A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels Volume Xviii Part 26

The last excursion of Mr. Burckhardt was from Cairo to Mount Sinai and the eastern head of the Red Sea. This journey was published in 1822, along with the travels in Syria and the Holy Land; the latter of which he accomplished while he was preparing himself at Aleppo for his proposed journey into the interior of Africa. These travels, therefore, are prior in date to those in Nubia, though they were published afterwards.

He spent nearly three, years in Syria: his most important geographical discoveries in this country relate to the nature of the district between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Elana; the extent, conformation, and detailed topography of the Haouran; the situation of Apanea on the river Orontes, which was one of the most important cities of Syria under the Macedonian Greeks; the site of Petreea; and the general structure of the peninsula of Mount Sinai. Perhaps the most original and important of these ill.u.s.trations of ancient geography is that which relates to the Elanitic Gulph: its extent and form were previously so little known, that it was either entirely omitted, or very erroneously laid down in maps. From what he observed here, there is good reason to believe that the Jordan once discharged itself into the Red Sea; thus confirming the truth of that convulsion mentioned and described in the nineteenth chapter of Genesis, which interrupted the coa.r.s.e of this river; converted the plain in which Sodom and Gomorrah stood into a lake, and changed the valley to the southward of this district into a sandy desert.

But Mr. Burckhardt, considering all these excursions, and their consequent numerous and important accessions to geographical knowledge, as only preludes to the grand expedition for which he had expressly come to the East, still looked forward to the interior of Africa. This, however, he was not destined to reach; for while at Cairo, waiting for a caravan, which was to proceed by Mourzouck,--a. route which he had long decided on as the most likely to answer his purpose,--he was suddenly seized with a dysentery, on the 5th of October, 1817, and died on the 15th.

Travellers in. Egypt and Nubia have been numerous since the time of Mr.

Burckhardt; but as they chiefly directed their investigations and inquiries to the antiquities of the country, they do not come within our proper notice; we shall therefore merely mention the names of Belzoni, (whose antiquarian discoveries have been so numerous and splendid,) Mr. Salt, Mr.

Bankes, &c. To this latter gentleman, however, geography is also indebted for important additions to its limits; or, rather, for having ill.u.s.trated ancient geography. He penetrated, as we have already mentioned, as far as the second cataract: he visited some of the most celebrated scenes in Arabia, and made an excursion to Waadi Mooza, or the Valley of Moses. He also visited Carrac; but the most important discovery of this gentleman relates to the site of the ancient Petraea, which was also visited by Burckhardt. Onr readers will recollect that this city has been particularly noticed in our digression on the early commerce of the Arabians, as the common centre for the caravans in all ages; and that we traced its ancient history as far down as there were any notices of it. Its ruins Mr. Bankes discovered in those of Waadi Mooza, a village in the valley of the same name.

Since Mr. Burckhardt travelled, geographical discoveries have been made in this part of the world by Messrs. Ritchie and Lyon, Lord Belmore and Dr.

Richardson, Messrs. Waddington and Hanbury, Messrs. Caillaud and Drovetti, Sir Archibald Edmonstone, Sir Frederick Henniker, and by an American of the name of English. The travels of Messrs. Ritchie and Lyon were confined to Fezzan, and are chiefly curious for the notices they give, derived from native merchants, of the course of the Niger, By means of the travels of Lord Belmore and Dr. Richardson, the lat.i.tudes and longitudes on the Nile have been corrected from a.s.souan to the confines of Dongola. Mr. Waddington and Mr. Hanbury, taking advantage of an expedition sent into Ethiopia by the pacha of Egypt, examined this river four hundred miles beyond the place to which Burckhardt advanced. The travels of the two French gentlemen extended to the Oasis of Thebes and Dakel, and the deserts situated to the east and west of the Thebaid. In the Thebaic Oasis some very interesting remains of antiquity were discovered: the great Oasis was well known to the ancients; but the Thebaic Oasis has seldom been visited in modern times.

Brown and Poncet pa.s.sed through its longest extent, but did not see the ruins observed by Mr. Caillaud.

