godor on the western coast of
Africa_, are afterwards sold to the Muhamedan merchants, who sell
them with a very good profit to other Moors. These goods frequently
go through three, four, and five hands, before they reach the
consumer in Sudan, subject to a profit gained by each holder of
from twenty to thirty per cent.; the last purchaser, who conveys
257 them through the Desert, however, expects, and generally obtains,
from fifty to sixty per cent. profit on them, to which he considers
himself entitled, from the fatigue and privations of his passage
through the Desert, during a journey through a country, for the
most part barren, of above fifteen hundred miles in length; through
various kingdoms and principalities, subject to a charge for
(_statta_) convoy at the exit and entrance of each respective state
or district on each side of the Sahara, as well as in the Sahara
itself.

But, according to the plan here suggested to the commercial
community, all these various articles, instead of passing through
five several hands, would now pass through only two hands, viz.
through those of the shippers in England, and those of their agents
established on _the western coast of Africa_, who would sell them
directly to the Timbuctoo trader, which latter, instead of having
several principalities and kingdoms to pass through (at the exit
from each of which, as well as at the entrance of them, he would
have a charge for protection or convoy, called _statta_, levied on
the goods), would have no convoy-charge, or statta, to pay; he
would have but ten hundred, instead of fifteen or sixteen hundred
miles to go, being about two-thirds of the distance of the road
from Tunis or Tripoli, through Fezzan, to Timbuctoo.

N.B. There is an immense bank near the contemplated depot, or port
258 (abounding in fish, which now supplies the _wahs_, or cultivated
spots in the desert, as well as the territories on the southern
confines thereof), which produces fish sufficient to supply the
whole of the interior of Africa, as well as the shores of the
Mediterranean, &c. &c.

_Letter from Vasco de Gama, in elucidation of this Plan_.

Sir,

The Society of Encouragement for National Industry in France, has
granted prizes for various discoveries in the arts and sciences;
bu