DISCOVERIES OF THE PORTUGUESE. 
138 
in Africa. It is compiled from materials furnish- 
ed by recent missions to that country. * 
To analyze historical descriptions of this nature, 
now in a great measure obsolete, would, it is con- 
ceived, be inconsistent with the plan and limits of 
the present work. Our object is rather to exhi- 
bit the steps by which discovery was carried on, 
and to combine views of the country and manners, 
with the adventures of the travellers who made the 
observations. We have, however, in the course of 
this chapter, made use of the remarks contained in 
the works now alluded to, wherever they appeared 
to throw any light on the subject under consider- 
ation. 
The following narrative t is by an Englishman, 
and does not follow exactly in the order of date j 
but, as it relates to regions conterminous with 
those traversed by the missionaries, whose track 
we have been following, it may be advantage* 
ously introduced as a supplement to their infor- 
mation. 
About the year 1590, a Portuguese vessel, hav- 
ing on board an English prisoner, of the name of 
* Translated in Pinkerton's Collection, Vol. XVI. 
f First published by Purchas, II. 970—985. Reprinted bj 
Pinkerton, Vol. XVI. 
