Note (return) — PLAN

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: