Proceedings of the Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa [1790]

Sketch of the Northern Part of Africa: Exhibiting the Geographical Information Collected by The African Association.
Compiled by J. Rennell. 1790.
Published according to Act of Parliament by James Rennell, March 27 th . 1790.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE AFRICAN ASSOCIATION.
LONDON: PRINTED BY C. MACRAE, PRINTER TO THE ASSOCIATION.
1790.
ERRATA.
The Narrative of the Proceedings of the Society that was formed in the year 1788, for the purpose of Promoting the Discovery of the Inland Districts of Africa, was written, at the request of his Colleagues, by one of the Members of the Committee of that Association; and is now printed at the desire, and for the use of the Society: but as it may also be read by persons unacquainted with the Origin and Object of the Undertaking to which it relates, the following Paper, as descriptive of both, is republished for their information.
Of the objects of inquiry which engage our attention the most, there are none, perhaps, that so much excite continued curiosity, from childhood to age; none that the learned and unlearned so equally wish to investigate, as the nature and history of those parts of the world, which have not, to our knowledge, been hitherto explored. To this desire the Voyages of the late Captain Cook have so far afforded gratification, that nothing worthy of research by Sea, the Poles themselves excepted, remains to be examined; but by Land, the objects of Discovery are still so vast, as to include at least a third of the habitable surface of the earth: for much of Asia, a still larger proportion of America, and almost the whole of Africa, are unvisited and unknown.
In Asia there are few extensive districts of which we are wholly ignorant; but there are many of which we are imperfectly informed; and to our knowledge of several of these, the expected publication of the Travels of Mr. Forster, in the service of the East India Company, may bring material improvement. For, about three years since, in returning from Hindostan to Europe, he travelled by the way of Laldong, Jummoo, Cashmire, Cabul, Herat, and the Caspian Sea; and though the character of a Moorish Merchant, a disguise which the nature of the journey compelled him to assume, would not permit him to depart so far from the usage of Asia, as to make a draught of the country, or to write any other than short memorandums as he passed, yet, if we may judge from the opportunities he had of information, his Narrative must be important. It will probably shew the manners and customs, and military strength of the populous tribes that inhabit the mountains on the North of Lahore: it promises to gratify the eagerness which all men express to acquire a knowledge of the sequestered and unexplored, though celebrated Country of Cashmire: and there is reason to suppose, that it will also describe the rising Empire of the Seiks, the conquerors of Zabeta Cawn, and the rivals of Abdalla. Should this be the case, we shall learn the history of an Empire that already extends from the river Attok, the western branch of the Indus, to the banks of the Jumma; and possibly too we may also be told the particulars of a Religion, which, according to the accounts received, professes to bring back the Hindoos from the idolatrous veneration of images to the purity of their primitive faith, the worship of One God: a Religion, which is said to ascribe to its Founder, Nanock, who died about 200 years since, a sacred character, by supposing that he was Brimha, and that this was his last appearance upon earth: a Religion, which its Followers, in contradiction to the former uniform practice of the Believers in the Shaster, endeavour to make universal, and, with a zeal which resembles the Mahometan, constantly enforce by the sword.