X INTRODUCTION,

that has been so fatal to all our ill-concerted

enterprises ; we must shake off the rust of pre- cedent, and strike into a new path altogether.

Do we not lack that spirit of union so expe- dient and necessary to all great enterprises?

Is not the public good sacrificed to self-ag- grandisement and individual interest.— Let the African Institution unite its funds to those of the African Association, and co-operate with the efforts of that society ! Let the African Company also throw in their share of

intelligence. The separated and sometimes dis- cordant interests of all these societies, if united, might effect much. The united efforts of such

societies would do more in a year towards the

civilization of Africa, and the abolition of slavery, than they will do in ten, unconnected as they now are. Concordia parva i^es crescunt.—When

each looks to particular interests, we cannot

expect the result to be the general good.

It is probable that the magnificent enterprises

of the Portuguese and Spaniards, would, ere

this, have colonised and converted to Chris-

tianity, all the eligible spots of idolatrous Africa,

if their attention to this grand object had not

been diverted by the discovery of America, and

their establishments in Brazil, Mexico, &c.

I was established upwards of sixteen years in West and South Barbary ; territories that main-

tain an uninterrupted intercourse with all those

countries that Major Houghton, Hornemann,

Park, Rontgen, Burckhardt, Ritchie, and others