402 PLAN RECOMMENDED FOR 



my opinion, have led to the failure of the specu- 

 lation I was engaged in, and the measures by 

 which I think such causes may be partially and 

 even wholly removed, and a profitable trade car- 

 ried on with Central Africa. 



The causes of our failure I consider to have 

 been erroneous information respecting the trade 

 with the interior, and a dependance on that 

 alone for our returns, to the total neglect of the 

 palm-oil trade, as well as our being the first 

 Europeans who had had any trading communi- 

 cation with the natives. 



I think that these errors might be avoided, 

 and in a great degree overcome, by reversing 

 the plan which we pursued ; that is, by making 

 the palm-oil trade the first, and the trade 

 with the interior the secondary object. To 

 carry out this plan, I would recommend two 

 vessels of about three hundred and fifty tons to 

 be fitted out for the palm-oil trade, and also to 

 carry a small assortment of goods for the inte- 

 rior ; to be accompanied by a steam-vessel of 

 size sufficient to carry eighty or a hundred tons 

 upon three feet water, and two trading-boats of 

 iron, from fifty to sixty feet long, and six or 

 seven feet wide. 



