That on the receipt of any interesting intelligence from any of the said persons, the Members of the Association shall be convened by Letters from the Secretary; and that such parts of the said intelligence as, in the opinion of the Committee, may, without endangering the object of their Association, be made public, shall be communicated to the Meeting: That an Account of all Monies paid and received shall, on the last Saturday in the month of May in each year, be submitted to the consideration of the Society at large, by the Treasurer: That the Members of the Committee be chosen by Ballot, on the first Saturday in the month of May in each year. * * * * * The preceding Resolutions having been agreed to by all the Members present, they proceeded on the same day, the 9th of June, 1788, in pursuance of their Fourth Resolution, to chuse a Committee by Ballot, and the following persons were elected: LORD RAWDON, BISHOP OF LANDAFF, SIR JOSEPH BANKS, MR. BEAUFOY, MR. STUART. ~CHAPTER I.~ _Proceedings of the Association from the Time of its Establishment, to that of the Departure of_ Mr. LEDYARD. * * * * * The Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Regions of Africa was formed on the 9th of June, in the year 1788; and on the same day a Committee of its Members was invested with the direction of its Funds, the management of its Correspondence, and the choice of the persons to whom the Geographical mission should be assigned. Naturally anxious for the speedy attainment of the important object thus recommended to their care, an object made doubly interesting by the consideration of its having engaged the attention, and baffled the researches of the most inquisitive and the most powerful nations of antiquity, the Managers proceeded with the utmost ardour to the immediate execution of the Plan. Two Gentlemen, whose qualifications appeared to be eminent, proposed to undertake the Adventure. One of them, a Mr. LEDYARD, was an American by birth, and seemed from his youth to have felt an invincible desire to make himself acquainted with the unknown, or imperfectly discovered regions of the globe. For several years he had lived with the Indians of America, had studied their manners, and had practised in their school the means of obtaining the protection, and of recommending himself to the favour of Savages. In the humble situation of a Corporal of Marines, to which he submitted rather than relinquish his pursuit, he had made, with Captain Cook, the Voyage of the World; and feeling on his return an anxious desire of penetrating from the North Western Coast of America, which Cook had partly explored, to the Eastern Coast, with which he himself was perfectly familiar, he determined to traverse the vast Continent from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean.