$56 Geography/. 



of the world from which traders had before ob- 

 tained it: it was, therefore, a most seasonable and 

 interesting discovery to make them acquainted with 

 a coast on which they might be supplied with the 

 greatest abundance, and which is likely to furnish 

 an inexhaustible store for ages to come. To this 

 signal commercial advantage might be added many 

 others, were it expedient to enlarge on the subject. 

 It would be improper, however, to omit taking no- 

 tice, that the numerous groups of Islands, lately 

 discovered in the Pacific Ocean, have risen to un- 

 expected importance, and promise to be of still 

 greater utility. These Islands afford very convenient 

 victualling and watering places for ships; and if 

 the civilized nations who visit them were as in- 

 dustrious and successful in introducing among 

 them the blessings of literary, moral and religious 

 knowledge, and the arts of cultivated life, as in 

 initiating them into the vices which corrupt and de- 

 grade, we might expect soon to see them become 

 the happy seats of literature, science, arts, and 

 pure Christianity, and, in time, reflecting rich bles- 

 sings on their benefactors. 



The enlargement of geographical knowledge 

 during the late century, has led to an increase of 

 the comforts and elegancies of life ^ in almost ev^ery 

 part of the civilized world. By this means the 

 productions of every climate have become known 

 and enjoyed in every other; the inventions and im- 

 provements of one country have been communis 

 cated to the most distant regions; and the comforts 

 of living, and the refinement of luxury, have gained 

 a degree of prevalence among mankind greatly be- 

 yond all former precedent. Never, assuredly, in 

 any former age, were so many of the natural pro- 

 ductions, and the manufactures of different coun- 

 tries enjoyed by so large a portion of the human 

 race as at the close of the eighteenth century. 



