Robert Jameson - Narrative of discovery and adventure in Africa, from the earliest ages to the present time

ADVERTISEMENT TO THE THIRD EDITION.

* The new Edition now demanded of this Work has af- forded an opportunity of adding much important infor"j mation. The Landers' discovery of the mouth of the Niger 2> has been followed by the expedition up that river on fr the part of Messrs Laird and Oldfield, which, besides leading to the proposed establishment of British settlements on its banks, has greatly extended our knowledge of Interior Africa in general. Our colonial possessions in that continent have undergone great vicissitudes, particularly in the south, through the repeated irruptions of the Caffres, and the large emigration to Natal. Some farther discoveries have likewise been made in the same part of the country. The statistics of the Cape Colony and of Sierra Leone have, from facts supplied in the Tables of the Board of Trade as well as other sources, been brought down to the latest period. The eastern coast had remained for ages nearly unknown; but now, chiefly owing to the elaborate survey of Captain Owen, means have been afforded of describing it with tolerable j-j accuracy. Mr Wilson also has found materials for considerably improving his view of African Zoology. On 5tv these accounts, it is hoped the Work will continue to

t merit the liberal share of public favour which it has already enjoyed.

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PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

The object of this volume is to exhibit, within a moderate compass, whatever is most interesting in the adventures and observations of those travellers who, from the earliest ages, and in various directions, have sought to explore Africa; and also to give a general view of the physical and social condition of that extensive continent at the present day. This quarter of the globe has afforded ampler scope than any other to that enterprising spirit which impels men, regardless of toil and peril, to penetrate into unknown countries. Down to a comparatively recent period, the greater part of its immense surface was the subject only of vague report and conjecture. The progress of those discoverers, by whom a very large extent of its interior has at length been disclosed, having been accompanied with arduous labours, and achieved in the face of the most formidable obstacles, presents a succession of striking incidents, as well as of new and remarkable objects. Nor can our interest fail to be heightened by the consideration, that Britain, by the intrepid spirit of her travellers, her associations of distinguished individuals, and her national patronage, has secured almost the exclusive glory of the many great advances which within the last forty years have been made towards the completion of this important object.

The work now submitted to the public, and the one on the Polar Regions, embrace two of the most interesting fields of modem adventure. The brave men who traversed those opposite portions of the world, frequently found their efforts checked, and their career arrested, by the operation of causes which, although equally powerful, were yet extremely different in their nature. In the Northern Seas, they suffered from that dreadful extremity of cold to which high latitudes are exposed; in Africa, from the scorching heat and pestilential vapours peculiar to a tropical climate: There, they encountered the fury of oceans and tempests; here, the privations and fatigues which oppress the traveller in parched and boundless deserts. In the former they had less to endure from that almost total absence of human society, which renders the Arctic zone so dismal, than they had to sustain in the latter from the fierce, contemptuous, and persecuting character of the people who occupy a great portion of the Libyan continent. In a word, while exploring these remote regions, they braved almost every species of danger, and passed through every variety of suffering, by which the strength and fortitude of man can be tried.