But of all the advantages to which a better acquaintance with the Inland Regions of Africa may lead, the first in importance is, the extension of the Commerce, and the encouragement of the Manufactures of Britain. That fire-arms are in request with all nations, civilized and savage, who have the means of obtaining them, experience uniformly proves; and we now learn, that to the jealousy which the Princes on the Southern Coast entertain of the powerful Interior States, and to the total neglect of all opportunities of opening, from more favourable quarters, an immediate communication with the inland country, it is owing that the sale of one of the most profitable manufactures of Great Britain is still in a great measure confined to the scanty Tribes which inhabit the shores of the Atlantic. From the same information we are also led to conclude, that the anxious policy which prohibits the conveyance of fire-arms to the Inland Tribes, dictates, as a necessary caution, the severest restraints on the transit of other merchandize. But if, on the system of the Moors, the effect of which has been tried too long for its wisdom to be disputed, associations of Englishmen should form caravans, and take their departure from the highest navigable reaches of the Gambia, or from the settlement which is lately established at Sierra Leona, there is reason to believe, that countries new to the fabrics of England, and probably inhabited by more than a hundred millions of people, may be gradually opened to her trade. On this system, much greater would be their profits than those which the Merchants of Fezzan receive; for they would reach, by a journey of 700 miles from their vessels, the same markets to which a land-carriage of 3000 conveys from the Mediterranean the goods of the Fezzanners; and they would also possess the farther advantage of obtaining at prime cost, the same articles for which the Merchants of Fezzan are subjected to the complicated disadvantages of a high price, of an inferior quality, and of the varying exactions that the despotic Governments of Barbary impose. Now if it be considered, that notwithstanding the vast expence of land-carriage, and of an exorbitant price on the purchase of the articles which they sell, the Traders of Fezzan are still enabled to collect a profit that upholds and encourages their commerce, it must be evident, that the gain which the Merchants of England would derive from a similar traffic, conducted as is here proposed, would be such as few commercial adventures have ever been found to yield. That no difficulties will attend the execution of the Plan, the general history of new undertakings forbids us to believe; but as far as the _climate_ and _religion_ of the Negros are in question, there seems to be little discouragement; for the long descent of the rivers is a proof that the elevation of the inland country is raised above the level of the coast and consequently that