1838.J 



Progress of Geography in 1836-7. 



Mozambique.^'M. Xavier Botelho, many years resident in the Portu- 

 guese possessions on this coast, has lately published a statistical notice 

 of its establishments; for an account of which the Edinburgh Review 

 for November last may be consulted with advantage. 



il/ac?a^«*ca)'.— Of this important island we are still very ignorant j 

 nor could any information be gleaned from the natives who have late- 

 ly passed some weeks in England j yet that four out of six spoke and 

 wrote English with facility, is a testimony to the labours of the Mis- 

 sionaries in this country. We hope ere long to have a full account of 

 a residence of some years in the capital, Thanaan-arrive, from a Mis- 

 sionary who is intimately acquainted with the language, and has takea 

 a leading part in communicating to the natives, as far as practicablca^ 

 some of the blessings of civilization* 



AMERICA. 



North ^mer/ctt.-— Traversing the Atlantic to the shores of America, 

 we naturally follow the course of our gallant countryman Back, in his 

 former voyage, from the wide expanse of the great Slave Lake, for 

 600 miles down the river which now most appropriately bears his 

 name, to the shores of the Arctic Ocean,- and there watch him carefully 

 collecting evidences in the set of the current — the direction of the 

 ice — and the character of the drift wood— for the great probability of 

 a water communication in or about the parallels of 69" or 70°. In 

 order to supply the few remaining links in the chain of discovery 

 which the efforts of Parry, Franklin, Beechey, and the Rosses had 

 thrown round the northern coast of America,, his Majesty's govern- 

 ment, approving of the recommendation of the Geographical Society, 

 again dispatched Captain Back, in his Majesty's ship Terror, in June 

 last, for Repulse Bay, or Wager Inlet — thence to cross the supposed 

 isthmus which separates the two seas, and to continue along-shore to 

 the westward, in his boats and thus, we confidently trust, by deter- 

 mining the northern limits and configuration of the American Conti- 

 nent, to complete the stupendous discoveries of the great Columbus. 



Further to the westward the Hudson's Bay Company, in pursuing 

 their avocations over an unknown country, are annually making fresh 

 discoveries; and at this moment some of their servants are exploring 

 a track fiom the Great Slave Lake to Port Turnagain, with the hope of 



