erprises; we must shake off the rust of
precedent, and strike into a new path altogether.

Do we not lack that _spirit of union_ so expedient and necessary to all
great enterprises? Is not the public good sacrificed to
self-aggrandisement and individual interest.--Let the African
Institution unite its funds to those of the African Association, and
co-operate with the efforts of that society! Let the African Company
also throw in their share of intelligence. The separated and sometimes
discordant interests of all these societies, if united, might effect
much. The _united_ efforts of such societies would do more in a year
towards the civilization of Africa, and the abolition of slavery, than
they will do in ten, unconnected as they now are. _Concordia parva res
crescunt_.--When each looks to particular interests, we cannot expect
the result to be the general good.

It is probable that the magnificent enterprises of the Portuguese and
Spaniards, would, ere this, have colonised and converted to
Christianity, all the eligible spots of idolatrous Africa, if their
attention to this grand object had not been diverted by the discovery of
America, and their establishments in Brazil, Mexico, &c.

I was established upwards of sixteen years in West and South Barbary;
territories that maintain an uninterrupted intercourse with all those
countries that Major Houghton, Hornemann, Park, Rontgen, Burckhardt,
Ritchie, and others have attempted to explore. I was diplomatic agent to
several maritime nations of Europe, which familiarised me with all ranks
of society in those countries. I had a perfect knowledge of the
commercial and travelling language of Africa, (the Arabic.) I
corresponded _myself_ with the Emperors, Princes, and Bashaws in this
language; my commercial connections were _very_ extensive, amongst all
the most respectable merchants who traded with Timbuctoo and other
countries of Sudan. My residence at Agadeer, or Santa Cruz, in Suse,
afforded me eligible opportunities of procuring information respecting
the trade with Sudan, and the interior of Africa. A long residence in
the country, and extensive connections, enabled me to discriminate, and
to ascertain who were competent and who were not competent to give me
the information I required. I had opportunities at my leisure of
investigating the motives that any might have to deceive me; I had time
and leisure also to investigate their moral character, and to ascertain
the p