TO

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE EARL BATHURST,

AND

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE LORD VISCOUNT MELVILLE,

&C. &C. &C.

My Lords,

We beg leave to submit to your inspection our account of

the Proceedings of the Expedition to which we had the honour of

being appointed by your Lordships ; and to express our best thanks

for the flattering encouragement which it receives from the sanction

of your Lordships’ names.

A book of travels in countries so interesting as those to which

our researches have been directed, would once have been considered,

however indifferently it might be written, as a tribute of more than

ordinary value to its patrons. Put so much has been effected, during

your Lordships’ administration, for the advancement of science and

general knowledge, that a traveller of our own times appears before

the public, unassisted by the presence of that little cloud of mystery

through which he would formerly have been seen to so much advan-

tage ; and his work must no longer depend for its attractions upon