.LIBRARY 

 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 

 SANTA BARBARA 



PREFACE. 



The object of this volume is to exhibit, withhi a 

 moderate compass, whatever is most interesting in 

 the adventures and observations of those travellers 

 who, from the earliest ages, and in various direc- 

 tions, have sought to explore Africa ; and also to 

 give a general view of the physical and social condi- 

 tion of that extensive continent at the present day. 

 This quarter of the globe has afforded more ample 

 scope than any other to the exertions of that class of 

 men whose enterprising spirit impels them, regard- 

 less of toil and peril, to penetrate into unknown coun- 

 tries. Down to a comparatively recent period, the 

 greater part of its immense surface was the subject 

 only of vague report and conjecture. The progress 

 of those discoverers, by whom a very large extent of 

 its interior regions has at length been disclosed, 

 having been accompanied with arduous labours, and 

 achieved in the face of the most formidable obstacles, 

 presents a continued succession of striking incidents, 

 as well as of new and remarkable objects : and our 

 interest cannot fail to be heightened by the considera- 

 tion, that Britain, by the intrepid spirit of her travel- 

 lers, her associations of distinguished individuals, 

 and her national patronage, has secured almost the 

 exclusive glory of the many important discoveries 

 which have been made within the last forty years. 



The work now submitted to the public, and the 

 recent one on the Polar Regions, embrace two of 

 the most interesting fields of modern discovery. The 

 adventurers who traversed these opposite parts of 

 the world frequently found their efforts checked, and 

 their career arrested, by the operation of causes which, 

 although equally powerful, were yet extremely dif- 



