TRIPOLY TO BENGAZI. 259 the maps and charts which resulted from them were laid down without the aid of astronomy ; and the distances between the places described in them were either measured or computed along the roads which the armies traversed, or deduced from the track of vessels along the coast. Major Eennell has observed, that the difference which will generally be found between the measurements of Eratosthenes and Strabo, and those which appear in modern geography, will be that which exists between the measure of a direct line, drawn from one place to another, and that of the road distance between them. Nothing can speak more strongly to this point,” (says the well-informed and intelligent writer here quoted,) “ than the circumstance of Strabo’s giving the number of stades in Nearchus's Many tolerably accurate surveys resulted from the conquests of the Romans ; and we learn from Vegetius that their generals were always fuimished with the maps of the provinces which were to be the scenes of their operations. Julius Caesar ordered a general survey to be made of the whole empire, which occupied twenty-five years ; and the Itinerary of Antonine, as well as that which was constructed in the reign of Theodosius the Great, commonly called the Peutingerian table, are well known as valuable authorities.

“ The expedition of Alexander” (says Major Rennell, in the preliminary remarks attached to his Illustrations of Herodotus,) “ besides the eclat of the military history belonging to it, furnished in Greece and Egypt an epoch of geographical improvement and correction, which may not unaptly be compared with that of the discoveries of the Portuguese along the coasts of Africa and India ; or of that of the present time, in which geography has been improved in every quarter of the globe.”

“ To a philosopher,” (observes the same author,) “ the changes in the comparative state of nations, in diSerent ages of the world, are very striking, and lead one to reflect what may be the future state of some now obscure corner of New Holland or of North America ; since our own island was known only for its tin-mines by the most celebrated of ancient nations, whose descendants, in turn, rank no higher with us than as dealers in figs and currants I” 2 L 2