A. D. 1789. 19^ 



European goods in general ; together with a balance paid in Imperial 

 dollars. 



To Bornou they carry copper and brafs, which are worth about a^f 

 flerling per pound in that country ; woolen goods ; linens ; raw filk ; 

 lilk goods ; fabres ; cutlery ; looking-glafles ; beads, &c. all obtained in 

 their trade to the northward : and their returns are flaves, gold duft, 

 and civet. 



The caravan for the great empire of Gafhna take with them cowries, 

 a kind of fhells ufed for fmall money ; brafs ; horfes ; and the fame 

 manufactured goods as thofe carried to Bornou. Their returns are gold 

 dull; Haves, valued in Caflma at from £2. : 6 : 8 to ^5 llerling each; 

 cotton cloths manufadured in the country ; red and yellow goat ikins ; 

 ox and buffalo hides ; fena of the beft quality, the produce of Agadez, 

 a province of Gafhna ; and civet. 



The packs for the countries on the fouth fide of ,the Niger confift of 

 fabres ; cutlery ; carpets ; brafs ; looking-glaffes, and other toys ; civet ; 

 and Imperial dollars : in exchange they receive gold dull ; Haves ; goo- 

 roo nuts ; and civet. 



The merchants often find ivory lying on the ground, which they dif- 

 pofe of to the traders bound for the European fettlements on the wefl 

 coafl. In every principal tov/n, to which they trade, they have agents, 

 with whom they depofit their flaves ; that kind of ' commodity, that 

 * can tranfport itfelf*,' conflituting a very corifiderable proportion of 

 their returns. 



From this very brief view of their trade we fee that the merchants 

 of Fezzan, by their knowlege of the wants and redundancies of their' 

 neighbours, fupply fome of them with articles brought from countries 

 nearer to the confumers than to Fezzan ; that their trade is entirely a 

 carrying one, and very little fupported by the produce of their own 

 country ; whence they have been with confiderable propriety called the 

 Dutchmen of Africa f . 



The North-wefl company of Montreal being informed by one of 

 their remotefl agents, that the Indians had told him of a river running 

 into a fea, which was at no great dillance to the northv/ard, Mr. Mac- 

 kenzie, one of the partners, left Montreal in the beginning of the fum- 

 mer, in order to afcertain the veracity of a communication fo interefl- 

 ing to fcience and commerce. Attended by a few Indians, he traverfed 



* Major Rennell, from wliom I borrow this ob- people of Fezzan in the end of the fifteenth cent- 



fervation, thinks the difficulty of carriage in the my. But the circumilances of the country are 



interior part of Africa may have given rife to this much improved fmce his time ; for he fays, corn 



' Ijaffic in men.' ^Proceedings of the African ajfo- and Ikfh were vei-y fcarce, whereas they are now 



c'uit'ion, p. 315.3 For the fame reafon they might in great abundance. See Proceedings of the African 



deal in cattle, if they were equally in requcfi among ajfocialion, p. 130; from which work, it maybe 



the more cii'ilized nations. obferved, the view of th4 trade of Fezzan, and the 



+ Leo Africanus notices the opulence of the accoinit of the affociation, are entirely takeij. 



Vol. IV. B b 



