there are scarcely any assignable limits to human courage and enthusiasm. And thus much for Africa.

found impossible to surmount, and which compelled him to alter the original plan of his route. This alteration gave him an opportunity of acquiring the most complete information respecting the inhabitants of this most distant region, the nature and productions of the country, and many interesting particulars of the nations beyond. In the geography of the extra-tropical part of Southern Africa, a map, founded on numerous astronomical observations, and of an entirely new construction, will be found to present considerable improvements, and to rectify many inaccuracies. Its size is 33 inches by 28.

In the first volume, besides the travels among the tribes living beyond the boundary of the English settlement, there is a large portion of information respecting the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope, and an account of several excursions which intervened between the author's first landing and the commencement of his principal journey into the interior.

In the second volume will be found an interesting account of the native tribes; with whom the author lived on terms which gave him very favourable opportunities for discovering their true character. As his views in travelling were not confined to any particular class of observations, but were extended to whatever appeared likely to produce useful knowledge, his researches have embraced that variety of subjects which a journey, over ground never before trodden by European foot, and through the strange and unknown regions of Africa, might be expected to afford.

To each volume are added an Itinerary and Register of the Weather: and to render the whole more available for reference, and to collect under their proper heads, the various remarks which, by being noticed in the regular order of a Diary, are necessarily scattered in different places, a General Index, together with a Zoological and Botanical Index, are given to complete the work. The whole of the engravings which accompany it, have been faithfully copied from finished drawings made by the author. This work is published by Messrs. Longman and Co. at 41. 14s. 6d. per volume.

AMERICA.

AT length we reach the largest, and latest disco-
vered quarter of the globe: and, in proportion to the
magnitude of this quarter, seems to be the number of
publications relating thereto. When the reader is
informed that, upwards of a century ago, Bishop
Kennett put forth a quarto volume of 273 pages, ex-
clusively of 200 pages of Index, called THE Ameri-
AMERI-
CAN LIBRARY,* containing the titles of the then known

* This quarto volume was published in 1713, at the Black Swan,
in Pater Noster Row; (why are such goodly signs now swept away?)
as "An Attempt towards laying the foundation of an American Library
in several books, papers, and writings; humbly given to the Society for
the propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts." The name of WHITE
KENNETT appears at the end of the dedication: a dedication worth,
on many accounts, an attentive perusal. All the publications (of
which a great number of the earlier ones are to be found in the col-
lections of Hakluyt and Purchas†) are chronologically arranged,

† At p. xii. of the Dedication, the Bishop speaks thus nobly of these two great
Collectors of Travels: "It was a glory done to this nation by Mr. HAKLUYT and
Mr. PURCHAS, (both clergymen of the Church of England) that they spared no
pains or cost to hunt after, and gather up, a great variety and plenty of such Jour-
nals and Maritime Papers, which had otherwise, long before this time, been wreckt
and lost for ever." A little farther, he adds-" there be now living many indus-
trious collectors of Voyages and Travels, Navigations, Commerce, &c. who pro-
bably, after their decease, would not trust them to the custody of a careless heir,
or mercenary administrator; but will be glad to hear of such a public place as
this, wherein they may be safely disposed, and preserved with the memory of their
donour. If such a curious and judicious collector as Mr. PEPYS had known of
any such design, it is very probable that he would have given all his laborious
efforts that way, and they would, in such manner, have made a NATIONAL TREA-
SURE to posterity." What will my friend, Mr. Lodge, of Magdalen College, say
to this? But the Pepysian Collection, as it is now regulated, is ITSELF AGAIN :
and the spectre of its donor ceases to haunt the banks of Cam. Reverting to Bi-
shop Kennett's Dedication, let me say one further "little word:"-The con-
clusion of it must delight every intelligent mind and every virtuous heart.

productions which more or less regarded Americaand when he considers how the spirit of discovery, and the love of travelling, together with the publications which record them, have increased since that period-how, in the name of courtesy, kindness, and even common sense, I ask, can that same reader expect to be fully satisfied with a list of the chief works NOW EXTANT, connected with NORTH and SOUTH AMERICA?

Away, ye rigorous and exacting critics-hence, ye harsh and unrelenting judges !-for I must be even more brief than heretofore. A world of various, and of enticing matter, is before me: and I can therefore touch but hastily on the more ancient historians and travellers, who have pushed their researches into this quarter of the globe. But ere this sober strain be touched, I exhort and intreat my "Young Man," in particular, to secure, with all possible dispatch, the AMERICAN ATLAS, or Guide to the History of North and South America, and the West Indies, which has been lately put forth at Philadelphia, by Messrs. Carey and Lea-the Longman, Hurst, and Co. of the New World. This admirable publication* will give

down to the period of the publication of the volume. An excellent Index of matters, persons, and places, is added. This truly useful volume was reprinted in 1791, 4to. (which latter only is mentioned by Meuselius) and both original and reprint are at this moment sticking on stalls at some two shillings each. The book is invaluable to a Collector; and the spirit that is now abroad, in AMERICA, should lead some Bostonian, or New Yorkite, or Philadelphian, to bring the catalogue of publications down to the present times.

