262 INTERCOURSE WITH AFRICA.

The goods, in passing through hostile territories, (these sovereigns Uving in a state of continual warfare with each other,) would be subject to innumerable imposts ; it would therefore be expedient to form a plan whereby the goods should reach Timbuctoo through an eligible part of the Desert : but some persons who have been in the habit of trading for gum to Portandik, have declared the inhabitants of Sahara to be a wild and savage race, untractable and not to be civilised by commerce, or by any other means.

This 1 must beg leave to contradict : the Arabs of Sahara, from their wandering habits, are certainly wild, and they are hostile to all who do not understand their language ; but if two or three Europeans capable of holding colloquial intercourse with them, were to go and establish a factory on their coast, and then suggest to them the benefit they would derive, being the carriers of such a trade as is here contemplated, their ferocity would be transferred forthwith into that virtue in the practice of which they so eminently excel all other nations, hospitality ; and the most inviolable alliance might be formed with such a people. I speak not from the experience of books, but from an actual intercourse, and from having passed many years of my youth among them.

An advantageous spot might be fixed upon • Not Jews, because the Arabs (of the Desert) have a great contempt for them, and execrate them.