• A new collection of voyages, discoveries and travels
  containing whatever is worthy of notice, in Europe, Asia, Africa and America : in respect to the situation and extent of empires, kingdoms, and provinces : their climates, soil, produce, &c. with the manners and customs of the several inhabitants, their government, religion, arts, sciences, manufactures, and commerce : the whole consisting of such English and foreign authors as are in most esteem : including the descriptions and remarks of some late celebrated travellers, not to be found in any other collection, illustrated with a variety of accurate maps, plans, and elegant engravings
  7 Bände London 1767: Printed for J. Knox, near Southampton-Street, in the Strand, London, MDCCLXVII [1767]
  → Literaturliste Reisesammlungen

Im Vorwort bewertet der Kompilator Reisende, die Autoren von Reiseberichten, frühere Kompilatoren und Herausgeber sowie die Verleger von Reisebuchsammlungen und spart nicht an Kritik. Seine Kriterien beschreibt er ausführlich und meint abschließend selbstbewusst:
»Menschen, die in Studien dieser Art nicht bewandert sind, neigen dazu, die Hingabe eines Sammlers zu übersehen und seine Sorgfalt zu verachten; doch ist es sowohl zur Verbesserung als auch zur Unterhaltung der Menschheit notwendig, dass es solche Schriftsteller gibt, Männer mit eifrigem Einsatz und bescheidenen Zielen, die bereit sind, Wissen zu fördern, ohne dass es jemand merkt, und den Weg zu Siegen zu ebnen, an denen sie nicht teilhaben sollen. Es ist unnötig, die Mühe zu betonen, die wir uns gemacht haben; die Kosten, die dieses Werk verursacht hat, liegen auf der Hand. Unser Ziel war es, eine Sammlung zusammenzustellen, die sowohl den Nutzen eines geographischen Systems als auch den Spaß abenteuerlicher Reiseberichte bietet: Wir wollten nur das Nötige zur Verknüpfung der Materialien anbieten und von anderen nur das weitergeben, was als wahr gelten kann. Solange es Leser gibt, die sich Wissen ohne Mühe und Unterhaltung ohne Unterbrechung aneignen wollen, muss ein Werk dieser Art nützlich sein. Und wir dürfen wagen zu behaupten, dass wir diese Aufgabe nicht übernommen haben, weil wir dachten, das Werk würde sich gut verkaufen, sondern weil wir wussten, dass es fehlte.«

Few books are more pleasing or instructive than those which contain accounts of travels or voyages, into distant countries. But at the same time, no writers seem more incapable of describing what they fee, or more liable to be imposed upon by others, than many of those to whom we owe productions of this nature. The lot of visiting foreign climates; or travering: lavage lands, has generally fallen to the avaritious or the devout, men whose views were contracted by gain, or blinded by superstitions thus, though in general they tell us what they have observed, their accounts are mixed with instances of gross ignorance, or mistaken zeal. We generally find their productions loaded with minute and uninteresting transactions, false miracles, nautical remarks, or tedious diaries, which fatigue the reader and repress curiosity.

The being acquainted with the world from books of this kind, thus becoming a task almost as dificult as visiting in person the places they describe; and the numbers of such books still increasing the difficulty, it was by many thought adviseable to reduce the number, and retrench the absurdities of such works by compilation. To this we owe the many Collections of voyages and travels that have been published at different times among us, all prosessing to afford the reader

the greatest pleasure in the smallest compass, the greatest benefits at the smallest expence. The three most considerable collections of this kind are Purchase's Pilgrims, Churchill's, and Harris's Collection of Voyages and Travels. As to Purchase, it was collected at a time when the natural history of nations was yet but in its infancy, and consequently his books are filled with all the folly and credulity of those who were deceived themselves, or with the gross falsehood of such as strove to acquire reputation by deceiving others.

Churchill, exclusive of the size and price (it consisting of no less than..eight folio volumes) has but little advantage of the former; he has given place to much lumber, for it seemed a maxim with him to reject nothing.

The former observations are in a great measure applicable to the collection by Dr. Harris. Many of the articles given in his work are very old, delivered in very bad language, and in many instances of doubtful authenticity. Hence this, as well as the two former, is now purchased rather from motives of curiosity than pleasure, rather by the antiquary than the modern reader. The success of these works (for with all their faults they were found to be useful, and consequently were well received by the public) has produced many smaller abridgments, which have appeared at different times and in various sizes. It is scarce necessary to remark on these, that they are but little known, and after their first publication little called for. The views of the publishers being merely lucrative, they have been compiled with so little judgment, and printed

with so little care, that they may justly be considered and ranked among the number of those works which are merely calculated to please the vulgar. some of these compilations therefore, though promising in the title the contents of a folio, are too small to afford much entertainment to the disappointed purchaser.

