A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 18

General History and Collection
of Voyages and Travels, Volume
18, A

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Robert Kerr's General History and
Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 18, by William Stevenson
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Title: Robert Kerr's General History and Collection of Voyages and
Travels, Volume 18 Historical Sketch of the Progress of Discovery,
Navigation, and Commerce, from the Earliest Records to the Beginning
of the Nineteenth Century, By William Stevenson
Author: William Stevenson
Release Date: October 5, 2004 [EBook #13606]
Language: English
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A GENERAL HISTORY AND COLLECTION OF VOYAGES AND
TRAVELS,
ARRANGED IN SYSTEMATIC ORDER:
FORMING A COMPLETE HISTORY OF THE ORIGIN AND
PROGRESS OF NAVIGATION, DISCOVERY, AND COMMERCE,
BY SEA AND LAND, FROM THE EARLIEST AGES TO THE
PRESENT TIME.
BY
ROBERT KERR, F.R.S. & F.A.S. EDIN.
ILLUSTRATED BY MAPS AND CHARTS.
VOL. XVIII.
WILLIAM BLACKWOOD, EDINBURGH:
AND T. CADELL, LONDON.
MDCCCXXIV.

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY,
NAVIGATION, AND COMMERCE, FROM THE EARLIEST
RECORDS TO THE BEGINNING OF THE NINETEENTH
CENTURY.
BY WILLIAM STEVENSON, ESQ.
WILLIAM BLACKWOOD, EDINBURGH:

AND T. CADELL; LONDON.
MDCCCXXIV.
Printed by A. & B. Spottiswoode, New-Street-Square.
[Transcriber's Note: The errata listed after the Table of Contents are
marked in the text thus: [has->have]]

PREFACE.
The curiosity of that man must be very feeble and sluggish, and his
appetite for information very weak or depraved, who, when he
compares the map of the world, as it was known to the ancients, with
the map of the world as it is at present known, does not feel himself
powerfully excited to inquire into the causes which have progressively
brought almost every speck of its surface completely within our
knowledge and access. To develop and explain these causes is one of
the objects of the present work; but this object cannot be attained,
without pointing out in what manner Geography was at first fixed on
the basis of science, and has subsequently, at various periods, been
extended and improved, in proportion as those branches of physical
knowledge which could lend it any assistance, have advanced towards
perfection. We shall thus, we trust, be enabled to place before our
readers a clear, but rapid view of the surface of the globe, gradually
exhibiting a larger portion of known regions, and explored seas, till at
last we introduce them to the full knowledge of the nineteenth century.
In the course of this part of our work, decisive and instructive
illustrations will frequently occur of the truth of these most important
facts,--that one branch of science can scarcely advance, without
advancing some other branches, which in their turn, repay the
assistance they have received; and that, generally speaking, the
progress of intellect and morals is powerfully impelled by every
impulse given to physical science, and can go on steadily and with full
and permanent effect, only by the intercourse of civilised nations with
those that are ignorant and barbarous.

But our work embraces another topic; the progress of commercial
enterprise from the earliest period to the present time. That an extensive
and interesting field is thus opened to us will be evident, when we
contrast the state of the wants and habits of the people of Britain, as
they are depicted by Cæsar, with the wants and habits even of our
lowest and poorest classes. In Cæsar's time, a very few of the comforts
of life,--scarcely one of its meanest luxuries,--derived from the
neighbouring shore of Gaul, were occasionally enjoyed by British
Princes: in our time, the daily meal of the pauper who obtains his
precarious and scanty pittance by begging, is supplied by a navigation
of some thousand miles, from countries in opposite parts of the globe;
of whose existence Cæsar had not even the remotest idea. In the time of
Cæsar, there was perhaps no country, the commerce of which was so
confined:--in our time, the commerce of Britain lays the whole world
under contribution, and surpasses in extent and magnitude the
commerce of any other nation.
The progress of discovery and of commercial intercourse are intimately
and almost necessarily connected; where commerce does not in the first
instance prompt man to discover new countries, it is sure, if these
countries are not totally worthless, to lead him thoroughly to explore
them. The arrangement of this work, in carrying on, at the same time, a
view of