PLAN OF THE ASSOCIATION.

Of the objects of inquiry which engage our attention the most, there are none, perhaps, that so much excite continued curiosity, from childhood to age; none that the learned and unlearned so equally wish to investigate, as the nature and history of those parts of the world, which have not, to our knowledge, been hitherto explored. To this desire the Voyages of the late Captain Cook have so far afforded gratification, that nothing worthy of research by Sea, the Poles themselves excepted, remains to be examined; but by Land, the objects of Discovery are still so vast, as to include at least a third of the habitable surface of the earth: for much of Asia, a still larger proportion of America, and almost the whole of Africa, are unvisited and unknown.

In Asia there are few extensive districts of which we are wholly ignorant; but there are many of which we are imperfectly informed; and to our knowledge of several of these, the expected publication of the Travels of Mr. Forster, in the service of the East India Company, may bring material improvement. For, about three years since, in returning from Hindostan to Europe, he travelled by the way of Laldong, Jummoo, Cashmire, Cabul, Herat, and the Caspian Sea; and though the character of a Moorish Merchant, a disguise which the nature of the journey compelled him to assume, would not permit him to depart so far from the usage of Asia, as to make a draught of the country, or to write any other than short memorandums as he passed, yet, if we may judge from the opportunities he had of information, his Narrative must be important. It will probably shew the manners and customs, and military strength of the populous tribes that inhabit the mountains on the North of Lahore: it promises to gratify the eagerness which all men express to acquire a knowledge of the sequestered and unexplored, though celebrated Country of Cashmire: and there is reason to suppose, that it will also describe the rising Empire of the Seiks, the conquerors of Zabeta Cawn, and the rivals of Abdalla. Should this be the case, we shall learn the history of an Empire that already extends from the river Attok, the western branch of the Indus, to the banks of the Jumma; and possibly too we may also be told the particulars of a Religion, which, according to the accounts received, professes to bring back the Hindoos from the idolatrous veneration of images to the purity of their primitive faith, the worship of One God: a Religion, which is said to ascribe to its Founder, Nanock, who died about 200 years since, a sacred character, by supposing that he was Brimha, and that this was his last appearance upon earth: a Religion, which its Followers, in contradiction to the former uniform practice of the Believers in the Shaster, endeavour to make universal, and, with a zeal which resembles the Mahometan, constantly enforce by the sword.

To our knowledge of America, a large and valuable addition may soon be expected; for several of the inhabitants of Canada had the spirit, about two years since, to send, at their own expence, different persons to traverse that vast continent, from the river St. Lawrence westward to the opposite ocean.

While, in this manner, the circle of our knowledge with respect to Asia and America is gradually extending itself, and advancing towards perfection, some progress has been made in the discovery of particular parts of Africa: for Dr. Sparman’s Narrative has furnished important information, to which will soon be added that of Mr. Patterson, whose account of his Travels and Observations in the Southern Parts of Africa is already in the Press; and if a description of the still more extended Travels of Colonel Gordon, the present Commander of the Dutch Troops at the Cape of Good Hope, should be given to the Public, the southern extremity of the African peninsula may perhaps be justly considered as explored. Mr. Bruce also, it is said, is preparing for the Press an account of the knowledge which he has obtained on the eastern side of that quarter of the globe.

But notwithstanding the progress of discovery on the coasts and borders of that vast continent, the map of its Interior is still but a wide extended blank, on which the Geographer, on the authority of Leo Africanus, and of the Xeriff Edrissi the Nubian Author, has traced, with a hesitating hand, a few names of unexplored rivers and of uncertain nations.

The course of the Niger, the places of its rise and termination, and even its existence as a separate stream, are still undetermined. Nor has our knowledge of the Senegal and Gambia rivers improved upon that of De la Brue and Moore; for though since their time half a century has elapsed, the Falls of Felu on the first of these two rivers, and those of Baraconda on the last, are still the limits of discovery.

Neither have we profited by the information which we have long possessed, that even on the western coasts of Africa, the Mahometan faith is received in many extensive districts, from the Tropic of Cancer southward to the Line. That the Arabic, which the Mussulman Priests of all countries understand, furnishes an easy access to such knowledge as the western Africans are able to supply, is perfectly obvious; as it also is, that those Africans must, from the nature of their Religion, possess, what the Traders to the coast ascribe to them, an intercourse with Mecca. But although these circumstances apparently prove the practicability of exploring the Interior Parts of Africa, and would much facilitate the execution of the Plan, yet no such efforts have hitherto been made. Certain however it is, that, while we continue ignorant of so large a portion of the globe, that ignorance must be considered as a degree of reproach upon the present age.

Sensible of this stigma, and desirous of rescuing the age from a charge of ignorance, which, in other respects, belongs so little to its character, a few Individuals, strongly impressed with a conviction of the practicability and utility of thus enlarging the fund of human knowledge, have formed the Plan of an Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa.

The nature of their Establishment will best appear from the following account of their proceedings.

At an Adjourned Meeting of the Saturday’s Club, at the St. Alban’s Tavern, on the 9th of June, 1788,

PRESENT,

EARL OF GALLOWAY,

LORD RAWDON,

GENERAL CONWAY,

SIR ADAM FERGUSSON,

SIR JOSEPH BANKS,

SIR WILLIAM FORDYCE,

MR. PULTNEY,

MR. BEAUFOY,

MR. STUART:

ABSENT MEMBERS,

BISHOP OF LANDAFF,

LORD CARYSFORT,

SIR JOHN SINCLAIR:

RESOLVED,

That as no species of information is more ardently desired, or more generally useful, than that which improves the science of Geography; and as the vast Continent of Africa, notwithstanding the efforts of the Ancients, and the wishes of the Moderns, is still in a great measure unexplored, the Members of this Club do form themselves into an Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Inland Parts of that Quarter of the World:

That, for the said purpose, each Member do subscribe Five Guineas a year, for three years; and that at, or after that period, any Member, on giving a year’s notice, may withdraw himself from the Association:

That during the first twelve months from the present day, each of the Members of the Club be allowed to recommend, for the approbation of the Club, such of his Friends as he shall think proper to be admitted to the new Association; but that after that time all additional Members be elected by a Ballot of the Association at large:

That a Committee, consisting of a Secretary and Treasurer, and of three Assisting Members, be chosen by Ballot:

That the said Committee do prepare and submit to the consideration of the Members, at their next meeting, such Rules as they shall think requisite for the effectual attainment of the object of the new Institution, and for its good government:

That the Committee be entrusted with the choice of the persons who are to be sent on the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa, together with the Society’s Correspondence, and the Management of its Funds:

That the Committee shall not disclose, except to the Members of the Association at large, such intelligence as they shall, from time to time, receive from the persons who shall be sent out on the business of Discovery:

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.