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.

His first Plan for the purpose was that of embarking in a vessel which was then preparing to sail, on a Voyage of Commercial Adventure, to Nootka Sound, on the Western Coast of America; and with this view he expended in sea stores, the greatest part of the money which his chief benefactor Sir Joseph Banks (whose generous conduct the Writer of this Narrative has often heard him acknowledge) had liberally supplied. But the scheme being frustrated by the rapacity of a Custom-house Officer, who had seized and detained the vessel for reasons which on legal inquiry proved to be frivolous, he determined to travel over land to Kamschatka, from whence to the Western coast of America the passage is extremely short. With no more than ten guineas in his purse, which was all that he had left, he crossed the British Channel to Ostend, and by the way of Denmark and the Sound, proceeded to the capital of Sweden, from whence, as it was Winter, he attempted to traverse the Gulph of Bothnia on the ice, in order to reach Kamschatka by the shortest way; but finding, when he came to the middle of the sea, that the water was not frozen, he returned to Stockholm, and taking his course Northward, walked into the Arctic Circle; and passing round the head of the Gulph, descended on its Eastern side to Petersburgh.

There, he was soon noticed as an extraordinary man.—Without stockings, or shoes, and in too much poverty to provide himself with either, he received and accepted an invitation to dine with the Portugueze Ambassador. To this invitation it was probably owing that he was able to obtain the sum of twenty guineas for a bill on Sir Joseph Banks, which he confessed he had no authority to draw, but which, in consideration of the business that he had undertaken, and of the progress that he had made, Sir Joseph, he believed, would not be unwilling to pay. To the Ambassador’s interest it might also be owing that he obtained permission to accompany a detachment of Stores which the Empress had ordered to be sent to Yakutz, for the use of Mr. Billings, an Englishman, at that time in her service.

Thus accommodated, he travelled Eastward through Siberia, six thousand miles, to Yakutz, where he was kindly received by Mr. Billings, whom he remembered on board Captain Cook’s ship, in the situation of the Astronomer’s Servant, but to whom the Empress had now entrusted her schemes of Northern discovery.

From Yakutz he proceeded to Oczakow, on the coast of the Kamschatka sea, from whence he meant to have passed over to that peninsula, and to have embarked on the Eastern side in one of the Russian vessels that trade to the Western shores of America; but finding that the navigation was completely obstructed by the ice, he returned again to Yakutz, in order to wait for the conclusion of the Winter.

Such was his situation, when, in consequence of suspicions not hitherto explained, or resentments for which no reason is assigned, he was seized, in the Empress’s name, by two Russian soldiers, who placed him in a sledge, and conveying him, in the depth of Winter, through the Deserts of the Northern Tartary, left him at last on the Frontiers of the Polish Dominions. As they parted they told him, that if he returned to Russia, he would certainly be hanged, but that if he chose to go back to England, they wished him a pleasant journey.

In the midst of poverty, covered with rags, infested with the usual accompaniments of such cloathing, worn with continued hardship, exhausted by disease, without friends, without credit, unknown, and full of misery, he found his way to Koningsberg.—There, in the hour of his uttermost distress, he resolved once more to have recourse to his old Benefactor, and he luckily found a person who was willing to take his draft for five guineas on the President of the Royal Society.

With this assistance he arrived in England, and immediately waited on Sir Joseph Banks, who told him, knowing his temper, that he believed he could recommend him to an adventure almost as perilous as the one from which he had returned; and then communicated to him the wishes of the Association for Discovering the Inland Countries of Africa.

Ledyard replied, that he had always determined to traverse the Continent of Africa as soon as he had explored the Interior of North America; and as Sir Joseph had offered him a Letter of Introduction, he came directly to the Writer of these Memoirs. Before I had learnt from the note the name and business of my Visitor, I was struck with the manliness of his person, the breadth of his chest, the openness of his countenance, and the inquietude of his eye. I spread the map of Africa before him, and tracing a line from Cairo to Sennar, and from thence Westward in the latitude and supposed direction of the Niger, I told him that was the route, by which I was anxious that Africa might, if possible, be explored. He said, he should think himself singularly fortunate to be entrusted with the Adventure. I asked him when he would set out? “To-morrow morning,” was his answer. I told him I was afraid that we should not be able, in so short a time, to prepare his instructions, and to procure for him the letters that were requisite; but that if the Committee should approve of his proposal, all expedition should be used.

Such is the history, and such were the qualifications of one of the persons whom the Committee engaged in its service.

The other, Mr. Lucas, had been sent, when a boy, to Cadiz, in Spain, for education as a merchant, and having the misfortune on his return to be captured by a Sallee Rover, was brought as a slave to the Imperial Court of Morocco.

Three years of captivity preceded his restoration to freedom, and his consequent departure for Gibraltar; where, at the request of General Cornwallis, he accepted the offices of Vice-Consul and Chargé d’Affaires in the Empire of Morocco; and had the satisfaction to return, as the Delegate of his Sovereign, to the very kingdom in which, for so long a period, he had lived as a slave. At the end of sixteen years he once more revisited England, and was soon appointed Oriental Interpreter to the British Court, in which situation he was when he became known to the Committee, and expressed his willingness, with His Majesty’s permission, to undertake, in the Service of the Association, whatever Journey his knowlege of the Manners, Customs, and Language of the Arabs might enable him to perform. His Majesty, with that liberal attention to the Progress of Knowledge which at all times has distinguished his reign, signified his pleasure, that Mr. Lucas should proceed on the business of the Society; and that his salary as Oriental Interpreter should be continued to him during his absence.

Having thus obtained the assistance of two persons so eminently qualified to facilitate the attainment of its object, the Committee proceeded to prescribe to them their respective routs.

To Mr. Ledyard they assigned, at his own desire, as an enterprize of obvious peril and of difficult success, the task of traversing from East to West, in the latitude attributed to the Niger, the widest part of the Continent of Africa.

To Mr. Lucas, in consideration of the knowledge which he possessed of the Language and Manners of the Arabs, they allotted the passage of the Desert of Zahara, from Tripoli to Fezzan; for they had learned from various information, that with this kingdom, which in some measure is dependent on Tripoli, the traders of Agadez and Tombuctou, and of other towns in the Interior of Africa, had established a frequent and regular intercourse; and their instructions to him were, that he should proceed directly to Fezzan; that he should collect and transmit by the way of Tripoli, whatever intelligence, respecting the Inland Regions of the Continent, the people of Fezzan, or the traders who visited their country, might be able to afford; and that he should afterwards return by the way of the Gambia, or by that of the Coast of Guinea.

One obstacle to the departure of these Geographical Misionaries was still to be removed; and that was, the smallness of the Fund; for the Members of the Association, which had not yet passed the second month of its existence, were extremely few, and the Committee were too conscious of the importance and dignity of their undertaking, to canvass for subscriptions.

In this dilemma, the Committee resolved to advance the money that was requisite; and they accordingly raised among themselves the sum of 430l. which enabled them to provide for their travellers the means of immediate equipment, and the letters of necessary credit.

Mr. Lucas, detained by illness, did not leave England till the 6th of August.