Perhaps The Most
Valuable Accession To Geographical Knowledge Through The English Conquests,
Relates To These Mountains.
They seem to have been known to Pliny under the
name of Imaus:
They are described by Plotemy; and they were crossed by some
of the Jesuit missionaries about the beginning of the seventeenth century;
but they were not thoroughly explored till the beginning of the nineteenth.
Mr. Moorcroft was the first European, after the missionaries, who
penetrated into the plains of Tartary through these mountains. The fullest
account, however, of the singular countries which lie among them, is given
by Mr. Frazer, who in 1814 passed in a straight line, in a direction of
this chain, between 60 and 70 miles, and also visited the sources of the
Ganges.
Our commerce with China for tea, and the hope of extending that commerce to
other articles, produced, towards the end of the last century and the
beginning of this, two embassies to China, from both of which, but
especially from the first, much additional information has been gained
respecting this extensive country, and its singular inhabitants; so that,
regarding it and them, from these embassies, and the works of the Jesuit
missionaries, we possess all the knowledge which we can well expect to
derive, so long as the Chinese are so extremely jealous of strangers.
The British embassies to China, besides making us better acquainted with
this country, added no little to our information respecting those places
which were visited in going to and returning from China. Perhaps the most
important correction of geography is that which was made by Captains
Maxwell and Hall, who took out the second embassy: we allude to what they
ascertained respecting the kingdom of Corea. They found a bay, which,
according to the charts of this country, would be situated 120 miles in the
interior; and at the same time they ascertained, that along the southern
coast of Corea there was an archipelago of more than 1000 islands. These
discoveries; the valuable additions which were made during the voyage of
Captain Maxwell to the geography and hydrography of the Yellow Sea; the
correction of the vague and incorrect notions which were long entertained
respecting the isles of Jesso and the Kuriles, by the labours of La
Perouse, Broughton, Krusentein, &c., and the full and minute information
given to the public respecting Java, and other parts of the southern Indian
archipelago, by Raffles, Craufurd, &c. seem to leave little to be added to
our geographical knowledge of the eastern and southeastern portions of
Asia.
III. We come now to America; - and though Africa is one of the most ancient
seats of the human race, and of civilization and science, and America has
been discovered only about 350 years, yet we know much more respecting the
coasts and interior of the latter than of the former portion of the globe.
Although the Spaniards and Portuguese, who, till very lately, possessed
nearly the whole of South America, guarded their possessions strictly from
the curious intrusion of foreigners, and were themselves very sparing in
giving to the world the information respecting them which they must have
acquired, - yet, even during their power there, the geography of this part
of America was gradually developed and extended; the face of the country;
the great outline of those immense mountains, which, under the torrid zone,
are visited by the cold of the Pole; the nature of the vast plains which
lie between the offsets of these mountains; and the general direction of
the rivers, not less remarkable for their size than the mountains and
plains, were generally known.
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