This gentleman, who was employed by the pacha to search for gold, silver, and precious stones, after a residence of five months at Sennaar, traversed the province of Fazocle, and followed the Arrek, till it entered the kingdom of Bertot. At a place called Singue, in the kingdom of Dar-foke, which is the southern boundary of Bertot, situated on the tenth parallel of lat.i.tude, and five days' journey to the westward of the confines of Abyssinia, the conquests of Ishmaei Pacha terminated. Only short notices of these travels of Mr. Caillaud have as yet been published.

Sir A. Edmonstone's first intention was to visit the Thebaic Oasis; but understanding from Mr. Belzoni that Mr. Caillaud had already been there, but that there was another Oasis to the westward, which had never been visited by any European, he resolved to proceed thither. This Oasis was also visited by Drovetti much about I he same time: he calls it the Oasis of Dakel. It seems to have escaped the notice of all the ancient authors examined by Sir Archibald, except Olympiodorus. Speaking of the Thebaic Oasis, he mentions an interior and extensive one, lying opposite to the other, one hundred miles apart, which corresponds with the actual distance between them.

The American traveller accompanied the expedition of the pacha of Egypt as far as Sennaar. He commences the account of his voyage up the Nile at the second cataract; and as far as the pyramids of Meroe, where the voyage of Messrs. Waddington and Hanbury terminated, his accounts correspond with what they give. He did not, however, follow the great bend of the river above Dongola: this he describes as 250 miles long, and full of rocks and rapid. He again reached the Nile, having crossed the peninsula in a direct line, at Shendi. Near this place he discovered the remains of a city, temples, and fifty-four pyramids, which are supposed, by a writer in the Quarterly Review, to be the ruins of the celebrated Meroc, as their position agrees with that a.s.signed them by a draughtsman employed by Mr.

Bankes. The army halted on the western bank of the Nile, opposite Halfaia: about five hours' march above this place the Bahr el Abiad, or White River, flows into the Bahr el Azreck, or Nile of Bruce. In thirteen days from the junction of these two rivers, the army, marching along the left, or western branch of the Azreck, reached Sennaar.

In the year 1817, Delia Cella, an Italian physician, accompanied the army of the bashaw of Tripoli as far as Bomba, on the route towards Egypt, and near the frontiers of that country. He had thus an opportunity "of visiting one of the oldest and most celebrated of the Greek colonies, established upwards of seven hundred years before the birth of Christ; and in being the first European to follow the footsteps of Cato round the sh.o.r.es of the Syrtis, and to explore a region untrodden by Christian foot since the expulsion of the Romans, the Huns, and the Vandals, by the enterprising disciples of Mahomet." In this journey he necessarily pa.s.sed the present boundary between Tripoli and Bengaze, the same which was anciently the boundary between Carthage and Cyrene; and our author confirms the account of Sall.u.s.t, that neither river nor mountain marks the confines. He also confirms the description given by Herodotus of the dreadful storms of sand that frequently arise and overwhelm the caravans in this part of the Syrtis. At the head of the Syrtis the ground is depressed, and this depression, our author supposes, continues to the Great Desert. Soon after he left this barren country, he entered Cyrenaica, the site of Cyrene: that most ancient and celebrated colony of the Greeks was easily ascertained by its magnificent ruins. From Cyrene the army marched to Derna, and from this to the gulf of Bomba, an extensive arm of the sea, where the expedition terminated.

Such are the most recent discoveries in this portion of Africa.

The settlement of the Cape of Good Hope, originally established by the Dutch, and at present in possession of the English, was naturally the point from which European travellers set out to explore the southern parts of Africa. Their progress. .h.i.therto has not been great, though, as far as they have advanced, the information they have acquired of the face of the country, its productions, the tribes which inhabit it, and their habits, manners, &c. may be regarded as full and accurate. The princ.i.p.al travellers who have visited this part of Africa, and from whose travels the best information may be obtained of the settlement of the Cape, and of the country to the north of it for about 900 miles, are Kolbein, Sparman, Le Vaillant, Barrow, Lichtenstein, La Trobe, Campbell, and Burcheli. To the geography of the east coast of Africa, and of the adjacent districts, little or no addition has been made for a very considerable length of time.

