ast of France. The continent of
America was the great theatre on which her chief vigour was displayed;
nor did she fail to exert herself in successful efforts against the
French settlements on the coast of Africa. The whole gum trade, from
Cape Blanco to the river Gambia, an extent of five hundred miles, had
been engrossed by the French, who built Fort Louis within the mouth of
the Senegal, extending their factories near three hundred leagues up
that river, and on the same coast had fortified the island of Goree, in
which they maintained a considerable garrison. The gum senega, of which
a great quantity is used by the manufacturers of England, being wholly
in the hands of the enemy, the English dealers were obliged to buy it at
second-hand from the Dutch, who purchased it of the French, and exacted
an exorbitant price for that commodity. This consideration forwarded the
plan for annexing the country to the possession of Great Britain. The
project was first conceived by Mr. Thomas Gumming, a sensible quaker,
who, as a private merchant, had made a voyage to Portenderrick, an
adjoining part of the coast, and contracted a personal acquaintance with
Amir, the moorish king of Legibelli.*

* The name the natives give to that part of South Barbary,
known to merchants and navigators by that of the Gum Coast,
and called in maps, the Sandy Desert of Sara, and sometimes
Zaia.

He found this African prince extremely well disposed towards the
subjects of Great Britain, whom he publicly preferred to all other
Europeans, and so exasperated against the French, that he declared he
should never be easy till they were exterminated from the river Senegal.
At that very time he had commenced hostilities against them, and
earnestly desired that the king of England would send out an armament
to reduce Fort Louis and Goree, with some ships of force to protect
the traders. In that case, he promised to join his Britannic majesty's
forces, and grant an exclusive trade to his subjects. Mr. Gumming not
only perceived the advantages that would result from such an exclusive
privilege with regard to the gum, but foresaw many other important
consequences of an extensive trade in a country, which, over and above
the gum senega, contains many valuable articles, such as gold dust,
elephants' teeth, hides, cotton, bees' wax, slaves, ostrich feathers,
indigo, ambergris, and civet. Elevated with a prospect of an acquisition
so valuable to