PR EFACE
T he travels, of which the following pages contain the narrative,
were undertaken solely for the purpose of acquiring knowlege : and
it having been thought possible that the communication of facts observed
during these researches might contribute some small portion
towards the general stock of information, they are here laid before
the Public. As they were commencèd with a mind free from prejudice,
and in the purest spirit of independence, so they have been
conducted, and so they are now concluded. It is not asserted that they
are exempt from the natural chance of error to which all human
observations are liable; but that their claim to be, even to the
minutest particular, regarded as a faithful picture of occurrences and
observations, stands on a basis never to be shaken ; the confirmation
of which is readily left to every honest and unprejudiced traveller who
may hereafter traverse the same ground. The motive, the expense,
and the accomplishment of these travels having been entirely and
individually the author’s, he has therefore thought proper to adhere
to the same principle in the present work, both in the scientific and in
the literary parts o f it. As none but those who have personally beheld
the scenes, and witnessed the facts, can be competent to communicate
to others the impressions they make on the mind, or to describe
them with fidelity, the author has judged it more consistent, and
more conducive to correctness, to reject all assistance whatever ; and,
although the language of this narrative might have been arranged in
smoother periods, and expressed with more fashionable elegance, the
reader who looks for information more than amusement, will doubt