II. The discoveries in Asia may in general be divided into those which the vast possessions of the Russians in this quarter of the globe, and the corresponding interest which they felt to become better acquainted with them, induced them to make, and into those to which the English were stimulated, and which they were enabled to perform, from the circ.u.mstance of their vast, important, and increasing possessions in Hindostan.

The most important and instructive travels which spring from the first source, are those of Bell of Antermony, Pallas, Grnelin, Guldenstedt, Lepechin, &c. Bell was a Scotchman, attached to the Russian service: his work, which was published about the middle of the last century, contains an account of the emba.s.sy sent by Peter the Great to the emperor of China, and of another emba.s.sy into Persia; of an expedition to Derbent by the Russian army, and of a journey to Constantinople. Of the route in all these directions he gives an interesting and accurate account, as well as of the manners, &c. of the people. Indeed, it is a valuable work, especially that portion of it which conducts us through the central parts of Asia,--an immense district, which, as we have already remarked, is not much better known at present, (at least considerable portions of it,) than it was three or four centuries ago. The travels of Pallas, &c. were undertaken by order of the Russian government, for the purpose of gaining a fuller and more accurate account of the provinces of that immense empire, especially those to the south, which, from climate, soil, and productions were most valuable, and most capable of improvement.

The English possessions in Hindostan have led the way to two sets of discoveries, or rather advancements in geographical knowledge: one which was derived from the journies frequently made overland from India to Europe; and the other, which was derived from emba.s.sies, &c. from Calcutta to the neighbouring kingdoms. In general, however, the journies overland from India, having been undertaken expressly for the purpose of expedition, and moreover being through countries which required the utmost caution on the part of the travellers to preserve them from danger, did not admit of much observation being made, or much information being acquired, respecting the districts that were pa.s.sed through. The travels of Jackson, Forster, and Fitzclarence, are perhaps as valuable as any which have been given to the public respecting the route from India to Europe, and the countries, and their inhabitants, pa.s.sed through in this route.

From the emba.s.sies and the wars of the British East India Company in Hindostan, we have derived much valuable information respecting Persia, Thibet, Ava, Caubul, &c.; and from their wars, as well as from the inst.i.tution of the Asiatic Society, and the facilities which their conquests afforded to travellers, the whole of the peninsula of Hindostan, as well as the country to the north of it, as far as Cashmere and the Himaleh mountains, may be regarded as fully explored. Perhaps the most valuable accession to geographical knowledge through the English conquests, relates to these mountains. They seem to have been known to Pliny under the name of Imaus: they are described by Plotemy; and they were crossed by some of the Jesuit missionaries about the beginning of the seventeenth century; but they were not thoroughly explored till the beginning of the nineteenth.

Mr. Moorcroft was the first European, after the missionaries, who penetrated into the plains of Tartary through these mountains. The fullest account, however, of the singular countries which lie among them, is given by Mr. Frazer, who in 1814 pa.s.sed in a straight line, in a direction of this chain, between 60 and 70 miles, and also visited the sources of the Ganges.

Our commerce with China for tea, and the hope of extending that commerce to other articles, produced, towards the end of the last century and the beginning of this, two emba.s.sies to China, from both of which, but especially from the first, much additional information has been gained respecting this extensive country, and its singular inhabitants; so that, regarding it and them, from these emba.s.sies, and the works of the Jesuit missionaries, we possess all the knowledge which we can well expect to derive, so long as the Chinese are so extremely jealous of strangers.

The British emba.s.sies to China, besides making us better acquainted with this country, added no little to our information respecting those places which were visited in going to and returning from China. Perhaps the most important correction of geography is that which was made by Captains Maxwell and Hall, who took out the second emba.s.sy: we allude to what they ascertained respecting the kingdom of Corea. They found a bay, which, according to the charts of this country, would be situated 120 miles in the interior; and at the same time they ascertained, that along the southern coast of Corea there was an archipelago of more than 1000 islands. These discoveries; the valuable additions which were made during the voyage of Captain Maxwell to the geography and hydrography of the Yellow Sea; the correction of the vague and incorrect notions which were long entertained respecting the isles of Jesso and the Kuriles, by the labours of La Perouse, Broughton, Krusentein, &c., and the full and minute information given to the public respecting Java, and other parts of the southern Indian archipelago, by Raffles, Craufurd, &c. seem to leave little to be added to our geographical knowledge of the eastern and southeastern portions of Asia.