To mix profit with delight should be the aim of all writers, and the business of every book: and nothing can contribute more to these valuable ends than a judicious work of this nature, in which we can travel to the most distant corners of the world, without stirring from our closets, choose the most entertaining route, embark with the most agreeable companions, view remote cities and their governments, extend our acquaintance through all the nations of the globe, and interest ourselves in a succession of incidents and adventures, that at once improve the mind and delight the imagination.

These purposes, we apprehend, have not been fully antwered in the voluminous collections which have hitherto appeared in our language; the size and price of a folio are sufficient to intimidate an ordinary reader from purchasing the work, or perusing its contents. And what we observed in regard to travels is equally applicable to the numerous accounts of voyages that have obtained a place in even the best compilations. They are generally so stuffed with dry descriptions of bearings and distances, tides and currents, variations of the compass, leeward, wind and weather, founding, anchoring, and other terms of navigation, that none but mere pilots, or seafaring people, can read

them without disgust. In a word, they are filled with such remarks as may be very useful in a sea-journal, to justify the conduct of the mariners to their owners, but which in a general view furnish few articles of useful information or entertainment.

From these considerations, and from a mature conviction that a compilation of this kind might be rendered more authentic and useful than any hitherto published, we have been induced to offer a New Collection of Voyages and Travels to the public, to whose candor the principles on which the present undertaking has been framed, are here submitted. Our wishes were to present the reader with an account of the several countries of the world, and their inhabitants; the natural history of each kingdom, and of the Rivers or seas which divide kingdoms from each other. In short, to give such a description of the Globe which we inhabit as at once might be concise, yet comprehensive, as might catch the fancy while it improved the understanding; and we may venture to say, that he who has made a proper use of this work will scarce want any other assistance to complete his skill in geography, as far at least as it is unconnected with astronomy or mathematical calculations.

In order to this, great care was to be taken in the selecting of proper guides. And even in some of the best, the caution was to be used of not implicitly following them into error or absurdities.

In the arrangement of the materials, we have brought together the different accounts of each country into one view, though they may have

been made at very distant periods; and when there was an opportunity of choice among writers on the same nation, the latest visitors have generally been preferred, as likely to give the least fallacious information.

This collection admitted of a natural division into two capital parts, namely, those who visited the coasts only, and of those who travelled through the interior countries. In the Voyages, which form the first part of this work, the reader will find a true picture of naval vicissitudes and dangers. The courses pursued by vessels from one country to another, their shipwrecks and escapes. Here will be found descriptions of the several coasts, bays, rivers and harbours, with such accounts of the inhabitants as a cursory acquaintance could supply.

The latter part of this work consists of Travels only, and exhibits the interior parts. The accounts of these contain a more minute detail of the natural history of each country, its monuments of antiquity, its government, religion, com merce, manners, and spirit of thinking. The whole given not with the dry and disgusting prolixity of a geographer, but for the most part in the language of the travellers themselves; a language in some instances rude indeed, but energetic, expressive of the feelings of men acquainted with fatigue and with danger. Nor will it be one of the smallest advantages of this work, that we have scarce any where omitted the hazard, the calamities, the hair-breadth escapes, which these bold men have endured and surmounted. These accounts interest us as we read, we travel on with the pilgrim; fear for his distresses,

and exult in his deliverance and satisfaction.

From this method it is hoped that we have united the two great aims of every writer, instruction and amusement. While the reader is only pursuing his entertainment, he will here find himself deceived into science, and that with as great certainty as if he had spent his time in making himself master of the most voluminous system of geography. Here will be found what such scientific works offer, but without their disgusting dryness. A connected system is not therefore to be expected under this form; but that nothing should be wanting to this purpose, the whole work is introduced by a familiar compendium of geography, as it is necessary to know something of the usual divisions of the Globe, its circles and its points, before we enter into its more minute discriminations.

In pursuance of this plan, the first volume contains, besides the compendium of geography above mentioned, the first discovery of America, by Columbus, beginning with him as his voyages are the first in order of time, which merit regard, and have occasioned also so great an alteration in the commercial system of Europe. This discovery naturally leads us to consider spanish America, and to give an account of the conquest of Mexico and Peru by the spaniards, under Pizarro and Cortez. To this more antient state of those countries, we have added Ulloa's most modern account, so that we see with precision what alterations these extensive countries have underwent since they came under the dominion of spain. The volume concludes

with a view of the policy which regulates the trade between Old spain and its colonies; containing some curious particulars not generally known.

