The
South And East Coasts Of Arabia Still Require To Be More Minutely And
Accurately Surveyed.
In the eastern archipelago, Borneo, Celebes, and
Papua, are scarcely known.
Though all these bear but a small proportion to
the vast extent of Asia, yet some of them, especially the country to the
north of the Malay peninsula, and the islands in the eastern archipelago,
may justly be regarded as not inferior, in that importance which natural
riches bestows, to any part of this quarter of the globe.
Still, however, we possess some general notice, and some vague reports of
all these countries; but it is otherwise with respect to the unknown
portions of Africa. The whole of this quarter of the world, from the Niger
to the confines of the British settlement at the Cape of Good Hope, may,
with little limitation, be considered as unknown. Travellers have indeed
penetrated a short distance from the western coast into the interior, in
some parts between the latitude of the Niger and the latitude of the
extreme northern boundary of the Cape settlement: and a very little is
known respecting some small portions of the districts closely adjoining to
the eastern coast; but the whole of central Africa is still unexplored, and
presents difficulties and dangers which it is apprehended will not be
speedily or easily overcome. To the north of the Niger lies the Sahara, or
Great Desert; of this, probably, sufficient is known to convince us that
its extent is such, that no country that would repay a traveller for his
fatigue and risk, is situated to the north of it. To the east of the Niger,
however, or rather along its course, and to the north of its course, as it
flows to the east, much remains to be explored; many geographical details
have been indeed gathered from the Mahomedan merchants of this part of
Africa, but these cannot entirely be trusted. The course and termination of
the Niger itself is still an unsolved problem.
Captain Scoresby, a most intelligent and active captain in the whale
fishery trade, has very lately succeeded in reaching the eastern coasts of
Greenland, and is disposed to think that the descendants of the Danish
colonists, of whose existence nothing is known since this coast was
blocked, up by ice at the beginning of the fifteenth century, still inhabit
it. The northern shores of Greenland, and its extent in this direction are
still unknown.
Notwithstanding the zeal and success with which the government of the
United States prosecute their discoveries to the west of the Mississippi,
there is still much unexplored country between that river and the Pacific
Ocean. It is possible that lands may lie within the antartic circle, of
which we have hitherto as little notion as we had of South Shetland ten
years ago; but if there are such, they must be most barren and
inhospitable. It is possible also, that, notwithstanding the care and
attention with which the great Pacific has been so repeatedly swept, there
may yet be islands in it undiscovered; but these, however fertile from soil
and climate, must be mere specks in the ocean.
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