made great advances to a knowledge of that interior
before unexplored. The design of examining on
land Africa, to find out the manners, habits, and
institutions of its men, the state of the country,
its commercial capabilities in themselves, and relative
to this country, formed the African Association.
From the liberal sentiments, knowledge, and comprehensive
views of that society, were the courage and enterprise
of adventurers stimulated to particular undertakings
of discovery.
We are now arrived at the period when England, aroused
by the commercial advantages, which Portugal was deriving
from her African possessions, determined, in defiance
of the pope of Rome and “the Lords of Guinea,”
to participate in the treasures, and to form her own
settlements on the African coast, although it must
be admitted, that one of the motives by which the
English merchants were actuated, was not founded on
humanity or patriotism. The glorious and splendid
results, which had arisen from the discovery of the
East and West Indies, caused the ocean to be generally
viewed as the grand theatre where wealth and glory
were to be gained. The cultivation of the West
India Islands by the labour of Europeans, was found
to be a task almost impracticable, and the attention
was thence drawn to discover a source, from which
manual labour could be obtained, adapted to the climate,
and this resource was soon found in the black population
of Africa. It is not to be doubted, that many
of our African settlements were formed for the purpose
of procuring a supply of slaves, for the West India
possessions, at the same time, the attention of others
was excited by a far more innocent and brilliant prospect.
It was in the beginning of the seventeenth century,
that an unbounded spirit of enterprise appears to
have been excited amongst the British merchants, by
vague reports of an Africa El Dorado. The
most flattering reports had reached Europe, of the
magnitude of the gold trade carried on at Timbuctoo,
and along the course of the Niger; despatches were
even received from Morocco, representing its treasures,
as surpassing those of Mexico and Peru, and in 1618,
a company was formed in London, for the express purpose
of penetrating to the country of gold, and to Timbuctoo.
Exaggeration stepped in to inflame the minds of the
speculators, with the enormous wealth which awaited
them in the interior of Africa. The roofs of the
houses were represented to be covered with plates
of gold, that the bottoms of the rivers glistened
with the precious metal, and the mountains had only
to be excavated, to yield a profusion of the metallic
treasure. From the northern part of Africa, impediments
of almost an insuperable nature presented themselves,
to the attainment of these great advantages; immense
deserts, as yet unexplored by human foot, and the
knowledge of the existence of tribes of barbarous people
on the borders of them, were in themselves sufficient
to daunt the spirit of adventure in those quarters,
and ultimately drew the attention to the discovery
of another channel, by which the golden treasures
of Timbuctoo could be reached, without encountering
the appalling dangers of the deserts, or the murderous
intentions of the natives.
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