WITH AFRICA. 49 of the Mograftra and other tribes would find it so evidently their interest and advantage to be friendly with us, that we might absolutely have the entire command of the Desert, from the shores of the Atlantic to the city of Timbuctoo, which would eventually throw such a weight of power into our hands, as to make even that city itself, in a manner, tributary to us. A plan of this kind should be executed upon a grand national scale, and be pursued with discretion and perseverance.

An attempt to penetrate to Timbuctoo, through Ashantee, and establish a commerce through that country, might meet with temporary success ; but I apprehend that we should labour under the same inconveniences, and be subject to the same arbitrary imposts and exactions, whether in the shape of duties, part of the profits, or otherwise, as we should, by opening a communication through Tripoli. There would be a present or douceur to the king of Ashantee ; others to the princes of the adjoining territories; and, finally, (taking the character of this king to be as represented by the late traveller in that country, Mr. Bowdich), might we not reasonably anticipate that, on the first dispute respecting the division of the profits, the king of Ashantee would order all the English out of his country, and, to terminate the dispute, plunder them of their property ? But, perhaps the establishment of a colony in Ashantee, conjoined to one in Sahara, might not be objectionable. We