Prospectus of a Plan for Forming a North African or Sudan Company
To be instituted for the purpose of establishing an extensive Commerce with, and laying open to British Enterprise, all the Interior Regions of North Africa.
OBJECTS OF THE SOCIETY.
1st. To lay open the interior regions of North Africa to British enterprise—to supply those vast and unexplored countries with British manufactures, with East-India goods, and with colonial produce.
2dly, To encourage our manufactories, by opening a new market calculated to improve the revenue of the country, to provide employment for the labouring poor, and to enrich the mercantile community; the genial influence of which sources of prosperity will necessarily diffuse itself through all classes.
3dly, To facilitate, through the medium of commerce (the only medium by which it can possibly be effected), the exploration of the interior regions of Africa, (which have remained to this day a sealed book, notwithstanding the many adventurous expeditions that have been undertaken,) by opening a communication with the natives of that vast and little-known continent, and by calling to our aid the co-operation of the native chiefs, by holding out to them the benefits which they will derive from commercial intercourse as a reward for their assistance and exertions in promoting this desirable Object.
For these purposes it is proposed—
That the funds to be raised be one hundred thousand pounds, in shares of one hundred pounds each. Ten shares to constitute a director.
The spot proposed to be fixed on as the point of communication, and commercial depôt, between Great Britain and the interior of Africa is safe and healthy: it will afford a direct communication with Timbuctoo and the interior regions of Sudan, without being subject to the uncertainty of securing the favour and protection of the various sultans and sheiks of the respective territories of the interior, through which the merchants and traders may pass—a measure which would have been indispensable in every plan that has hitherto been suggested for the discovery of those interesting regions.
The plan now to be adopted, on the contrary, will be subject to none of those impediments and uncertainties; but the merchants and travellers will pass through territories where they need fear no hostility, but will be received with hospitality and attention by the natives, who will give them every assistance and accommodation in their progress through their country.
Connected with this plan, a school for instructing the British youth in African Arabic, so as to initiate them in the rudiments of that language previously to their departure for Africa, might be established, under the direction of James Grey Jackson, professor of African Arabic, &c.
The present scheme has been many years in contemplation, but no favourable opportunity of making it thus public having hitherto occurred, it is now offered to the public, in consequence of the energies lately manifested by France and by America for African colonisation, and also by Holland.
The projectors, for the honour of their own country, are anxious that Great Britain may not, through supineness, suffer this important discovery to be wrested from her by any foreign power, but that she should at least share the glory due to this important achievement, the completion of which would immortalize the prince who should cherish it to its maturity.
Capitalists, and gentlemen resident in Great Britain, desirous of further information on this subject, may address themselves to James Grey Jackson, whose residence, at any time, may be known at Messrs. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, London.
TO THE BRITISH PUBLIC.
London, 31st March, 1819.
The above plan is ingenuously, liberally, and disinterestedly submitted to the consideration of British capitalists and merchants of respectability. The advantages to be derived from such an establishment as is here contemplated, if not evident to Great Britain, is clearly visible to Holland, to France, and to America.
The projector, therefore, without mentioning the offers that have been made to him by a foreign maritime power, and without courting the suffrages of British merchants in support of this plan, has it in contemplation, (provided no attention is paid to it in England,) to lay this eligible scheme open to a foreign power. If, therefore, the projector should accept employment in this undertaking from a foreign power, it will be in the conviction, that it is more to the interest of mankind in general, and to Europe in particular, that this plan for opening an extensive, lucrative, and beneficial commerce with Africa, (which would necessarily lead to its civilisation,) should be known to, and adopted by, a foreign power, than that this vast and little-known continent should, (to the indelible disgrace of civilised Europe,) still continue to remain an useless and an undiscovered country to the present generation!
James Grey Jackson
Appendix to the foregoing Prospectus, being an Epitome of the Trade carried on by Great Britain and the European States in the Mediterranean, indirectly with Timbuctoo, the Commercial Depôt of North Africa, and with other States of Sudan.
