ABSTRACT
Having completed the construction of the itinerary, it remained to subject all these lines of route to the invariable data of which geography is already possessed. I first sought among these data for points common to M. Caillié’s march: they are unfortunately very few in number. How then could I flatter myself, whatever trouble 1 might take, with whatever care I might combine all the data, hazarding nothing without some authority to support it, that I should produce any thing beyond a mere essay? If it should be hereafter confirmed by the observations of travellers furnished with astronomical instruments, the only merits of this work will consist in fortunate combinations; if it should be falsified by future discoveries, still it will have called for the criticism of geographers, and will consequently not have been useless to science. In submitting to the reader results differing from those hitherto admitted, I wish to warn him against an error, too common, especially in map-making, that of giving the preference to the more recent publications, and to place confidence in them in proportion as they are so. I am far from desirous of usurping this species of interest, to the prejudice of geographical works in general estimation.
