PREFACE.

xii

Bad roads, and a difficulty of communication between placesremote from each other, occasion a kind of sterility in a country,and render most things much dearer and scarcer than they wouldotherwise be ; and a nation placed in the most favourable climate,and blessed with the most fertile soil, if it have bad roads, and bewithout convenient modes of conveyance, will not be so rich andaffluent as another nationless savoured in climate and soil, whichshall have excellent roads and canals, supposing the genius and in-dustry of both nations to be the fame.

So fully to this point is the following paragraph by a gentleman(Major Rennell), to whom I am under other obligations, whereinalso the great advantages arising from the easy communication byinland navigation, and the great disadvantages attending the wantof such intercourse, are pointed out so clearly, and so much to mymind, that I am constrained to give it my readers. " As bothEurope, and its adjacent continent, Asia, are spread over with in-land seas, lakes, or rivers of the most extended inland naviga-tions, so as collectively to aid the transport of bulky articles ofmerchandise from one extreme of them to the other, and to form(like stepping-stones over a brook) a more commodious commu-nication ; so likewise the northern part of the new continent ap-pears to have an almost continuous inland navigation ; whichmust prove of infinite advantage to its inhabitants when fullypeopled, and contribute to their speedier civilization in the meantime. But Africa stands alone in a geographical view. Penetratedby no inland seas, like the Mediterranean, Baltic, or Hudson’sBay ; nor overspread with extensive lakes, like those of North8 America;