ADVERTISEMENT,
S o m e apology is due to the readers of this work
for thé late appearance of the present volume. The
author has only to say, that the delay has arisen
from circumstances connected with the publication
that were not within his control. The manuscript
was nearly ready for the press two years ago.
It may be proper to add, that no similar delay is
likely to occur in the appearance of the fifth volume,
.which will complete the work.
The delay has been, in one respect, fortunate, since
it has enabled the author to avail himself, for the
ethnological map which accompanies this volume,
of the systematic view given in the late work of
Baron Alexander von Humboldt, of the physical
geography of Asia, and the positions of the great
table-lands and mountain-chains of that continent,—
circumstances which have often determined or modified
the migratory movements of nations.
Of the utility of this map in illustration of many
passages there is no need of saying anything at
present. The reader will speedily become aware of
it. It may be proper to observe, that the sites of
the great mountain-chains have been laid down
according to M. de Humboldt, and the positions of
places and tribes from the maps of D’Ohsson and
Klaproth.