/ and Park, under their direction, have 



T See the Proceedings of the African Assoclallon. 



s Mr. John Ledyard was an American, born in the State of Connee- 

 Jlcut. He entered Dartmouth College, in New-Hampshire, at the usuai 

 age, with a view to the stady of Divinity; but, being obliged to leave that 

 institution, on account of the narrowness of his circumstances, before hi» 

 education was completed, he resolved to indulge his taste for activity and 

 enterprise. Accordingly, he engaged as a common sailor on board a ship 

 bound from New- York to London. On his arrival there he entered as 

 corporal of marines with the celebrated Capt. Cook, then about to sail on 

 his third voyage of discovery. Young Led yard was a favourite with that 

 illustrious navigator, and was one of the witnesses of his tragical end. Afcer 

 this he travelled many thousand miles through the northern parts of Europe 

 and Asia, intending to pass from the latter to the American continent, and 

 traverse the interior of his native country. But being arrested in the pur- 

 suit of this plan by order of the Empress of Russia, he at length returned 

 lo England, where, ia 1788, hv engaged in tlie iervicc of the Africati iUso- 



