viii 
PREFACE 
proach, has been for some time manifested 
in this country ; and seconded and aided 
as that zeal now is by government, a series 
of splendid discoveries may be expected to 
be the result ; so that it is more than pro- 
bable, that, in the course of fifteen or twenty 
years, Africa will lose its place in the list 
of unknown regions. 
In order, however, that these discoveries 
may be understood and appreciated by the 
general reader, some preliminary know- 
ledge seems requisite. It is impossible 
duly to estimate what one traveller has 
done without knowing what had been ef- 
fected by his predecessors in the same 
tract ; the perusal of the one naturally 
excites curiosity with regard to the other. 
But the narratives of former travellers are 
dispersed through a multitude of books, 
often of difficult access, and loaded with 
tedious and uninteresting details. A work 
seemed wanted, which might collect from 
these various sources whatever was most 
curious and interesting, and might thence 
form a connected view of the progress of 
discovery from the earliest ages. 