Marseilles, Genoa, Leghorn, and other commercial ports of France and Italy, as well as of Spain, send to Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, and Egypt, for the markets of Sudan, manufactured silks, damask, brocade, velvets, raw silk, combs of box and ivory, gold-thread, paper, manufactured sugar, cochineal, and various other merchandise.
Great Britain sends to the Barbary ports in the Mediterranean, and to Mogodor on the Atlantic Ocean (which are afterwards conveyed to Timbuctoo), for distribution at the several markets of Sudan—
East India Goods, viz.—Gum benjamin, cassia, cinnamon, mace, nutmegs, cloves, ginger, black pepper, Bengal silk, China silks, nankeens, blue linens, long cloths, and muslins (mulls).
West India Produce.—Pimento, tobacco, coffee, cocoa, and manufactured sugar.
Linens.—Dimities, plattilias, creas, rouans, Britannias, cambrics, and Irish linens.
Hardware.—Iron nails, copper ditto, brass ditto, sword blades, dagger ditto, guns, gunpowder, knives, &c. &c.
Cloths.—Superfine, of plain brilliant colours, not mixtures, and cassimeres. And various other articles of merchandise.
Immense quantities of salt are also sent to Timbuctoo, which is for the most part collected at the mines of Tishet and Shangareen, (see the map of northern and central Africa, in the New Supplement to the Encyclopaedia Britannica,) through which the caravan would pass to Timbuctoo.
The following are the articles purchased by the Moors and Arab traders, and are the returns brought back to Barbary from Sudan; viz.
Gold dust, and trinkets of pure Wangara gold, of various fashions, of the manufacture of Housa and Jinnie.—B’Kore Sudan (fumigation of Sudan), a kind of frankincense highly esteemed by the Africans. Ostrich feathers (the finest in the world). Elephants’ Teeth. Korkidan, so called by the Arabs, being the horns of the rhinoceros: these are a very costly article, and are in high estimation among the muselmen, for sword-hilts and dagger-handles. Guza Sarawie (Grains of Paradise). Gum Copal Assafoetida, and a great variety of drugs for manufacturing uses, and various roots for dyeing. Ebony. Camwood. Sandal wood. Indigo, equal to that of Guatimala: to which may be added, the command of the gum trade of Senegal.
All the foregoing merchandise being first landed at Alexandria, Tripoli, Tunis, Algiers, and Tetuan, and other Barbary ports in the Mediterranean, as well as at Mogodor on the western coast of Africa, are afterwards sold to the Muhamedan merchants, who sell them with a very good profit to other Moors. These goods frequently go through three, four, and five hands, before they reach the consumer in Sudan, subject to a profit gained by each holder of from twenty to thirty per cent.; the last purchaser, who conveys them through the Desert, however, expects, and generally obtains, from fifty to sixty per cent. profit on them, to which he considers himself entitled, from the fatigue and privations of his passage through the Desert, during a journey through a country, for the most part barren, of above fifteen hundred miles in length; through various kingdoms and principalities, subject to a charge for (statta) convoy at the exit and entrance of each respective state or district on each side of the Sahara, as well as in the Sahara itself.
But, according to the plan here suggested to the commercial community, all these various articles, instead of passing through five several hands, would now pass through only two hands, viz. through those of the shippers in England, and those of their agents established on the western coast of Africa, who would sell them directly to the Timbuctoo trader, which latter, instead of having several principalities and kingdoms to pass through (at the exit from each of which, as well as at the entrance of them, he would have a charge for protection or convoy, called statta, levied on the goods), would have no convoy-charge, or statta, to pay; he would have but ten hundred, instead of fifteen or sixteen hundred miles to go, being about two-thirds of the distance of the road from Tunis or Tripoli, through Fezzan, to Timbuctoo.
N.B. There is an immense bank near the contemplated depôt, or port (abounding in fish, which now supplies the wahs, or cultivated spots in the desert, as well as the territories on the southern confines thereof), which produces fish sufficient to supply the whole of the interior of Africa, as well as the shores of the Mediterranean, &c. &c.
Letter from Vasco de Gama, in elucidation of
this Plan.