III. We come now to America;--and though Africa is one of the most ancient seats of the human race, and of civilization and science, and America has been discovered only about 350 years, yet we know much more respecting the coasts and interior of the latter than of the former portion of the globe.

Although the Spaniards and Portuguese, who, till very lately, possessed nearly the whole of South America, guarded their possessions strictly from the curious intrusion of foreigners, and were themselves very sparing in giving to the world the information respecting them which they must have acquired,--yet, even during their power there, the geography of this part of America was gradually developed and extended; the face of the country; the great outline of those immense mountains, which, under the torrid zone, are visited by the cold of the Pole; the nature of the vast plains which lie between the offsets of these mountains; and the general direction of the rivers, not less remarkable for their size than the mountains and plains, were generally known. The geography of South America, however, taking the term in the most philosophical and comprehensive sense, has been princ.i.p.ally enriched within these few years, by the labours of Humboldt and his fellow-traveller Bompland, of Depons, Koster, Prince Maximilian, Lucc.o.c.k, Henderson, and by those Englishmen who joined the Spanish Americans during their struggle with the mother country. From the observations, enquiries, and researches of these travellers, our information respecting all those parts of South America which const.i.tuted the Spanish and Portuguese dominions there, especially of Mexico, Terra Firma, Brazil, and Buenos Ayres, and generally the eastern and middle portions, has been much extended, as well as rendered more accurate and particular. Humboldt, especially, has left little to be gleaned by any future traveller, from any of those countries which he has visited and described.

The rapid and wonderful increase in the territories and inhabitants of the United States, has necessarily laid open the greater part of North America to our acquaintance. The United States, limited in their wish and endeavours to extend themselves on the north by the British possessions there, and on the south by the Spanish territories, and moreover drawn towards the interior and the sh.o.r.es of the Pacific by the grand natural navigation which the Mississippi and its numerous streams afford for inland commerce, and by the commercial access to the wealth of the East which the possession of the sh.o.r.es of the Pacific would open to them, have pushed their territories towards the west. First, the Alleghany Mountains, a feeble barrier to an encreasing population, and a most enterprising as well as unsettled people, were pa.s.sed; then the Mississippi was reached and crossed; and at present the government of the United States are preparing the way for extending their territories gradually to the Western Ocean itself, and for spreading their population, as they go westwards, to the north and the south, as far as their limits, will admit.

All those countries, over which they have spread themselves, are of course now well known, princ.i.p.ally from the accounts published by Europeans, and especially Englishmen, who have been tempted to explore them, or to settle there. The government of the United States itself has not been backward in setting on foot exploratory travels into the immense districts to the west of the Mississippi: to these enterprizes they seem to have been particularly directed and stimulated by the acquisition of Louisiana from France, a country "rich and varied in its soil, almost inexhaustible in natural resources, and almost indefinite in extent."

This acquisition was made in the year 1803, and within four years of this period, three exploratory expeditions were sent out by the United States.

The princ.i.p.al object of the first, which was under the direction of Major Pike, was to trace the Mississippi to its source, and to ascertain the direction of the Arkansa and Red Rivers, further to the west. In the course of this journey, an immense chain of mountains, called the Rocky Mountains, was approached, which appeared to be a continuation of the Andes. The ulterior grand object, however, of this expedition was not obtained, in consequence of the Spaniards compelling Major Pike to desist and return. A second attempt was made, by another party, but the Spaniards stopped them likewise. In the years 1804, 5, and 6, Captains Lewis and Clarke explored the Missouri to its source, crossed the Rocky Mountains, and proceeding towards the North Pacific Ocean, ascertained, the origin and course of the River Columbia.

