73 LEDYARD, 



was tenned the African Association. They subscribed the 

 necessary funds, and sought out individuals duly qualified 

 and possessed of sufficient courage to undertake such dis- 

 tant and adventurous missions. A committee, composed of 

 Lord Ravfdon, afterward Marquis of Hastings, Sir Joseph 

 Banks, the Bishop of Landaff, 5lr. Beaufoy, and Mr. Stuart, 

 were nominated managers. It seemed scarcely probable 

 that the mere olier to defray travelling expenses, which v 

 all the society's finances could aftbrd should induce persons 

 with the requisite qualifications to engage in journeys so 

 long and beset with so many perils ; yet such is the native 

 enterprise of Britons, that men eminently fitted for the task 

 presented themselves, even in greater numbers than the 

 society could receive. 



The first adventurer was Mr. Ledyard, who, born a tra- 

 veller, had spent his life in passing from one extremity of the 

 earth to another. He had sailed round the world with Cap- 

 tain Cook, had lived for several years among the American 

 Indians, and had made a journey with the most scanty 

 means from Stockhohn round the gulf of Bothnia, and 

 Ihence to the remotest parts of Asiatic Russia. On his re- 

 turn he presented himself to Sir Joseph Banks, to whom he 

 owed many obligations, just as that eminent person was 

 looking out for an African discoverer. He immediately pro- 

 nounced Ledyard to be the very man he wanted, and re- 

 commended him to Mr. Beaufoy, who was struck with his 

 fine countenance, frank conversation, and an eye expressive 

 of determined enterprise. Ledyard declared this scheme to 

 be quite in unison with his own wishes ; and on being asked 

 how soon he could set out, replied, " To-morrow." Affairs 

 were not yet quite so matured ; but he was soon after pro- 

 vided with a passage to Alexandria, with the view of first 

 proceeding southward from Cairo to Sennaar, and thence 

 traversing the entire breadth of the African continent. He 

 arrived at Cairo on the 19th August, 1788, and while pre 

 paring for his journey into the interior, transmitted some 

 bold, original, though somewhat fanciful observations upon 

 Egypt. He represents the Delta as an unbounded plain of 

 excellent land miserably cultivated ; the villages as most 

 wretched assemblages of poor mud-huts, full of dust, fleas, 

 flies, and all the curses of Moses ; and the people as below 

 the rank of any savages he ever saw, wearing only a blue 



