Note 110 — Chapter VIII
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The dissuasion from barbarities of which millions are now the victims, as the descriptions of the customs of Ashantee and the interior have shewn, and the interests of science, render this duty more imperious. It has been well observed, “apologies for our present ignorance of every thing that regards geography, &c. might be pleaded by mercantile speculators, but can have little weight with those who have the interests of science at heart, or the national honour and fame, which are intimately connected with those interests. It was not with a view to any immediate commercial advantages, that this liberal encouragement for the discovery of the north-west passage was held out, but with the same expanded objects that sent Cook in search of a southern continent.”
Voltaire’s remark on India is now only applicable to Africa, “Plusieurs y ont fait des fortunes immenses, peu se sont appliqués à connoître ce pays.” I would even recommend indulging the wish of the King of Dahomey to renew and perpetuate his connection with the English, not indeed by resuming the fort, that would be a useless expense, as there is no trade but in ivory, but by establishing a Residency at his capital, the most frugal method of collecting the various accounts of the interior of that neighbourhood for geographical investigators, besides supplying the naturalist. Geographical discoveries in Africa have long been ardently emulated between England and France, and they have stimulated a generous rivalry of investigation between the men of science of both countries. An Englishman first penetrating to the Niger, and determining its course at the moment a learned investigator of the other kingdom had concluded it to be a contrary one, was one of those rational and illustrious triumphs which adorn the historical pages of a nation much more than those of war; for the gratification and the benefit is shared by both, and such successes cease to be invidious when the interests of science are thus mutually at heart. The following immortal tribute from a classic of a rival nation, should stimulate us to challenge as illustrious a record of intellectual research,
· · · · “monumentum ære perennius,
Regalique situ pyramidum altius;”
by a correspondent pursuit of intelligence in Africa.
“Un Anglais, détruit tout ce vain amas d’erreurs dont sont remplies nos histoires des Indes, et confirme ce que le petit nombre d’hommes instruits en a pensé.” Voltaire.