In the years 1819 and 1820, several persons, well qualified for the undertaking by their science, spirit, and enterprize, accompanied by riflemen, hunters, and a.s.sistants, were sent out by the government of the United States, for the purpose of gaining a more full and accurate knowledge of the chain of the Rocky Mountains, and of the rivers, winch, rising there, flowed into the Mississippi. After pa.s.sing through a great extent and variety of country, and gaining some curious information respecting various Indian tribes, especially of those who inhabit the upper course of the Missouri, they reached the Mountains: these and the adjacent districts they carefully examined. They next separated, one party going towards the Red River, and the other descending the Arkansa. The former party were misled and misinformed by the Indians, so that they mistook and followed the Canadian River, instead of the Red River, till it joined the Arkansa. They were, however, too exhausted to remedy their error. The latter party were more successful.

The great outline of the coast, as well as of the greater portion of the vast continent of America, is now filled up. In the northernmost parts of North America, the efforts of the British government to find a north-west pa.s.sage, the spreading of the population of Canada, and the increasing importance of the fur trade, bid fair to add the details of this portion; the spread of the population of the United States towards the west, will as necessarily give the details of the middle portion; while, with respect to the most southern portions of North America, and the whole of South America, with the exception of the cold, bleak, and barren territory of Patagonia, the changes which have taken place, and are still in operation, in the political state of the Spanish and Portuguese provinces, must soon fill up the little that has been left unaccomplished by Humboldt, &c.

What portions, then, of Asia, America, and Africa, are still _unknown?_--and what comparison, in point of extent and importance, do they bear to what was _known_ to the ancients? In Asia, the interior of the vast kingdom of China is very imperfectly known, as well as Daouria and other districts on the confines of the Chinese and Russian empires; central Asia in general, and all that extensive, populous, and fertile region which extends from the southern part of Malaya, nearly under the equator, in a northerly direction, to the fortieth degree of lat.i.tude, are still not explored, or but very partially so, by European travellers. This region comprehends Aracan, Ava, Pegu, Siam, Tsiompa, and Cambodia. The south and east coasts of Arabia still require to be more minutely and accurately surveyed. In the eastern archipelago, Borneo, Celebes, and Papua, are scarcely known. Though all these bear but a small proportion to the vast extent of Asia, yet some of them, especially the country to the north of the Malay peninsula, and the islands in the eastern archipelago, may justly be regarded as not inferior, in that importance which natural riches bestows, to any part of this quarter of the globe.

Still, however, we possess some general notice, and some vague reports of all these countries; but it is otherwise with respect to the unknown portions of Africa. The whole of this quarter of the world, from the Niger to the confines of the British settlement at the Cape of Good Hope, may, with little limitation, be considered as unknown. Travellers have indeed penetrated a short distance from the western coast into the interior, in some parts between the lat.i.tude of the Niger and the lat.i.tude of the extreme northern boundary of the Cape settlement: and a very little is known respecting some small portions of the districts closely adjoining to the eastern coast; but the whole of central Africa is still unexplored, and presents difficulties and dangers which it is apprehended will not be speedily or easily overcome. To the north of the Niger lies the Sahara, or Great Desert; of this, probably, sufficient is known to convince us that its extent is such, that no country that would repay a traveller for his fatigue and risk, is situated to the north of it. To the east of the Niger, however, or rather along its course, and to the north of its course, as it flows to the east, much remains to be explored; many geographical details have been indeed gathered from the Mahomedan merchants of this part of Africa, but these cannot entirely be trusted. The course and termination of the Niger itself is still an unsolved problem.

Captain Scoresby, a most intelligent and active captain in the whale fishery trade, has very lately succeeded in reaching the eastern coasts of Greenland, and is disposed to think that the descendants of the Danish colonists, of whose existence nothing is known since this coast was blocked, up by ice at the beginning of the fifteenth century, still inhabit it. The northern sh.o.r.es of Greenland, and its extent in this direction are still unknown.

Notwithstanding the zeal and success with which the government of the United States prosecute their discoveries to the west of the Mississippi, there is still much unexplored country between that river and the Pacific Ocean. It is possible that lands may lie within the antartic circle, of which we have hitherto as little notion as we had of South Shetland ten years ago; but if there are such, they must be most barren and inhospitable. It is possible also, that, notwithstanding the care and attention with which the great Pacific has been so repeatedly swept, there may yet be islands in it undiscovered; but these, however fertile from soil and climate, must be mere specks in the ocean.

