VIU 
PREFACE. 
been for some time manifested in this coun- 
try ; and seconded and aided as that zeal 
now is by government, a series of splendid 
discoveries may be expected to be the re- 
sult ; so that it is more than probable, that, 
in the course of fifteen or twenty years, 
Africa will lose its place in the hst of un- 
known 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 effected by 
his predecessors in the same tract ; the per- 
usal 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 ear- 
liest ages. 
