Land carriage across the Desert on camels
to Timbuctoo 40 0
-----
s. 120 6
-----
[Footnote 174: See new Supplement to the Encyclopedia
Britannica, article Africa, page 98.]
[Footnote 175: See the account of Timbuctoo appended to
Jackson's account of Marocco, published by Cadell and Davies,
London, Chap, 18.]
261
So that if 100 lb. of loaf sugar rendered, at Timbuctoo cost
120_s_. 6_d_ and sells there for 100 Mexico dollars at 4_s_. 6_d_.
each, or for 22£. 5_s_. there will result a profit of 270 per cent.
The profit in fine goods, such as the linens before mentioned, is
still more considerable, not being subject to so heavy a charge for
carriage. The immense quantity of[176] gold dust and gold bars that
would be brought from Timbuctoo, Wangara, Gana, and other
countries, in exchange for this merchandise, would be incalculable,
and has, perhaps, never yet been contemplated by Europeans!!--In
the same work, above quoted, 3d edition, page 289, will be found a
list of the various merchandise exportable from Great Britain,
which suit the market of the interior of Africa or Sudan: and also
a list of the articles which we should receive in return for those
goods.
[Footnote 176: The Kings, David and Solomon, extracted from
Africa to enrich the temple of Jerusalem upwards of
800,000,000£. sterling, a sum sufficient to discharge the
national debt; see Commercial Magazine for May 1819, page 6.;
which is eight times as much gold as the mines of Brazil have
produced since their discovery in 1756. See Commercial Magazine
for the same month, page 44.]
Plans to penetrate to the mart of Timbuctoo (which would supply
Housa, Wangara, Gana, and other districts of Sudan with European
merchandize) have been formed; but if a treaty of commerce were
made with any of the Negro kings, these plans would be subject to
various impediments.
262
The goods, in passing through hostile territories, (these
sovereigns living in a state of continual warfare with each other,)
would be subject to innumerable imposts; _it would therefore be
expedient to form a plan whereby the goods should reach Timbuctoo
through an eligible part of the Desert_: but some persons who have
been in the habit of trading for gum to _Portandik_, have declared
the inhabitants of Sahara to be a wild and savage race, untractable
and not to be civilised by commerce, or by any other means. This I
must beg leave to contradict: the Arabs of Sahara, from their
wandering habits, are certainly wild, and _they are hostile to all
who do not understand their language_; but if two or three
Europeans capable of holding colloquial intercourse with them, were
to go and establish a factory on their coast, and then suggest to
them the benefit _they would derive_, being the _carriers_ of such
a trade as is here contemplated, their ferocity would be
transferred forthwith into that virtue in the practice of which
they so eminently excel all other nations, _hospitality_; and the
most inviolable alliance might be formed with such a people. I
speak not from the experience of books, but from an actual
intercourse, and from having passed many years of my youth among
them.
263
An advantageous spot might be fixed upon on the western coast, in
an independent district, where our alliance would be courted, from
which the Kafila[177] or Akkaba would have to pass through only one
tribe with perfect safety, and subject to no impost whatever;
neither would they be subject to any duty on entering the town of
Timbuctoo, as they would enter at the _Beb Sahara_, or gate of the
Desert, which _exempts them_ from duty or impost.
[Footnote 177: Caravan.]
That civilisation would be the result of commerce, and that the
trade in slaves would decrease with the increase of our commerce
with these people, there can be little doubt; and, independent of
the advantages of an extensive commerce, the consolation would be
great to the Christian and to the Philosopher, of having converted
millions of brethren made in the perfection of God's image, and
endowed with reason, from barbarism to civilisation, if not to
Christianity!!!
Let us hope, then, that some of the intelligent readers of your
luminous and interesting pages will direct their attention to this
great national object, and produce ah eligible and well-digested
plan for the cultivation of a mutual intercourse _through the
medium qf commerce with Africa_, and for the civilisation of that
hitherto neglected continent.