PREFACE, 
m 
but tbink this plain }^et fenfible piece merits 
attention. It is by purfuing the difcovery of 
the interior ftate of this great continent, that 
we can fcarcely fail attaining an end, that moft 
worthy the aim of a great maritime power, 
honored as well as ftrengthened by a fair pro- 
geny of the moft fiourifhing colonies in the 
world, and of which a good Englifhman with 
peculiar pleafure will find P. Charlevoix con- 
feffing (however unwilling to own any thing 
inconfiftent with the glory of his country) that 
France cannot behold them without Terror. 
Knowledge muft precede a fettlement, and 
when Penfilvania and Virginia fhall have ex- 
tended their habitations to the branches of the 
Miffiffippi that water thefe provinces, on the 
weft fide of the Blue Mountain , we may rea- 
sonably hope to infure afafe and eafy commu- 
nication with the moft remote known parts of 
North America , and to Secure the poffeffion of a 
dominion unbounded by any present difcoveries. 
If this defirable profpecif appear chimerical, 
because great and diftant, it is at least true, 
that no obftacle can be pointed out, but what 
we may eafily remove. 
England already poffeffes an uninterrupted 
line of well-peopled provinces of the coast, fuc- 
ceffively begun within lefs than 150 years, fhe 
fees them every year augmented by an acceffion 
of fubjedts, 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 
