152 Progress of Geographical Discovery 



men, and even amongst the mass of the people, we may throw off 

 the fear, that the hatred and antipathies which once seemed to 

 take pleasure in national distinctions, will for ever continue their 

 fatal influence, and arrest the generous progress of true civili- 



.^tion. -^ 



..; An act which you perforined in the month of March last, 

 and which was eminently dictated by a spirit of justice, of 

 which our country has often set the example, is a striking 

 and glorious proof of my remark. You have done honour to the 

 modest perseverance and final success of efforts, for a long 

 time useless, in one of our countrymen, who,/ the first to return 



from Timhuctoo, is able to say, that he has seen with his own 

 eyes, the central mart of Africa, with all the traces of the demi- 

 pivilization of the middle age. But, at the same time, you have 

 offered to the manes of Major Laing a tribute of regret, with- 

 out taking notice of the clamours raised by a pitiable jealousy, 

 against the fortunate rival of the courageous English traveller, 

 who had preceded him at Timbuctoo ; and you have thus again 

 proved, in the eyes of Europe, the nobleness and generosity of 



-Vjour sentiments. . . . .f, ., *. , ,! 



, ,v You have regrett^^io,^ |th|ensame meeting, t^^j; vbu have 



only accorded to Captain Dumont d'UTville an incorriplete testi- 

 mony of your esteem for his labours during the voyage, from 

 jwhich he has brought us some melancholy relics of a shipwreck, 

 ^hich will never be forgotten. Entirely occupied at present 

 with the publication of his work, M. d'Urville, when he again 

 takes a share in the duties of the central commission, will soon 

 give us occasion to speak of him with merited eulogiums. 



I must not forget, gentlemen, to tell you, that the prize rela- 

 tive to a journey in ancient Babylonia and Chaldea has been 

 withdrawn from competition, after having appeared for many 

 years in the programmes of the Society. A memoir, however, 

 has been sent in, and was laid before the committee of the 

 concours ; but as it did not come under the conditions, it was 

 necessarily given up. 



The prize offered for a description of the monuments of Palenqua 

 is suspended till the year 1833. M. Baradere, who, during his 

 stay in Mexico, formed a rich collection of Mexican antiquities, 

 was a candidate. But the society, not finding the solution of the 

 question proposed by them, in the drawings and manuscripts of 

 M. Baradere, can, at this time, only make honourable mention of 

 the researches of this traveller. 



On the proposition of M. Jomard, a new prize has been offered, 

 which will be adjudged to the best memoir on the Origin of 

 the Asiatic Negroes. This question, difficult to be solved by the 

 French, seems, in some degree, to belong peculiarly to the 

 present masters of India ; they alone appear to be in a situation 

 favourable for the execution of this investigation, and for the 

 collection of such documents as may throw light on a subject of 

 this nature. 