But though comparatively little of the surface of the globe is now utterly unknown, yet even of those countries with which we are best acquainted, much remains to be ascertained, before the geography of them can justly be regarded as complete. Perhaps we are much less deficient and inaccurate in our knowledge of the natural history of the globe, than in its geography, strictly so called; that is, in the extent, direction, lat.i.tudes and longitudes, direction and elevation of mountains, rise, course, and termination of rivers, &c. How grossly erroneous geography was till very lately, in some even of its most elementary parts, and those, too, in relation to what ought to have been the most accurately known portion of Europe, may be judged from these two facts,--that till near the close of the last century, the distance from the South Foreland, in Kent, to the Land's End, was laid down in all the maps of England nearly half a degree greater than it actually is; and that, as we have formerly noticed, "the length of the Mediterranean was estimated by the longitudes of Ptolemy till the eighteenth century, and that it was curtailed of nearly twenty-five degrees by observation, no farther back than the reign of Louis XIV."

To speak in a loose and general manner, the Romans, at the height of their conquests, power, and geographical knowledge, were probably acquainted with a part of the globe about equal in extent to that of which we are still ignorant; but their empire embraced a fairer and more valuable portion than we can expect to find in those countries which remain to reward the enterprise of European travellers. The fertile regions and the beautiful climate of the south of Europe, of the north of Africa, and above all of Asia Minor, present a picture which we can hardly expect will be approached, certainly will not be surpa.s.sed, under the burning heats of central Africa, or even the more mitigated heats of the farther peninsula of India. The short and easy access of all portions of the Roman Empire to the ocean, gave them advantages which must be denied to the hitherto unexplored districts in the interior of Asia and Africa. The farther peninsula of India is infinitely better situated in this respect.

At that very remote period, when sacred and profane history first displays the situation, and narrates the transactions of the human race, the countries, few in number, and comparatively of small extent, that were washed by the waters of the Mediterranean, comprised the whole of the earth which was then known. Asia Minor, which possessed the advantage of lying not only on this sea, but also on the Euxine, and which is moreover level in its surface, and fertile in its soil, seems to have been the first additional portion of the earth that became thoroughly known. The commercial enterprize of the Phoenicians, and their colonists the Carthaginians,--the conquests of Alexander the Great, and of the Romans, gradually extended the knowledge of the earth in all directions, but princ.i.p.ally in the middle regions of Europe, in the north of Africa, and in Asia towards the Indus. At the period when the Roman empire was destroyed, little more was known; and during the middle ages, geography was feebly a.s.sisted and extended by a desire to possess the luxuries of the East, (which seems to have been as powerful and general with the conquerors of the Romans as with the Romans themselves,) by the religious zeal of a few priests, and by the zeal for knowledge which actuated a still smaller number of travellers.

The desire of obtaining the luxuries of the East, however, was the predominating principle, and the efficient cause of the extension of geography. Actuated by it, the pa.s.sage of the Cape of Good Hope was accomplished; the eastern limits of Asia were reached; America was discovered, and even the Frozen Seas were braved and carefully examined, in the hope that by them a speedier pa.s.sage might be found to the countries which produced these luxuries. At length the love of conquest, of wealth, and of luxury, which alone are sufficiently gross and stimulating in their nature to act on men in their rudest and least intellectual state, and which do not loose their hold on the most civilized, enlightened, and virtuous people, was a.s.sisted by the love of science; and though when this union took place, little of the globe was unknown, as respected its grand outline, and the general extent and relative situation of the seas and lands which compose its surface, yet much remained to be accomplished in determining the details of geography; in fixing accurately and scientifically the situation of places; in exhibiting the surface of the land, as it was distinguished by mountains, plains, lakes, rivers, &c.; in gaining a full and accurate knowledge of the natural history of each country, and of the manners, customs, inst.i.tutions, religion, manufactures and commerce of its inhabitants.

Before we give a sketch of the progress of commercial enterprize during the last hundred years, it will be proper to notice the advancement of geographical science during the same period, and the a.s.sistance which was thus afforded, as well as from other sources, to those who travelled both by sea and land, for the purpose of discovering or exploring foreign and distant countries. This part of our subject seems naturally to divide itself into three parts; viz. the improvement of maps, which was equally advantageous to sea and land travellers; those particulars which rendered navigation more safe, easy, and expeditious; and those particulars which bestowed the same benefit on land travellers.