Sir,
The Society of Encouragement for National Industry in France, has granted prizes for various discoveries in the arts and sciences; but I wish government, or some society of our own country, would offer a liberal prize for the best mode of colonising Africa, and for meliorating the condition of the inhabitants of that vast and little known continent. A well-digested plan for the discovery of this continent might be followed by the most desirable events. The efforts of the African Association have, to say the least, been lamentably disastrous; little good can be anticipated from the efforts of solitary or scientific travellers in a country where science is not cultivated, and where the travellers know little or nothing of the 173 general language of Africa, or of the manners and dispositions of the natives.
A knowledge therefore of the African Arabic appears indispensable to this great undertaking; and it should seem that a commercial adventurer is much more likely to obtain his object than a scientific traveller, for this plain reason,—because it is much easier to persuade the Africans that we travel into their country for the purposes of commerce and its result—profit, than to persuade them that we are so anxious to ascertain the course of their rivers!
Accordingly, it was aptly observed by the Negroes of Congo, when they learned that Captain Tuckey came not to trade nor to make war; “What then come for? only to take walk and make book?”
I do not mean now to lay down a plan for the colonisation of Africa, or for opening an extensive commerce with that vast continent, but I would suggest the propriety of the method by which the East India Company govern their immense territories. I would wish to see an African Company formed on an extensive scale, with a large capital. I am convinced that such a company would be of more service to the commerce of this country than the present India trade, where the natives, without being in want of our manufactures, surpass us in ingenuity. But the Africans, on the contrary, are in want of our manufactured goods, and give immense sums for them. According to a late author, who has given us the fullest description 174 of Timbuctoo 175 and its vicinity, a Plattilia is there worth fifty Mexico dollars, or twenty meezens of gold, each meezen being worth two and a half Mexico dollars; a piece of Irish linen of ordinary quality, and measuring twenty-five yards, is worth seventy-five Mexico dollars; and a quintal of loaf sugar is worth one hundred Mexico dollars. Now if we investigate the parsimonious mode of traversing the Desert, we shall find that a journey of 1500 English miles is performed from Fas to Timbuctoo at the rate of forty shillings sterling per quintal, so that loaf sugar (a weighty and bulky article) can be rendered from London at Timbuctoo through Tetuan and Fas, including the expense of a land-carriage of 1500 miles at about 6£. per quintal, thus:
Refined sugar on board in London for s. d.per cwt. 70 0
Duty on importation in any part of
Marocco, ten per cent. 7 0
Freight, &c. five per cent. 3 6
Land carriage across the Desert on camels
to Timbuctoo 40 0
——
s. 120 6
——
So that if 100 lb. of loaf sugar rendered, at Timbuctoo cost 120s. 6d and sells there for 100 Mexico dollars at 4s. 6d. each, or for 22£. 5s. there will result a profit of 270 per cent.
The profit in fine goods, such as the linens before mentioned, is still more considerable, not being subject to so heavy a charge for carriage. The immense quantity of 176 gold dust and gold bars that would be brought from Timbuctoo, Wangara, Gana, and other countries, in exchange for this merchandise, would be incalculable, and has, perhaps, never yet been contemplated by Europeans!!—In the same work, above quoted, 3d edition, page 289, will be found a list of the various merchandise exportable from Great Britain, which suit the market of the interior of Africa or Sudan: and also a list of the articles which we should receive in return for those goods.
Plans to penetrate to the mart of Timbuctoo (which would supply Housa, Wangara, Gana, and other districts of Sudan with European merchandize) have been formed; but if a treaty of commerce were made with any of the Negro kings, these plans would be subject to various impediments.
The goods, in passing through hostile territories, (these sovereigns living 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 I 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 on the western coast, in an independent district, where our alliance would be courted, from which the Kafila 177 or Akkaba would have to pass through only one tribe with perfect safety, and subject to no impost whatever; neither would they be subject to any duty on entering the town of Timbuctoo, as they would enter at the Beb Sahara, or gate of the Desert, which exempts them from duty or impost.
