Originally posted by jonnin:

The world is very, very large.
The trader has a nice large radius of detection so that sailing around the 1 and 2 islands out from your starter is usually going to stumble over him from the ocean, you don't need to explore too hard.
I don't think of it as a bonus -- its not necessary, but the extra carry weight is almost required from swamp forward. Without it is just a major aggravation.

This yes, sail around black forests and unless they're super land locked, you should be in the radius for him to pop up on your map.