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OF THE USE AND ADVANTAGE

affords to Geography and Navigation. An ac-quaintance with the situation and position ofdifferent countries, is not an object of merecuriosity or useless speculation; but is nowbecome indispensably neceffai’y, both to thegentleman and the man of business; and isgenerally considered as one of the most usefulbranches of a polite and liberal education.Politics, commerce and philosophy, have openeda communication between almost every countryon the globe. Alliances are formed betweenthe most distant nations; traffic and sciencehave explored every region; and the produc-tions of different climates are transported fromqne extremity of the earth to the other.

When Vasco de Gama first opened the way to.India by the Cape of Good Hope, and Columbushad found out a new world, the increase ofriches and power resulting to certain nationsfrom these discoveries, excited the envy andambition of the rest, and put all Europe in mo-tion. By a principle long established amongcommercial nations, the first discoverer of a newcountry lays claim to it as his property; and iseven jealous of the way that conducted him toit. This principle, whether well or ill founded,was adopted by every power in Europe ; theyall became equally desirous of visiting these new.climates; and the emulation for discovery con-j tinually

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