The
sandal wood, &c. which they obtain there, as well as their voyages from the
north-west coast of America with furs to China, must soon detect any isles
that may still be unknown in this part of the Pacific Ocean.
Although, therefore, much remains yet to be accomplished by maritime
expeditions, towards the extension and correction of our geographical
knowledge, so far as the bearings of the coast, and the latitudes and
longitudes of various places are concerned, there seems no room for what
may properly and strictly be called discovery, at least of any thing but
small and scattered islands.
It is otherwise with the accessions which land expeditions may still make
to geographical knowledge; for though within these one hundred years the
European foot has trodden where it never trod before, and though our
geographical knowledge of the interior of Africa, Asia, and America, has
been, rendered within that period not only more extensive, but also more
accurate and minute than it previously was, yet much remains to be done and
known.
In giving a short and rapid sketch of the progress of discovery, so far as
it has been accomplished by land expeditions during the period alluded to,
we are naturally led to divide what we have to say according to the three
great portions of the globe which have been the objects of these
expeditions, viz.
