ould 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.

VASCO DE GAMA.

_Eton, 28th May, 1819_.
264

_On Commercial Intercourse with Africa_.

(TO THE EDITOR OF THE MONTHLY MAGAZINE.)

Sir,

The plan of your correspondent, for opening a commercial
intercourse with the interior of Africa, appears to me so direct
and simple, that I am only surprised it has not been thought of
before. The Moors are the merchants of Africa; the chain of
communication that runs from the states of Barbary to the negro
kingdoms, and from the shores of the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea.
To judge of the humanity of these people from the accounts of
shipwrecked sailors, whom they have dragged into slavery, and then
liberated for money, would be not less fallacious than to estimate
the character of the English nation from the plunderers of the
wrecks on their coast. From such accounts, the name of Moor has
inspired us with horror; and Park's detention at the camp of Ali,
one of their chiefs, has contributed to confirm it. Park, however,
so far from endeavouring to conciliate his captors, endeavoured, by
his own confession,