Letter VIII From Mr. Willis to Mr. Jackson
My Dear Sir, Harley-Street, London,
12th December, 1797.
I thank you warmly for your intelligence concerning the interior of Africa, and beg you will continue to favour me with all the information you can collect upon this subject. Mr. Park has been almost as far as Jinnie, but did not reach Timbuctoo; he is now on his way to England, in an American ship, via America. We are anxious for his arrival, which may be expected in the course of the present month; and all the Africani are extremely curious to hear the detail of his most interesting journey, which we hope will produce some authentic knowledge, of a considerable part of those regions, that have hitherto baffled all the ardour and energy of European enquiry, though they have always excited the curiosity of the most eminent and enlightened men, both in past and present times.
I thank you also for the commercial intelligence you have sent me.
Do you know whether the emperor of Marocco has any collection of books? If he has, probably some ancient books, of great value, might be found among them.
I should consider it as a very great obligation if you could procure, and send me any book or manuscript in the character and language of Timbuctoo. We are informed that, besides the Arabic, they have a character of their own, perfectly different.
I remain, my dear Sir, Sincerely your’s,
J. WILLIS.
Extract of a Letter to Mr. Jackson, from His Excellency
J.M. Matra, British Envoy to Marocco, &c.
Tangier, November 8, 1797.
I have not yet received any answer from Sir Joseph Banks to the letter from you, which I sent to him. Should you be able to obtain any information from Timbuctoo 104, or of the interior of this country, which would gratify one’s curiosity, I will be very thankful for a slice of it.
I am ever, dear Jackson, Most faithfully your’s,
JAMES M MATRA.
Notes
104 All my information respecting Timbuctoo, will be found in Jackson’s Account of Marocco, Chapter XIII.