PREFACE. iii 
but think this plain yet ienfible piece merits 
attention. It is by purfuing the dilcovery of 
the interior Rate of this great continent, that 
we can fcarcely fail attaining and end, themoft 
worthy the aim of a great maritime power, 
honoured as well as ftrengthened, by a fair pro- 
geny of the moft flourifhing colonies in the 
world, and of which a good Emlijhman with 
peculiar pleafure will find P. Charlevoix con- 
feffing ( however unwilling to own any thing 
jnconfiftent with the glory of his country ) that 
France cannot behold them without Terror. 
Knowledge muft precede a fettlement, and 
when Penfilvania and Virginia {hall have ex- 
tended their habitations to the branches of the 
MiffiJJifp't that water thefe provinces, on the 
weft fide of the Blue Mountains , we may rea- 
fonably hope to infure a lafe and eafy commu- 
nication with the moft remote known parts of 
North America , and to fecure the pofleffion of a 
dominion unbounded by any prefent difcoveries. 
If this defirable profpeft appear chimerical, 
becaufe great and diftant, it is at leaft true, 
that no obftacle can be pointed out, but what 
we may eafily remove. 
England already poffeffes an uninterrupted 
line of well-peopled provinces on the coaft, fuc- 
celTively begun within lefs than 150 years, Ihc 
fees them every year augmented by an acceffion 
of fubjcfts, excited by the defire of living under 
governments and laws formed on the moft excel- 
lent model upon earth. In vain do we look for 
B 2 an 