The science of geography dates its origin, as we have already mentioned, from Mercator, though he was unable to point out and explain the law, according to which the projection which bears his name might be laid down on fixed principles: this was effected by an Englishman of the name of Wright. Mathematical geography, strictly so called, seems to have owed its origin to the discussion respecting the flattening of the Poles, which took place, in the beginning of the eighteenth century, among Newton, Huygens, and Ca.s.sini, and which was afterwards continued by some of the most distinguished mathematicians and natural philosophers of France and England. Still, however, the construction of maps derived little advantage from the application of strict science to geography, till Delisle, in France, and Haase, in Germany, directed their attention and talents to this particular subject: their efforts were indeed great, but in some measure unavailing, in consequence of the want of sufficient materials. The same impediment lay in the way of Busching, notwithstanding he brought to the task the characteristic patience and research of a German. To him, however, and the more ill.u.s.trious D'Anville, accurate delineations and descriptions of the countries of the globe may first justly be ascribed.

D'Anville possessed excellent and ample materials, in authentic relations, and plans and delineations made on the spot: with these he advanced to the task, calling to his aid mathematical principles. He first exhibited in his maps the interior of Asia free from that confusion and error by which all former maps had obscured it; and struck out from his map of Africa many imaginary kingdoms. Ancient geography, and the still more involved and dark geography of the middle ages, received from him the first illumination; and if subsequent geographers have been able to add to and correct his labours, it has been chiefly owing to their possessing materials which did not exist in his time.

Busching confined himself entirely to modern geography; and though his minuteness is generally tiresome and superfluous, yet we can pardon it, for the accuracy of his details: he was patronized and a.s.sisted in his labours by all the governments, of the north, who gave him access to every doc.u.ment which could further his object.

Since the time of D'Anville and Busching, the description of countries, and the construction of maps, have proceeded with a rapidly encreasing decree of accuracy. In ancient geography, Gosselin, Rennell, Vincent, and Malte Brun, are among the most celebrated names. Two Germans, Voss and Munnert, have directed their labours to ill.u.s.trate and explain the geographical details and hints of the Greek poets. It would be almost endless to enumerate those to whom modern geography, and the construction of modern maps are princ.i.p.ally indebted. Gaspari and Zimmerman, among the Germans, have thrown into a philosophical and interesting form the labours and heavy details which were supplied them by less original but more plodding men.

The English, though, as Malte Brun observes, they are still without a system of geography which deserves the name, are rich in excellent materials, which have been supplied by the extent of their dominions and their commerce in various parts of the globe; by their laudable and happy union of conquest, commerce, and science; and by the advantage which Dalrymple, Arrowsmith, and other geographers have derived from these circ.u.mstances. The French, Russians, Spaniards, Danes, and indeed most nations of Europe, sensible of the vast importance of accurate maps, especially such as relate to their respective territories, have contributed to render them much more accurate than they formerly were; so that at present there is scarcely any part of the globe, which has been visited by sea or land, of-which we do not possess accurate maps; and no sooner has the labour of any traveller filled up a void, or corrected an error, than the map of the country which he has visited becomes more full and accurate.

The most direct and perfect application of mathematical and astronomical science to the delineation of the surface of the globe, so as to ascertain its exact form, and the exact extent of degrees of lat.i.tude in different parts of it, has been made by the English and French; and much to their honour, by them in conjunction. The first modern measurement of degrees of lat.i.tude was made by an Englishman of the name of Norwood: he ascertained the difference of lat.i.tude between London and York in 1635, and then measured their distance: from these premises he calculated, that the length of a degree was 122,399 English yards. At this time there was no reason to suppose that the earth was flattened at the Poles. Shortly afterwards, it having been discovered that the weights of bodies were less at the equator than at Paris, Huygens and Ca.s.sini directed their attention, as we have already stated, to the subject of the figure of the earth. In 1670 Picard measured an arc of the meridian in France; and in 1718, the whole area extending through France was measured by Ca.s.sini and other philosophers.

