( 337 ) APPENDIX I.

BY REV. 0. T. WILSON.

THE question of opening up commerce with the tribes inhabiting Central Africa is becoming every year of greater importance to Great Britain ; as in many markets where our merchants had formerly a monopoly, formidable rivals have entered into competition with us, and as some countries which used to be large consumers of our manufactures are now manufacturing for themselves, it is manifest that new markets and fresh fields for commerce must be sought if we are to have a continuance of the commercial prosperity which our country has formerly enjoyed. No region of our earth presents so virgin a field for enterprise of this sort as Central Africa, with its vast lakes, fertile soil, and teeming population.

Several projects have been set on foot with the object of establishing trading stations in, and opening up trade with, the interior of Africa ; notably one promoted by the late Mr.

J. Bradshaw, of Manchester ; but his scheme was far too vast and visionary, and he asked much too large a capital (10,000,000?.) to start the undertaking. Central Africa is no El Dorado, as some people seem to imagine, where gold is to be had in unlimited quantities for the trouble of picking it up. Yet a properly organised company, under the guidance of men possessing the ordinary qualities necessary for commercial success, prudence, a willingness to learn, and not to stick by preconceived notions, and not in too great a hurry to become rich, would in a few years get a fair return for the money invested, and would do more (by promoting lawful trade) than a score of gunboats towards suppressing the horrible trade in human beings still unhappily carried on to a large extent.

But one great obstacle has to be encountered at the very outset of the enterprise, viz. the difficulty of transport from the great lakes to the sea. No one who has studied the question VOL. I. z