Page:Notes upon Russia (volume 2, 1851).djvu/6
2
has also endeavoured to elaborate the route of De Soto according to the best sources of information both in Europe and America, a subject which antiquarians have felt the greatest difficulty in unravelling consistently with the conditions of modern geographical knowledge.
The publication of this work has been followed by that of the first volume of the translation of the "Rerum Moscoviticarum Commentarii", the earliest account of Russia, by Sigismund von Herberstein. Translated and edited by the Secretary of the Society. The editor, in his introduction to this work, has endeavoured to supply his readers with an account of the visits of all the antecedent travellers to that country, together with a list of all publications prior to the year 1550 which in any way referred to the countries described in Herberstein's work. The second volume, it is hoped, will appear in about three months' time.
Meanwhile, another volume has been recently delivered to the Members for 1851, entitled, "Captain Coates' Remarks in many voyages to Hudson's Bay." This work, which has been edited by John Barrow, Esq., of the Admiralty, from a MS. presented to the Society by Sir Edward Parry, contains descriptions of the Esquimaux, and observations upon the geography of the country, written in a very graphic and interesting manner by a man who, though evidently uneducated, was an intellectual and shrewd observer. Mr. Barrow has added, by way of appendix to this interesting volume, the despatches of Captain John Middleton, a MS. document, intimately connected with the subject, and which he himself discovered amongst the archives of the Admiralty. The Council feel confident that a work treating upon former investigations in a part of the world which is causing so much attention at the present time will be received by their Members as an important addition to their publications.
The Council regret that Mr. Bolton Corney has not been able yet to supply the Members with his promised volume of "The East India Voyage of Sir Henry Middleton in 1604-5", to which, though long delayed, they look forward with great interest.