INTERCOl/RSE WITH AFRICA. 257 expects, and generally obtains, from fifty to sixty per cent, profit on them, to which he considers himself entitled, from the fatigue and privations of his passage through the Desert, during a journey through a country, for the most part barren, of above fifteen hundred miles in length ; through various kingdoms and principalities, subject to a charge for (statta) convoy at the exit and entrance of each respective state or district on each side of the Sahara, as well as in the Sahara itself.

But, according to the plan here suggested to the commercial community, all these various articles, instead of passing through five several hands, would now pass through only two hands, viz. through those of the shippers in England, and those of their agents established on the western coast of Africa, who would sell them directly to the Timbuctoo trader, which latter, instead of having several principalities and kingdoms to pass through (at the exit from each of which, as well as at the entrance of them, he would have a charge for protection or convoy, called statta, levied on the goods), would have no convoy-charge, or statta, to pay ; he would have but ten hundred, instead of fifteen or sixteen hundred miles to go, being about two-thirds of the distance of the road from Tunis or Tripoli, through Fezzan, to Timbuctoo. N. B. There is an immense bank near the contemplated depot, or port (abounding in fish, which now supplies the wahs, or cultivated s