hich enable the seaman to
ascertain his latitude and longitude, and to lay down full and accurate
charts of the shores which he visits, are also useful to the
land-traveller; they both draw assistance from the knowledge of meteorology
which they may possess, to make observations on the climate, and from their
acquaintance with botany and natural history, to give an account of the
plants and animals. But it is evident that so far as the latter are
concerned, as well as so far as relates to the inhabitants, the land
traveller has more opportunities than he who goes on a voyage.

But there are other advantages enjoyed by modern travellers besides those
derived from superior science: foreign languages are at present better and
more generally understood; and it is unnecessary to point out how important
such an acquisition is, or rather how indispensible it is to accurate
information. The knowledge of the languages of the East which many of the
gentlemen in the service of the East India Company, and the missionaries,
possess, has been of infinite service in making us much better acquainted
with the antiquities, history, and present state of those countries, than
we could possibly have otherwise been. There is at present greater
intercourse among even remote nations; and prejudices, which formerly
operated as an almost insurmountable barrier, are now either entirely
destroyed, or greatly weakened: in proof of this, we need only refer to the
numerous travellers who have lately visited Egypt,--a country which it
would have been extremely dangerous to visit half a century ago. At the
same distance of time, natives of Asia or Africa, especially in their
appropriate costume, were seldom or never seen in the streets of London,
or, if seen, would have been insulted, or greatly incommoded by the
troublesome curiosity of its inhabitants; now there are many such, who walk
the streets unmolested, and scarcely noticed.

Commerce, which has derived such advantages from the progress of
geographical knowledge, has in some measure repaid the obligation, by
creating a much greater, more intimate, and more frequent mutual
intercourse among nations; and by doing away with those prejudices and
antipathies which formerly closed many countries effectually against
Christian and European travellers: and to the zeal and perseverance of
modern travellers, assisted as they are by commercial intercourse, we may
reasonably hope that we shall, before long,