THE

PREFACE.

Γ

HERE would not, perhaps, be a more pleafant, or profitable ftudy, among thofe which have their principal end in amusement, than that of travels or voyages, if they were writ, as they might be, and ought to be, with a joint view to the entertainment and information of mankind. If the converfation of travellers be fo eagerly fought after as it is, we may believe their books will be still more agree. B

able

able company, as they will, in general, be more inftructive and more entertaining.

BUT when I fay the converfation of travellers is usually fo welcome, I must be understood to mean that only of fuch as have had good fenfe enough to apply their peregrinations to a proper ufe, fo as to acquire from them a real and valuable knowledge of men and things; both which are best known by comparison. If the customs and manners of men were every where the fame, there would be no office fo dull as that of a traveller: for the difference of hills, valleys, rivers; in short, the various views in which we may fee the face of the earth, would fcarce afford him a pleasure worthy of his labour; and furely it would give him very little opportunity of communicating any kind. of entertainment or improvement to others.

To make a traveller an agreeable companion to a man of fenfe, it is neceffary, not only that he should have seen much, but that he should have overlooked much of what he hath feen. Nature is not, any more than a great genius, always admirable in her productions, and therefore the traveller, who may be called her commenta

tor,

tor, should not expect to find every where fubjects worthy of his notice.

It is certain, indeed, that one may be guilty of omiffion as well as of the oppofite extreme but a fault on that fide will be more easily pardoned, as it is better to be hungry than furfeited, and to miss your deffert at the table of a man whofe gardens abound with the choicest fruits, than to have your taste affronted with every fort of trafh that can be pick'd up at the green-ftall, or the wheelbarrow.

If we should carry on the analogy between the traveller and the commentator, it is impoffible to keep one's eye a moment off from the laborious much-read doctor Zachary Grey, of whofe redund-, ant notes on Hudibras I fhall only fay, that it is, I am confident, the single book extant in which above five hundred authors are quoted, not one of which could be found in the collection of the late doctor Mead.

As there are few things which a traveller is to record, there are fewer on which he is to offer his obfervations: this

is the office of the reader, and it is fo pleafant a one, that he feldom chufes to have it taken from him, under the pretence of lending him affiftance. Some occafions, indeed, there are, when proper observations are pertinent, and others when they are neceffary; but good fenfe alone muft point them out. I fhall lay down only one general rule, which I believe to be of univerfal truth between relator and hearer, as it is between author and reader; this is, that the latter never forgive any obfervation of the former which doth not convey fome knowledge that they are fenfible they could not poffibly have attained of themselves.

BUT all his pains in collecting knowledge, all his judgment in selecting, and all his art in communicating it, will not fuffice, unless he can make himself, in fome de. gree, an agreeable, as well as an inftructive companion. The highest instruction we can derive from the tedious tale of a dull fellow fcarce ever pays us for our attention. There is nothing, I think, half so valuable as knowledge, and yet there is nothing which men will give themfelves fo little trouble to attain; unless it be, perhaps, that lowest degree of it

which

which is the object of curiofity, and which hath therefore that active paffion constantly employed in its fervice. This, indeed, it is in the power of every traveller to gratify; but it is the leading principle in weak minds only.

To render his relation agreeable to the man of fenfe, it is therefore neceffary that the voyager fhould poffefs feveral eminent and rare talents; fo rare, indeed, that it is almoft wonderful to fee them ever united in the fame perfon.

AND if all thefe talents muft concur in the relator, they are certainly in a more eminent degree neceffary to the writer: for here the narration admits of higher ornaments of ftile, and every fact and fentiment offers itself to the fulleft and moft deliberate examination.

IT would appear therefore, I think, fomewhat strange, if fuch writers as these should be found extremely common; fince nature hath been a moft parfimonious diftributer of her richest talents, and hath feldom bestowed many on the fame perfon. But on the other hand, why there should scarce exift a fingle writer of this B 3 kind