It will be seen that a portion of the Chronologic History had already been covered by Forster's volume, for the north, while the southern region had found an exponent in De Brosses, Histoire des Navigations aux Terres Australes, translated into English with additions. This work was rather a hasty preparation, having for its object chiefly to demonstrate the advantages of the South Pacific for colonies; so that there was ample room for An Historical Collection of the several Voyages and Discoveries in the South Pacific Ocean, by Alexander Dalrymple, London, 1770-1, 2 vols, 4to, which treats of Spanish and Dutch voyages between South America and Papua. A French translation appeared at Paris in 1774 by Fréville, who the same year issued in his Hydrographique what may be regarded as a continuation.
Le Voyageur François, ou la Connoissance de l'Ancien et du Nouveau Monde, Mis au jour par M. l'Abbé Delaporte, Paris, 1767-72, 42 vols, 12mo, presents an historical and descriptive account of the world by a fictitious French traveller who addresses himself to a lady in the form of letters, dated at leading towns in different countries. While describing the actual condition of the country in a politic, economic, and social sense, he also gives lengthy reviews of the past history and of the ancient customs of the people, as if related by a native or culled from memory. The narrative is by this means rendered most interesting, and assumes a freshness and a sprightliness of style which condone greatly for its superficiality, incompleteness, and want of critical discernment in adopting statements. The epistolary form, while intended to court the public, doubtless adds to the flippancy, in which respect La Harpe, among others, expresses himself rather like a jealous rival. Beginning his tour in the Mediterranean, the author passes through Asia Minor to India and China, and in volume ix. turns up in the British American colonies. In the three volumes following he enters the Pacific States, devoting to Mexico the greater part of x., describing chiefly the conquest and the ancient customs of the Aztecs, and leaving almost untouched the later history and condition; but then the object is to interest the ordinary reader. Only the first 28 vols. are from the pen of the abbé; the rest show the inferior style of De Tontenai and Domairon. The success was such as to warrant a new edition in 1792-95. A German duodecimo edition was issued at Leipzig immediately upon the completion of the original, under the title of Reisen eines Franzosen. A Spanish translation was begun as El Viagero Universal ó Noticia del Mundo, Madrid, 1795-1801, 43 vols, including four supplementary. By D. P. E. P. The editor soon tired of the faults of the original, and with the 6th vol. began an independent work, in which much new information is given, so that the book greatly surpasses the French in the value of its material, while it falls behind in style and treatment. Volumes xii. xxvi. and xxvii. relate to Mexico, Central America, and California, and several adjoining volumes treat of other parts of America, including searches for the north-west passage. So conscientious is the editor that he devotes the supplementary volumes to complete and correct the first five wherein he had followed Delaporte.
D'URVILLE, DE LURCY, PINKERTON.
Voyage Pittoresque autour du Monde, Paris, 1834-5, 2 vols, 4to, under the direction of Dumont d'Urville, is also a voyage round the world by an imaginary person, who starting from Toulon proceeds by way of Rio de Janeiro to South Africa, coasts along the East Indies to China, visits the Pacific groups and Australia, whence he returns to France with barely a reference to America. The object is to fasten the attention with a pleasing narrative, while imparting as much information as possible on geography, political and social history, and curious facts, illustrated by a profusion of neat cuts.
A work covering much of the same ground, and somewhat similar in character, though written by the navigator himself, is Voyages autour du monde et Naufrages Célèbres, Paris, 1844, 8 vols in 4, by Gabriel Lafond de Lurcy, part of which had already appeared in 1840 as Quinze ans de Voyages, 2 vols. The narrative begins with a voyage performed during the Spanish American revolution from Manila to Mexico, to which latter country and the adjoining dependencies the whole volume is devoted, reviewing the political and social condition, the conquest, the Spanish rule, and the insurrectionary war. In ii. to v. the author relates several voyages along the South American coast to China, the East Indies, and the Pacific groups, which are made the vehicle for similar reviews, including Columbus' voyages and the conquest of Panamá and the region to the south. The last three volumes relate to notable voyages by others, and to adventures of shipwrecked crews in Africa and in the Pacific groups. The easy narrative inclines to the romantic style, and little attention is given to exactness or completeness. Still, the account of revolutionary events deserves attention from the fact that Lafond was an actual participant. He also wrote Études sur l'Amérique Espagnol, 1848, and some other treatises.
Curious and Entertaining Voyages, London, 1790, 4to, consists of a Portuguese and Spanish collection from Prince Henry's time to 1520, given in chronologic order, and without repetition in later narratives of matter already related; but there is little merit in the treatment, and negligence is shown even on the title-page, where particular attention is called to Columbus' conquest of Mexico! Of the four books forming the division, i. and iii. relate to Portuguese, and the others to Spanish voyages and expeditions, from Columbus to Cortés and Magellan.
