hence, should the plan adopted be found only comparatively good, in so far
the system of arrangement must be pronounced the best that has been as yet
devised. If this be conceded, and the fact is too obvious to require
extended proof or minute elucidation, the Editor shall not feel mortified
even if his arrangement may be considerably improved hereafter.

The only work on the subject that has the smallest pretensions to system,
and that is fanciful, involved, irregular, abrupt, and obscure, is PURCHAS
HIS PILGRIMS. Even admitting the plan of that work to be in itself
excellent; although it may be a _General History_, so far as it
extends, it certainly is in no respect a _Complete Collection_ of
Voyages and Travels. In a very large proportion of that curious work, it is
the _author_ who speaks to the reader, and not the _traveller_.
In the present work, wherever that could possibly be accomplished, it has
uniformly been the anxious desire of the Editor that the voyagers and
travellers should tell their own story: In that department of his labour,
his only object has been to assume the character of _interpreter_
between them and the readers, by translating foreign or antiquated language
into modern English. Sometimes, indeed, where no record remains of
particular voyages and travels, as written by the persons who performed
them, the Editor has necessarily had recourse to their historians. But, on
every such occasion, the most ancient and most authentic accessible sources
have been anxiously sought after and employed. In every extensive work, it
is of the utmost consequence that its various parts should be arranged upon
a comprehensive and perspicuously systematic plan. This has been
accordingly aimed at with the utmost solicitude in the present undertaking;
and the order of its arrangement was adopted after much deliberation, and
from a very attentive consideration of every general work of the same
nature that could be procured. If, therefore, the systematic order on which
it is conducted shall appear well adapted to the subject, after an