Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 4).djvu/31



writer of the following tour would not trouble the reader with a Preface, did not some circumstances render it in a certain degree necessary.

It might be asked why he had not commenced the tour with a particular description of Philadelphia. His reasons for not doing so were, in the first place, Philadelphia is a city so minutely described in every modern geographical publication, that few readers are unacquainted with its local situation between the rivers Delaware and Schuylkill, its regularity of plan, its rapid progress, &c. Whereas the country through which the author travelled has been very little treated of by tourists, of course is little known to strangers; though an account of its appearance, its natural properties, its improvements, and the manners of its mixed population, perhaps merits a place on the shelves of the literati, as much as the numerous tours and travels through Europe, Asia and Africa with which they are loaded. Indeed, in one point of view, such a book may be much more useful, as it may serve for a record of the situation of a country, in its infancy, which from its rapid improvement in a very few years, will form a wonderful contrast to its present state, while the trans-AtlantickAtlantic [sic] travellers have to treat of countries either arrived at the highest state of improvement, or of others buried in the gloom of ignorance and barbarity, and of course both stationary, and therefore not affording any variety of consequence, during the two last centuries, (in which time they have been the theme of so many able pens) excepting the style of writing and manner of description.