to appear as contemptible as possible in their
eyes; and yet, with this disadvantage, the greater part of the
miseries he endured proceeded from the climate and the irritation
of his own mind.

The Arabs of Sahara are the carriers of merchandize throughout
North Africa, and the Moors are in the constant habit of selling
265 gum to the French on the Senegal. The French say they are
perfidious; but they give no proof of it that I have seen. I have
met with a French traveller, who owns that his countrymen deceive
them either in the weight or measure of the gum they purchase.

Bruce found a friend in every Moorish merchant, and integrity and
intelligence in all. And where should these qualities be found in a
country like the interior of Africa, in which learning has no place
but among merchants?

So much for the proposed carriers of English goods to Timbuctoo.
Now for the road. The fertile parts of Africa are hot and humid,
unwholesome and dangerous; and the kings are often at war with each
other. Park experienced both these evils; and the wonder was, not
so much that he perished on his second journey, as that he returned
from his first. The Desert is dry and heathful. It is sprinkled
with fertile spots, which form a succession of known
resting-places, and the distance between each requires a certain
number of days to travel. The Moors are at home in Sahara; and,
when they go long journeys, the fertile spots are their inns. The
road from the coast of Sahara is also the shortest that has yet
been pointed out to Timbuctoo.

If the means of executing the plan appear sufficient, it is not
necessary to say any thing in favour of the object: the exchange of
British manufactures for gold, speaks for itself. But there is no
266 time to be lost. The French settlement of Galam is advantageously
situated for commerce with Timbuctoo: a Frenchman has already
travelled from Galam to that city, I believe on a commercial
speculation, and he has returned safe.

CATHERINE HUTTON.

_Impediments to our Intercourse with Africa_.

When we consider the maritime strength of Great Britain; her
command of the ocean; the vicinity to Europe of West Barbary, one
of the finest countries in the world; the rich and valuable produce
which is cultivated in this country;-