A General Collection of the best and most interesting Voyages and Travels in all parts of the World, by John Pinkerton, London, 1808-14, 17 vols, 4to, is announced as "the most voluminous of the kind ever published," next to the Histoire of Prévost. After pointing out the numerous defects of this collection, and of its prototype by Green, with even more details than La Harpe, the accomplished Pinkerton, friend of Gibbon, proposes not only to avoid their dryness, inaccuracy, and repetition, but to embrace all the material of former collections, together with many additional narratives. Dividing his subject into five parts, corresponding to the five continents, he devotes volume i. to the north and north-east, besides two or three southern voyages; the two following to travels in Great Britain, and iv. to vi. to other parts of Europe; while vii. to x. relate to Asia; xi. to Australasia; xii. and xiii. to North America, beginning with Columbus; xiv. to South America; and the two following to Africa. Volume xvii. contains a retrospect of the progress of discovery, a catalogue of books on each region, and a detailed index. In these groups he collects, with little attempt at order, a mass of narratives which, however excellent in themselves, often cover but a portion of the field already better described in other works by several or more thorough narratives. Of the conspicuous and absorbing conquest of Mexico and adjoining regions not a word appears, and the only description of that country is from the later incomplete and comparatively unimportant travels of de Menonville. The north-west coast, with California, is only slightly referred to under Drake's visits. In other instances, several voyages to the same region are given with valueless repetitions, as Frobisher's three searches for a north-west passage and the five voyages to Persia. A mass of uninteresting extracts from log-books are also presented, besides other verbose trivialities. Altogether the collection fails to realize its promises, and is decidedly inferior in selection, arrangement, treatment, and above all in completeness, to many less pretentious sets.
KERR, LARDNER, DUMÉNIL, GOODRICH.
A much more thorough, though less known work, is A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, from the earliest ages, by Robert Kerr, Edinburgh, 1811-24, 18 vols, 8vo. It is the first work of the kind issued in Scotland, and claims to be the first systematically arranged history of voyages in English. Purchas is admitted to possess system, but is incomplete and merges the traveller's individuality too often, faults which Kerr promises to avoid. He divides the work into five parts; first, voyages and travels from King Alfred's time to the fifteenth century, nearly all directed to Asia, yet including in volume i. Zeno's voyages, and in ii. the discoveries of Galvano: second, voyages between 1492 and 1760, constituting volumes iii. to xi. These open with two accounts of Columbus' discovery and contemporary events, by his son and by Herrera. The same volume has the beginning of Cortés' conquest, which is continued in iv. together with Pizarro's. From the conquest of South America, concluded in v., the chronologic order takes the reader to the north-east coast of America, from Florida northward; and in vi. the voyages change to the East Indies, to return in x. and xi. to America, with the circumnavigators, who occupy both volumes. The third part relates to particular voyages in each of the five parts of the globe, arranged under each country and section, and begins in xii. with Byron, Wallis, Carteret, and Cook. The several voyages of the latter occupy the remainder of the work, xiii. to xvii., with the exception of a brief space to Bougainville, and to circumnavigations. This by no means completes the part, as promised, nor the fourth part on general voyages during the reign of George III. Whether this is owing to the early abandonment of the plan announced, or to Kerr's death, is not clear, but the work certainly leaves gaps by concluding, in volume xviii. with the fifth part, a historical deduction of the progress of navigation, discovery, and commerce, which was written several years after volume xvii. by W. Stevenson. This well prepared treatise is followed by a list of books on voyages and geographic descriptions. The method, so far as carried out, has been to give in chronologic order, at considerable length, and chiefly in the original form, the most valuable voyages and travels, particularly such as have extended geographic knowledge; and further, to review at the beginning or end of such narratives all minor accounts, so as to furnish a history of voyages. Objections may be raised in many instances, such as giving Columbus two versions where one might have sufficed if notes had been added from the other or from others. Cook's voyages, so well known by this time, are out of proportion to the rest, particularly when narratives were so greatly needed to cover the progress of discovery and settlement in different regions, as the Northwest Coast, Mexico, and other Spanish colonies.
A method similar to Kerr's is more consistently adhered to, on a smaller scale, in The History of Maritime and Inland Discovery, London, 1830-1, 3 vols, 12mo, which forms volumes ii. xi. and xvi. of The Cabinet Cyclopædia, conducted by Rev. Dionysius Lardner. It certainly is a most thorough history for its size, and valuable as a guide to larger incomplete sets. Volume i. ends with Columbus' first voyage, while ii. carries along with Magellan and Cortés the circumnavigators and buccaneers, and closes with the discovery of Alaska by the Russians. Vol. iii. opens with Byron and Wallis, and closes in 1822.