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the interior of New Holland is not more un- 

 known, than the rocks of Lanzerota and Gomera, 

 of Porto Santo and Terceira. We every year 

 see a great number of naturalists traverse with- 

 out any determined end the most frequented 

 parts of Europe. Let us hope, that some among 

 them, influenced by a love of science, and ca- 

 pable of pursuing a plan of several years, will de- 

 vote themselves to the examination of the archi- 

 pelago of the Azores, Madeira, the Canaries, 

 Cape Verd Islands, and the north-west coast of 

 Africa. By comparing observations made under 

 the same point of view, in the Atlantic islands, 

 and on the neighbouring continent, we shall at- 

 tain exact information with respect to geology, 

 and the geography of animals and plants. 



Before we take leave of the old world to pass 

 into the new, I must speak of a subject which in- 

 spires a still greater interest, because it belongs 

 to the history of man, and to those fatal revo 

 lutions, which have swept off whole tribes from 

 the face of the earth. We inquire at the isle of 

 Cuba, at St. Domingo, and in Jamaica, where is 

 the abode of the primitive inhabitants of those 

 countries ? We ask at Teneriffe what is become 

 of the Guanches, whose mummies alone, buried 

 in caverns, have escaped destruction ? In the 

 fifteenth century, almost all the mercantile na- 

 tions, especially the Spaniards and the Portu- 

 guese, sought for slaves at the Canary islands, 



