INTERCOURSE WITH AFRICA. 259 Africa, or of the manners and dispositions of the natives.

A knowledge therefore of the African Arabic appears indispensable to this great undertaking; and it should seem that a commercial adventurer is much more likely to obtain his object than a scientific traveller, for this plain reason, because it is much easier to persuade the Africans that we travel into their country for the purposes of commerce and its result profit, than to persuade them that we are so anxious to ascertain the course of their rivers !

Accordingly, it was aptly observed by the Negroes of Congo, when they learned that Captain Tuckey came not to trade nor to make war ; " fVhat then come for ? only to take walk and make book P" I do not mean now to lay down a plan for the colonisation of Africa, or for opening an extensive commerce with that vast continent, but I would suggest the propriety of the method by which the East India Company govern their immense territories. / would wish to see an African Company formed on an extensive scale, with a large capital. I am convinced that such a company would be of more service to the commerce of this country than the present India trade, where the natives, without being in want of our manufactures, surpass us in ingenuity. But the Africans, on the contrary, are in want of our manufactured goods, and give immense sums for them. According to a s 2