In the second volume we give in Nieuhoff's Voyage to the Brazil, an account of the Portuguese settlement there, enlarged by some further particulars of later date. Then follows a memoir concerning the Jesuits in Paraguay, and directing our course northward, we close what relates to the Portuguese and spanish possessions on the continent by Wafer's description of the Isthmus of Darien. still steering to the north, the British dominions in that country claim our principal attention. We have therefore, from the latest information, given a connected view of the British settlements from Florida to Newfoundland; and have also added a description of the American Islands, to whatever nation they belong, in which their respective products and articles of trade have been especially regarded. For many of the particulars relating to the Indians and inland parts of this extensive empire, we are obliged to Major Rogers, Col. Bouquet, and governor Pownal; these are the guides we have taken, in preference to the French descriptions of these countries, which, upon many accounts, are more liable to suspicion. If we have extended a little in this part of the work, it is hoped that the interest every Briton has in the countries described will be a sufficient apology. Nor is this the only objection we have to fear in this part of the work. It may be urged, that as the continent of North America is so very extensive backwards, what we have in this place

given from Wafer, Rogers and Bouquet, relat ing to the interior parts, belong rather to the department of travellers. We acknowlege the objection, and only have to answer, that we have always sacrificed method to perspicuity, and in this instance have rather given the whole of the accounts of the new world under one view, than perplexed the reader by partial and separate information.

Having thus, as far as our design admitted, exhausted the description of the New World, we next proceed to the first discovery of the East Indies by the Portuguese, and in an introduction to De Gama's Voyage, have traced the several progressive attempts which led to the doubling the Cape of Good-Hope. After De Gama's, we have, as a curiosity, given the first voyage to these parts, underteken by the English on account of the East India company. Then follows a Voyage to the Cape Verd Islands, Kolbein's accurate account of the Cape of Good Hope, and Nieuhoff's Voyage to the East Indies, in which is introduced a faithful narrative of the cruelties practised by the Dutch on the English at Amboyna. The volume closes with a short view of the English settlements and trade in these parts of the world.

Having now given the completest accounts that could be obtained from the preceding method, of the western and eastern navigations; the third volume is appropriated to the circumnavigators of the Globe: Men whose attempts were great, and distresses surprising, but who, with an unspeakable fortitude, surmounted all, and returned to enrich their native country by

their wealth and their discoveries. Of these we have selected Drake, Dampier, Woodes Rogers, and especially Anson; since the voyage of the latter, whether we consider the authenticity of his matter, or the elegant manner in which it is related, may be considered as the most valuable publication of the kind.

With the circumnavigators, we close the first division of this collection, which consists of voyages: in the fourth, fifth, and fixth volumes, we have given the relations of the most approved travellers through Europe, Africa and Asia; beginning at the north of Europe, and advancing southward and eastward, as far as their journies could be extended by land. Where these have been tedious, too minute or disgustingly dry, we have taken the liberty to retrench them. On the contrary, where any have been superficial or negligent, we have taken the liberty of improving their accounts by inserting passages from others. Thus, Keyfler, for instance, who is reckoned one of the most faithful describers of Europe, is at the same time so prolix, that we have in many places curtailed his too minute descriptions of uninteresting objects, which has afforded an opportunity of engrafting in proper places, from later writers, some of the most judicious remarks on the living manners and peculiarities of the inhabitants of various countries, that have appeared in any language. Wherever we have availed ourselves of the observations of these writers, the obligation is in every instance acknowleged.

After traversing so many foreign countries, it would be an unpardonable omission to have overlooked our own, and like some ministers,

too much employed in foreign conquests, leave our native dominions unregarded. In other countries we had, perhaps, scenes of natural beauty, luxuriant soils, and happy climates to describe; but in Britain we chiefly confined ourselves to what makes the happiness of the people still superior to that derived from such advantages, namely, the government of the country, its constitution and excellent laws. It is these which make Great Britain the delight, the envy and the mistress of the world; and in this part of our undertaking, it would be ungenerous not to own our obligations to the learned Dr. Blackstone, whose commentary on the laws of England affords the most accurate and clear idea of the British constitution; and in some measure does what had been despaired of by others, reconciles law and philosophy.

Having described our interior government and laws, it was thought a necessary conclusion to this work to exhibit a short historical view of our naval transactions from the time when our navy became respectable by the defeat of the spanish Armada, to the end of the late successful war. Nor will this be so foreign from our principal design, as may appear on a transient glance: for in this we shall see the effect of wife regulations on land powerfully operating on the ocean, we shall see how far a just policy at home is capable of rendering us formidable in every part abroad.

This, it is hoped, will suffice (nor could less have been sufficient) to give the reader a previous idea of the nature of the collection here put into his hands; of the labour this work hath cost,

of the many volumes we have been obliged to wade through, and which were to be read, though they were at length to be rejected. Men not versed in studies of this kind are apt to overlook a collector's affiduity, and despise his care; yet it is necessary, both for the improvement and entertainment of mankind, that there should be such writers, men of studious application and humble aims, willing to promote knowlege without being known, and to smooth the way to victories which they are not to share. The pains we have been at is unnecessary to be insisted on; the expence which this work has cost is obvious. It was our design to make such a collection as would afford at once the utility of a geographical system, and the amusement of itinerary adventures: to offer nothing of our own but what was necessary to connect the materials, and to give nothing from any other but what might be depended upon as true. While there are readers willing to acquire knowlege without pain, and entertainment without interruption, a work of this kind must be useful. And this we may venture to say, that we undertook the task not because we thought that the work was likely to sell, but because we knew it was wanting.