lore was exceedingly partial and limited. Then
remembering how the traditional maxims and methods of travelling in each
country differ from those of others, and how every traveller discovers
some useful contrivances for himself, it appeared to me, that I should do
welcome service to all who have to rough it--whether explorers,
emigrants, missionaries or soldiers,*--by collecting the scattered
experiences of many such persons in various circumstances, collating
them, examining into their principles, and deducing from them what might
fairly be called an "Art of Travel." To this end, on my return home, I
searched through a vast number of geographical works, I sought
information from numerous travellers of distinction and I made a point of
re-testing, in every needful case, what I had read or learned by hearsay.

[Footnote] * ". . . the soldier should be taught all such practical
expedients and their philosophy, as are laid down in Mr. Galton's useful
little book . . . "--'Minute by the late Sir James Outram on Army
Management.' Parliamentary Return, of May 240, p. 159.

It should be understood that I do not profess to give exhaustive
treatises on each of the numerous subjects comprised in this volume, but
only such information as is not generally known among travellers. A
striking instance of the limited geographical area over which the
knowledge of many useful contrivances extends, is that described as a
'Dateram,' p. 164, by which tent ropes may be secured in sand of the
loosest description. Though tents are used over an enormous extent of
sandy country, in all of which this simple contrivance would be of the
utmost value on every stormy night, and though the art of pitching tents
is studied by the troops of all civilised and partly civilised nations,
yet I believe that the use of the dateram never extended beyond the
limits of a comparatively small district in the south of the Sahara,
until I had described it in a former Edition; and further, my knowledge
of that contrivance was wholly due to a single traveller, the late Dr.
Barth.

The first Edition of the 'Art of Travel' was published in 1854: it was
far less comprehensive than the later ones; for my materials steadily
accumulate, and each successive Edition has shown a marked improvement on
its predecessor. Hitherto I have adhered to the original arrangement of
the work, but am now obliged to deviate from it, for the contents have
outgrown the system of classifica