The results of this measurement seemed to disprove Newton's theory, that the curvature of the earth diminished as we recede from the equator. To remove all doubts, an arc near the equator was measured in Peru, by some French and Spanish astronomers; and an arc near the arctic circle by some French and Swedish astronomers; the result was a confirmation of Newton's theory, and that the equatorial diameter exceeded the polar by about 1/204 part of the whole.

Since this period, arcs of the meridian have been measured in several countries. In 1787 it was determined by the British and French governments to connect the observatories of Greenwich and Paris by a series of triangles, and to compare the differences of lat.i.tudes and longitudes, ascertained by astronomical observations, with those ascertained by actual measurement. The measurement in England was extended to a survey of the whole kingdom; and the accurate maps thus obtained have been since published. Arcs of the meridian have also been measured lately from Dunkirk to Barcelona,--in Lapland, by which an error in the former measurement there was corrected;--and in India.

We have been thus particular in our notice of this subject, because it is evident that such measurements must lie at the foundation of all real improvements in the construction of maps.

Let us next turn our attention to the improvements in navigation which have taken place during the last and present centuries; these seem to consist, princ.i.p.ally, in those which are derived from physical science, and those which are derived from other sources.

The grand objects of a navigator are the accurate knowledge of where he exactly is, in any part of his course, and how he ought to steer, in order to reach his destination in the shortest time. The means of ascertaining his lat.i.tude and longitude, of calculating how far he has sailed, and at what rate he is sailing, and the direction of his course with reference to the port to which he is desirous to proceed, are what he princ.i.p.ally requires. We do not intend, by any means, to enter at any length, or systematically, on these subjects; but a brief and popular notice of them seems proper and necessary in such a work as this.

Astronomy here comes essentially to the aid of navigation: we have already seen how, even in the rudest state of the latter, it derived its chief a.s.sistance from this sublime science, confined as it then was to a knowledge of the position of a few stars. Astronomy enables the navigator to ascertain his lat.i.tude and longitude, and to find the variation of the compa.s.s. The princ.i.p.al difficulty in ascertaining the lat.i.tude at sea, arose from the unsteady motion of the ship: to remedy this, several instruments were invented. We have already alluded to the astrolobe; but this, as well as the others, were imperfect and objectionable, till such time as Hadley's quadrant was invented, the principle and uses of which were first suggested by Newton.

To ascertain the longitude was a much more difficult task: there are evidently two methods of doing this,--by time-keepers or chronometers, and by making the motions of the celestial bodies serve instead of time-keepers. About the middle of the seventeenth century, Huygens proposed the pendulum clock for finding the longitude at sea; but it was unfit for the purpose, for many and obvious reasons. Watches, even made with the utmost care, were found to be too irregular in their rate of going, to be depended upon for this purpose. In the reign of Queen Anne the celebrated act was pa.s.sed, appropriating certain sums for encouraging attempts to ascertain the longitude. Stimulated by this, Mr. Harrison invented his time-keeper, which on trial was found to answer the purpose with such tolerable accuracy, that he was deemed worthy to receive the sum awarded by parliament: it went within the limit of an error of thirty miles of longitude, or two minutes of time, in a voyage to the West Indies. Since this period, chronometers have been much improved, and excellent ones are very generally used: perhaps the most trying circ.u.mstances in which any were ever placed, existed during the voyage for the discovery of a northwest pa.s.sage by Captain Parry; and then most of those he had with him were found to be extremely accurate.

It is evident, however, that chronometers are liable to a variety of accidents, and that in very long voyages the means of verifying their rate of going seldom occur. Hence the lunar method, or the method of ascertaining the longitude by means of the motions of the moon, is more useful and valuable. Here again, the profoundest researches of Clairaut, Euler, D'Alembert, and La Place, were brought practically to bear on navigation. Guided and aided by these, Tobias Mayer, of Gottingen, compiled a set of solar and lunar tables, which were sent to the lords of the admiralty, in the year 1755; they gave the longitude of the moon within thirty seconds. They were afterwards improved by Dr. Maskelyne and Mr.

Mason, and still more lately by Burg and Burckhardt; the error of these last tables will seldom exceed fifteen seconds, or seven miles and a half.