To our knowledge of America, a large and valuable addition may soon be expected; for several of the inhabitants of Canada had the spirit, about two years since, to send, at their own expence, different persons to traverse that vast continent, from the river St. Lawrence westward to the opposite ocean. While, in this manner, the circle of our knowledge with respect to Asia and America is gradually extending itself, and advancing towards perfection, some progress has been made in the discovery of particular parts of Africa: for Dr. Sparman’s Narrative has furnished important information, to which will soon be added that of Mr. Patterson, whose account of his Travels and Observations in the Southern Parts of Africa is already in the Press; and if a description of the still more extended Travels of Colonel Gordon, the present Commander of the Dutch Troops at the Cape of Good Hope, should be given to the Public, the southern extremity of the African peninsula may perhaps be justly considered as explored. Mr. Bruce also, it is said, is preparing for the Press an account of the knowledge which he has obtained on the eastern side of that quarter of the globe. But notwithstanding the progress of discovery on the coasts and borders of that vast continent, the map of its Interior is still but a wide extended blank, on which the Geographer, on the authority of Leo Africanus, and of the Xeriff Edrissi the Nubian Author, has traced, with a hesitating hand, a few names of unexplored rivers and of uncertain nations. The course of the Niger, the places of its rise and termination, and even its existence as a separate stream, are still undetermined. Nor has our knowledge of the Senegal and Gambia rivers improved upon that of De la Brue and Moore; for though since their time half a century has elapsed, the Falls of Felu on the first of these two rivers, and those of Baraconda on the last, are still the limits of discovery. Neither have we profited by the information which we have long possessed, that even on the western coasts of Africa, the Mahometan faith is received in many extensive districts, from the Tropic of Cancer southward to the Line. That the Arabic, which the Mussulman Priests of all countries understand, furnishes an easy access to such knowledge as the western Africans are able to supply, is perfectly obvious; as it also is, that those Africans must, from the nature of their Religion, possess, what the Traders to the coast ascribe to them, an intercourse with Mecca. But although these circumstances apparently prove the practicability of exploring the Interior Parts of Africa, and would much facilitate the execution of the Plan, yet no such efforts have hitherto been made. Certain however it is, that, while we continue ignorant of so large a portion of the globe, that ignorance must be considered as a degree of reproach upon the present age.