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AFR.SUDAN T 219 I 2 g. of L. Cones

Rec. Dec 9, 1917.

Rare Book Room

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PREFACE.

THE

HE following Journal, drawn up from original minutes and notices made at the proper moment and preserved with great difficulty, is now offered to the Public by the direction of my noble and honourable employers, the Members of the African Association. I regret that it is so little commensurate to the patronage I have received, As a composition, it has nothing to recommend it, but truth. It is a plain, unvarnished tale; without pretensions of any kind, except that it claims to enlarge, in some degree, the circle of African geography. For this purpose, my services were offered, and accepted by the Association; and, I trust, I have not laboured altogether in vain. The work, however, must speak for itself; and I should not have thought any preliminary observations necessary, if I did not consider myself called upon, both by justice and gratitude, to offer those which follow.

L

Immediately after my return from Africa, the acting Committee of the Association,* taking notice of the time it would

* This Committee consists of the following Noblemen and Gentlemen; Earl of Moira, Lord Bishop of Landaff, Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks, President of the

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require to prepare an account in detail, as it now appears; and being desirous of gratifying, as speedily as possible, the curiosity which many of the Members were pleased to express concerning my discoveries, determined that an epitome, or abridgment of my travels, should be forthwith prepared from such materials and oral communications as I could furnish, and printed for the use of the Association; and also, that an engraved Map of my route should accompany it. A memoir, thus supplied and improved, was accordingly drawn up in two parts, by Members of the Association, and distributed among the Society: the first part consisting of a narrative, in abstract, of my travels, by Bryan Edwards, Esq.; the second, of Geographical Illustrations of my progress, by Major James Rennell, F. R. S. Major Rennell was pleased also to add, not only a Map of my route, constructed in conformity to my own observations and sketches (when freed from those errors, which the Major's superior knowledge, and distinguished accuracy in geographical researches, enabled him to discover and correct), but also a General Map, shewing the progress of discovery, and improvement in the Geography of North Africa; together with a Chart of the

Royal Society; Andrew Stewart, Esq. F. R. S. and Bryan Edwards, Esq. F. R. S. Concerning the original institution of the Society itself, and the progress of discovery, previous to my expedition, the fullest information has already been given in the various publications which the Society have caused to be made.

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