That civilisation would be the result of commerce, and that the trade in slaves would decrease with the increase of our commerce with these people, there can be little doubt; and, independent of the advantages of an extensive commerce, the consolation would be great to the Christian and to the Philosopher, of having converted millions of brethren made in the perfection of God’s image, and endowed with reason, from barbarism to civilisation, if not to Christianity!!!
Let us hope, then, that some of the intelligent readers of your luminous and interesting pages will direct their attention to this great national object, and produce ah eligible and well-digested plan for the cultivation of a mutual intercourse through the medium qf commerce with Africa, and for the civilisation of that hitherto neglected continent.
Vasco De Gama.
Eton, 28th May, 1819.
On Commercial Intercourse with Africa.
(TO THE EDITOR OF THE MONTHLY MAGAZINE.)
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.
The abolition of the slave-trade cannot be effected until we shall have substituted some commerce with the Negro countries, equivalent at least, or that shall be more than equivalent to it, otherwise the negro sovereigns of Sudan will never be induced to relinquish so great a source of profit. Every naval officer in His Majesty’s service knows, that if we were to have thirty sail of the line continually off the coast of Guinea, it would not be sufficient to annihilate this abominable traffic, or to deter people from embarking in a trade that yields such extraordinary profits. This being admitted, as it certainly will be by every intelligent man, it follows, that the system now in operation by the British government for the abolition of the slave-trade, will be attended only with an unnecessary expense to this country, without the possibility of effecting the desired object; but, on the contrary, judging from recent events, there is every reason to presume, that this detestable commerce will increase, as it has continued to increase, these last two or three years, in spite of all our operations to prevent it; the Spaniards alone having imported into the island of Cuba more slaves in 1818 and 1819, than in the four preceding years. The result has been, that that island has produced, in 1819, more than double the produce of the former year; their waste lands, accordingly, are in progressive cultivation, and, if they go on thus improving, that island, in a few years hence, will produce coffee and sugar sufficient for the supply of all the markets of Europe.
Finally, Slavery will never give way to any thing but civilisation; the civilisation of Africa can never be accomplished but through a great and extensive commercial intercourse, a commerce that will enrich the negroes, and enable them, by a supply of arms, to contend with and gain an ascendancy over their Muhamedan oppressors, who want no other pretext for attacking them, than that of their being idolaters, which idolatry, it is asserted, authorises the Muselman to make them slaves. Thus, the abolition of slavery must depend on the Africans themselves; and although it is in our power to supply them with the means for their emancipation, yet it is absurd to suppose that we can effect it by our naval operations. If all the great sovereigns of Europe were to agree to make the trading in slaves piracy, they would not prevent it. We cannot emancipate them; that only can be accomplished by their own energy, awakened in them by commercial intercourse, and its accompanying civilisation.
Much might be done if all the African societies were to unite their interest, knowledge, and abilities for this desired object. If the African Company would unite their energies with the African Association, and with the African Institution, such an union would promote the civilisation of the African continent, and the conversion of the Negroes to Christianity.
Notes
173 The general language of North Africa is the Western Arabic, with a knowledge of which language, a traveller may make himself intelligible wherever he may go; either in the negro countries of Sudan, in Egypt, Abyssinia, Sahara, or Barbary.
174 See new Supplement to the Encyclopedia Britannica, article Africa, page 98.
175 See the account of Timbuctoo appended to Jackson’s account of Marocco, published by Cadell and Davies, London, Chap, 18.
176 The Kings, David and Solomon, extracted from Africa to enrich the temple of Jerusalem upwards of 800,000,000£. sterling, a sum sufficient to discharge the national debt; see Commercial Magazine for May 1819, page 6.; which is eight times as much gold as the mines of Brazil have produced since their discovery in 1756. See Commercial Magazine for the same month, page 44.
177 Caravan.
178 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.
179 See Martin Martinius. Abraham Ecchellensis. Maccarius, Theolog. Polemic. Peter Cevaller. Robert de Retz, translator of the Koran. See also the support of this assertion in Jackson’s Account of the Empire of Marocco, enlarged edition, published by Cadell and Davies, Strand, from p. 196. to 208.