s or expense
shall be withheld which, can contribute to render it as complete and
comprehensive as possible. In the employment of the vast variety and extent
of excellent materials, great care shall be taken to insert every useful
and curious information, reduced, where necessary, to modern language; and
nothing shall be omitted which is conducive to valuable information and
rational amusement.

In our approach towards the present times, the multitude of particular
Voyages and Travels increases prodigiously; and, in employing these, it
becomes peculiarly necessary to make a selection of the best in every
period, and especially of those best adapted for conveying just ideas of
each geographical division and subdivision of the world; while those of
less merit, but which contain useful notices of the regions and countries
of which they treat, shall be carefully epitomized in illustration of the
different subjects. Without the employment of discriminate selection and
occasional abridgement, this work must have extended to an inconvenient and
consequently expensive size, or must have been left unfinished and abrupt
in some of its parts: _But abridgement shall be very seldom employed and
never without acknowledgment_. Indeed, the grand object of the present
work is to bring together a more complete and entire collection of Voyages
and Travels, than has hitherto appeared in any language.

From the nature of the plan, it is utterly impossible to ascertain, with
any precision, the exact length to which it may extend; but, so far as can
be judged of at present, it is not expected to exceed eighteen or twenty
volumes. Throughout the whole work, a series of Maps and Charts will be
inserted in their proper places, carefully selected and constructed for the
purpose of illustrating the various Voyages and Travels. At the close of
the whole, a complete Index will be given to the entire series of volumes,
so arranged as to form a regular _Gazetteer_ of the whole world. In
every article which has been adopted into this work, the original and
accessory sources of all the materials shall be distinctly indicated.
Notes of explanation will be given, wherever necessary; and, as many of
these are drawn from various sources, the names of the authors from whom
they are adopted shall always be acknowledged: Such notes as are marked by
the letter E. are by the Editor of the work.

Owing to the indispensable nature of this work, it makes no posit