CHAPTER V.

From the close of the Fifteenth to the beginning of the Nineteenth Century

Catalogue.

Preliminary Observations on the Plan and Arrangement pursued
in drawing up the Catalogue

Instructions for Travellers

Collections and Histories of Voyages and Travels

Voyages and Travels round the World

Travels, comprizing different Quarters of the Globe

Voyages and Travels in the Arctic Seas and Countries

Europe

Africa

Asia

America

Polynesia

Australasia

INDEX to the Catalogue

——­ ——­ Historical Sketch

——­ ——­ XVII.  Volumes of Voyages and Travels

CONTENTS of the XVII.  Volumes

* * * * *

Errata.

Page 13. line 2. for has read have.
                     6. for near read nearly
     28. 36. for could sail read could formerly sail.
     86. 6. for Egypt read India.
     87. 22. for Leucke read Leuke.
    102. 5. for principal read principle.
    213. 9. for work read worm.
    281. 28. for Ebor read Ebn.
    282. 20. for Ebor read Ebn.
    5O7. 22. for as read than.

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY, &c. &c.

CHAPTER I.

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY, AND OF COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISE, FROM THE EARLIEST RECORDS, TO THE TIME OF HERODOTUS.  B.C. 450.

The earliest traces of navigation and commerce are necessarily involved in much obscurity, and are, besides, few and faint.  It is impossible to assign to them any clear and definite chronology; and they are, with a few exceptions, utterly uncircumstantial.  Nevertheless, in a work like this, they ought not to be passed over without some notice; but the notice we shall bestow upon them will not be that either of the chronologist or antiquarian, but of a more popular, appropriate, and useful description.

The intercourse of one nation with another first took place in that part of the world to which a knowledge of the original habitation of mankind, and of the advantages for sea and land commerce which that habitation enjoyed, would naturally lead us to assign it.  On the shores of the Mediterranean, or at no great distance from that sea, among the Israelites, the Phoenicians, and the Egyptians, we must look for the earliest traces of navigation and commerce; and, in the only authentic history of the remotest period of the world, as well as amidst the scanty and fabulous materials supplied by profane writers, these nations are uniformly represented as the most ancient navigators and traders.