PREFACE. 
ix 
The writer who first attempted to supply 
this important desideratum, was Dr Leyden, 
in the work which forms the basis of the 
present publication.* To those who have 
any knowledge of our recent literary history^ 
it cannot be necessary to point out the cir- 
cumstances which peculiarly qualified Dr 
Ley den for this task ; his depth of research, 
his force of imagination, and, to use the 
emphatic expressions of Lord Minto, " his 
" incomparable genius, urging and sustain- 
" ing his invincible powers of mental la- 
" bour/'f He entered upon it with all thai 
* A Historical and Philosophical Sketch of the Dis- 
coveries and Settlements of Europeans in Northern and 
Western Africa, at the close of the eighteenth century. 
12mo, 442 pages. Edinburgh, 1799. 
f " It is impossible," says Lord Minto, in his Address 
to the College of Fort William, " to exclude from our 
" minds the painful recollection of a loss sustained by 
" this College, by the votaries of eastern learning, and^ 
I will not refrain from adding, by the lovers of genius 
" and worth, yet more estimable than all other endow- 
ments, in the premature and lamented death of Dr 
" Leyden. It is not required, it would not be fitting, 
in this place, to repress entirely the sentiments with 
which this event has filled every bosom, capable of ap^ 
