Sir,
The plan of your correspondent, for opening a commercial intercourse with the interior of Africa, appears to me so direct and simple, that I am only surprised it has not been thought of before. The Moors are the merchants of Africa; the chain of communication that runs from the states of Barbary to the negro kingdoms, and from the shores of the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea. To judge of the humanity of these people from the accounts of shipwrecked sailors, whom they have dragged into slavery, and then liberated for money, would be not less fallacious than to estimate the character of the English nation from the plunderers of the wrecks on their coast. From such accounts, the name of Moor has inspired us with horror; and Park's detention at the camp of Ali, one of their chiefs, has contributed to confirm it. Park, however, so far from endeavouring to conciliate his captors, endeavoured, by his own confession, to appear as contemptible as possible in their eyes; and yet, with this disadvantage, the greater part of the miseries he endured proceeded from the climate and the irritation of his own mind.
The Arabs of Sahara are the carriers of merchandize throughout North Africa, and the Moors are in the constant habit of selling gum to the French on the Senegal. The French say they are perfidious; but they give no proof of it that I have seen. I have met with a French traveller, who owns that his countrymen deceive them either in the weight or measure of the gum they purchase.
Bruce found a friend in every Moorish merchant, and integrity and intelligence in all. And where should these qualities be found in a country like the interior of Africa, in which learning has no place but among merchants?
So much for the proposed carriers of English goods to Timbuctoo. Now for the road. The fertile parts of Africa are hot and humid, unwholesome and dangerous; and the kings are often at war with each other. Park experienced both these evils; and the wonder was, not so much that he perished on his second journey, as that he returned from his first. The Desert is dry and heathful. It is sprinkled with fertile spots, which form a succession of known resting-places, and the distance between each requires a certain number of days to travel. The Moors are at home in Sahara; and, when they go long journeys, the fertile spots are their inns. The road from the coast of Sahara is also the shortest that has yet been pointed out to Timbuctoo.
If the means of executing the plan appear sufficient, it is not necessary to say any thing in favour of the object: the exchange of British manufactures for gold, speaks for itself. But there is no time to be lost. The French settlement of Galam is advantageously situated for commerce with Timbuctoo: a Frenchman has already travelled from Galam to that city, I believe on a commercial speculation, and he has returned safe.
Catherine Hutton.
Impediments to our Intercourse with Africa.
When we consider the maritime strength of Great Britain; her command of the ocean; the vicinity to Europe of West Barbary, one of the finest countries in the world; the rich and valuable produce which is cultivated in this country;--when we consider that our garrison of Gibraltar is in its vicinage, and but a few hours' sail from it, we are naturally astonished that our communication with this country is so limited. That we have less commercial communication with Barbary, than we have with countries that do not open to us any thing like the commercial advantages that this country offers, though they are thousands of miles from us. It appears relevant, therefore, to inquire, whence originates this impeded intercourse? There are two great impediments to our free intercourse with Sudan through Marocco: viz., a general ignorance of the Arabic language, as spoken in the latter country; and the repugnancy of the Muhamedan religion to that of Christ. With respect to the first of these impediments, it is remarkable that this learned language is so little known in Europe,--this language, the most prevalent in the world, a language which is spoken or understood almost without intermission from the western shores of Africa on the Atlantic ocean, to the confines of China,--a language understood, wherever Muhamedans are to be found, throughout all the populous and commercial regions of Africa, from the Western Ocean to the Red Sea, and from the Mediterranean to the country of Kaffers, [178] in the vicinage of the Cape of Good Hope. With respect to the second of these impediments, the repugnancy of the Muhamedan religion to that of Christ, it may justly be observed, that this is not really so great as we are apt to imagine; the moral principles of Muhamedans being not unlike those of the former Christians, being in fact a composition of Hebrew and Christian morality. They acknowledge Jesus Christ to be a prophet, and tell us, that, in this respect, they are on the safe side, as we impute no Divine authority to Muhamed. But a most violent repugnance to Christians has been propagated by the (Fakeers) Muselmen saints, or holy men. They have industriously circulated the belief of an old superstitious prediction which they have on record, viz. that the Christians will invade the Muhamedan countries, take their cities and towns, and establish the Christian religion on the ruins of that of Muhamed, and take possession of the country. These reports, propagated, as before observed, by the (Fakeers) Muhamedan saints, among the lower orders, have kindled a high degree of rancour and animosity, (equal to that which the Catholics formerly indulged towards their protestant brethren,) which will never be extinguished until a friendly alliance and extensive commercial intercourse be established with them; which alone can soften this rancour and animosity into peace and amity. This animosity has been increased also by the rancorous anti-christian disposition manifested towards these people by the writings of Roman catholic priests and others. [179] If these uncharitable opinions of each other could be eradicated, the blessings that would result to the Africans would be incalculable; a reciprocal exchange of good offices might pave the way to purchase of the Emperor of Marocco the port of Agadeer or Santa Cruz, aptly denominated, from its contiguity to the Sahara (Beb Sudan) "the gate of Sudan," which, in the hands of the English, would be the key to the whole of the interior of Africa, and an effectual link in our chain of communication with the interior of that undiscovered continent; it would moreover secure to us the entire commerce of those extensive and populous regions, to the exclusion of our Moorish competitors of Cairo, Alexandria, Tripoli, Tunis, Algiers, and other ports of Barbary, who supply the people of Sudan with European merchandise at the fourth, fifth, and sixth hand.
Footnote 178:[ (return) ] Kaffer (or Caffre) is an Arabic word which signifies infidels or unbelievers (in Muhamed); the very name has been given by Muhamedans, and therefore it is to be presumed that the Muhamedans approximate the countries contiguous to the Cape.