* This publication is a small Atlas folio, consisting of fifty-three charts; the fifty-third containing " a Map of the principal Rivers in the World." In this map, the curious reader will see how the Mississippi, and the Missouri, and the Amazon rivers, exceed every other

him a complete notion of the extent, variety, and characteristic features of the stupendous country to which he is here about to receive a bibliographical introduction. I will begin with the ever-honoured name of the DISCOVERER of the country in question. The Epistle of COLUMBUS " de Insulis Indie supra Gangem nuper inventis" was printed in a small quarto tract, of four leaves, in the character of Planck, in 1493; and again (or before) in the same year, by Eucharius Silber or Argenteus: BOTH of them* of such excessive rarity as to have been unknown to Robertson and to have escaped Brunet. Let me continue with five of the more ancient worthies of American travellers and historians: namely, ALGERIUS, DE OVIEDO, LOPEZ DE GEMARA, LAS CASAS, HERRERAwho are here introduced, only to be summarily dismissed; not however without a caution to the

in the world. Each chart is accompanied by a marginal text, containing a summary and sensible account of the situation, extent, soil, climate, mountains, rivers, chief towns, commerce, education, and government, together with an historical sketch, of every portion of North and South America, there delineated. This work is handsomely printed, and the copy before me is coloured. It was purchased of the publishers for 5l. With this Atlas, the reader may consult that portion of North America which is excellently described in Mellish's Geographical Description of the United States; published at Philadelphia, in 1822, 8vo.

*Both of these tracts were sold by Mr. Evans, at the sale of the library of Don Antonio I. Conde, in 1824. The former, printed by Planck, produced the sum of 201.: the latter, by Silber, 347. 138. And yet the former, from the reasons adduced by Mr. Evans, appeared to be the editio princeps of the work. Panzer had no knowledge, however, of the impression by Silber. epistle, which should be incorporated in all future histories of America, is a word of GOLD: in more senses than one.

Every word of this

+ These five ancient gentlemen shall not, however, be dismissed

curious-and especially to the more wealthy Collector to take heed to a few of the "

SO

helps" ten

summarily," in the notes. The two first and fourth were unknown to Kennett; and the first, apparently, to Meuselius. Algerius's first work, "De Orbe Novo, Decades III." was published at Madrid in 1516, in folio : and is necessarily a rare book. “ La Historia general y natural de las Indias, islas y terra firma del mar ocean," of Gonzalo Hernandez de Oviedo, was published at Seville in 1535, folio, with cuts again, in 1547, folio, with the true relation of the conquest of Peru, by Perez; again, in 1557, in Valladolid; and in 1556, folio; and lastly, at Madrid, in 1730, in folio. A new and more perfect edition is expected (says Meuselius) from the Marquis Truxillo. In his Suppl. and Add. (vol. x. p. 326) this first edition is more fully described. An Italian version of it appears in Ramusio, and a portion of it is anglicised in the third volume of Purchas's Pilgrims. Bourcher de la Richarderie gives us no intelligence of the relative rarity and value of these editions. Bibl. des Voyages, vol. v. p. 481. LOPEZ DE GOMARA: Primera, seconda, y terza parte de la historia general de las Indias, con la conquista del Mexico y la nueva España. Medina, 1553, folio. First edition: with the pure text of the author-which fell under the censure of the Spanish government in America. A pretty little edition of it appeared at Antwerp in 1554, 12mo. for which Meuselius (Suppl. &c. vol. x. pt. ii. p. 327,) refers us to Goetzius in Denkwürdigk. der Dresd. Bibl. vol. iii. p. 444. Consult the third volume (p. 227) of Meuselius for early Italian and French versions, in 8vo. The work is epitomised in Purchas.

BARTHOLOMEUS LAS CASAS: although his history treat chiefly of ecclesiastical matters, it is a prodigiously GREAT GUN in the bibliographical battery of Collectors; especially if the original Spanish work, in seven parts, 1552, 4to. be complete, and in all respects uncounterfeited. The counterfeit is printed in roman letters: the genuine in gothic. De Bure is copious and instructive on this head : B. I. Hist. Part II. p. 266-7. Meuselius is unusually full; calling the author" immortalis Americanorum patronus." Bibl. Hist. vol. iii. part. ii. p. 79. He makes out six parts; so does Brunet, but mentions seven; Boucher de la Richarderie, on the authority of De Bure, calls them, five parts: so does Pinkerton; but Mr. Beloe, (Anec. &c. vol. i. p. 10.) says that the Cracherode copy has eight parts: and he mentions the three which are not noticed by De Bure,