For any deviation from that carefully adopted arrangement, the heads of
which are here repeated.
GENERAL PLAN OF THE WORK.
PART I.
Voyages and Travels of Discovery in the middle ages; from the era of
Alfred, King of England, in the ninth century to that of Don Henry of
Portugal at the commencement of the fourteenth century.
PART II.
General Voyages and Travels chiefly of Discovery; from the era of Don
Henry, in 1412, to that of George III. in 1760.
PART III.
Particular Voyages and Travels arranged in systematic order,
Geographical and Chronological.
Note. - This part will be divided into five books, comprehending, I.
Europe. - II. Asia. - III. Africa. - IV. America. - V. Australia and
Polynesia; or the prodigious multitude of islands in the, great: Pacific
Ocean. And all these will be further subdivided into particular chapters or
sections correspondent to the geographical arrangements of these several
portions of the globe.
PART IV.
General Voyages and Travels of Discovery during the era of George III.
which were conducted upon scientific principles, and by which the Geography
of the globe has been nearly perfected. .
PART V.
Historical Deduction of the Progress of Navigation Discovery and
Commerce by sea and land, from the earliest times to the present
period.
In the deliberate construction of this systematic plan, it has been a
leading object of anxious consideration, to reduce the extensive and
interesting materials of which the work is composed under a clear,
intelligible, and comprehensive arrangement, so combined in a geographical
and chronological series, that each successive division and subdivision,
throughout the whole work, may prepare the mind of the reader for that
which is to follow, and may assist the memory in the recollection of what
has gone before. By these means, an attentive perusal of this work must
necessarily be of material usefulness, in fixing distinct and just ideas of
geography, history, and chronology in the minds of its readers; besides the
important information and rational amusement which it will afford, by the
frequent description of manners, customs, laws, governments, and many other
circumstances, of all the countries and nations of the world.
In determining upon an era for the commencement of this work, the Editor
was naturally led, from a consideration of the accidental discovery of
Iceland by the Norwegians in the ninth century, as coincident with
the reign of the great ALFRED, who ascended the throne of England in 872,
to adopt that period as the beginning of the series, both because the
commencement of modern maritime discovery took place during the reign of a
British sovereign, and because we derive the earliest written accounts of
any of these discoveries from the pen of that excellent prince. It is true
that the first accidental discovery of Iceland appears to have been made in
861, eleven years before the accession of Alfred to the throne; yet, as the
actual colonization of that island did not take place till the year 878,
the seventh of his glorious reign, we have been induced to distinguish the
actual commencement of maritime discovery by the modern European nations as
coinciding with his era.
