PROSPECTUS OF A PLAN FOR FORMING A NORTH AFRICAN OR SUDAN COMPANY,
To be instituted for the purpose of establishing an extensive Commerce with, and laying open to British Enterprise, all the Interior Regions of North Africa.
1_st_. To lay open the interior regions of North Africa to British enterprise--to supply those vast and unexplored countries with British manufactures, with East-India goods, and with colonial produce.
2_dly_, To encourage our manufactories, by opening a new market calculated to improve the revenue of the country, to provide employment for the labouring poor, and to enrich the mercantile community; _the genial influence of which sources of prosperity will necessarily diffuse itself through all classes_.
3_dly_, To facilitate, through the medium of commerce (_the only medium by which it can possibly be effected_), the exploration of the interior regions of Africa, (_which have remained to this day a sealed book, notwithstanding the many adventurous expeditions that 252 have been undertaken_,) by opening a communication with the natives of that vast and little-known continent, and BY CALLING TO OUR AID THE CO-OPERATION OF THE NATIVE CHIEFS, BY HOLDING OUT TO THEM THE BENEFITS WHICH THEY WILL DERIVE FROM COMMERCIAL INTERCOURSE AS A REWARD FOR THEIR ASSISTANCE AND EXERTIONS IN PROMOTING THIS DESIRABLE OBJECT.
That the funds to be raised be one hundred thousand pounds, in shares of one hundred pounds each. Ten shares to constitute a director.
The spot proposed to be fixed on as the point of communication, and commercial depôt, between Great Britain and the interior of Africa is SAFE AND HEALTHY: it will afford a _direct communication with Timbuctoo and the interior regions of Sudan_, without being subject to the uncertainty of securing the favour and protection of the various sultans and sheiks of the respective territories of the interior, through which the merchants and traders may pass--a measure which would have been indispensable in every plan that has hitherto been suggested for the discovery of those interesting regions.
The plan now to be adopted, on the contrary, will be subject to none of those impediments and uncertainties; but the merchants and travellers will pass through territories where they need fear no hostility, but will be received with hospitality and attention by the natives, who will give them every assistance and accommodation 253 in their progress through their country.