xcvi 
ACCOUNT OF THE 
The principal objects of this expedition would be similar 
in all respects to those of Park's last journey — to ascertain 
the course and termination of the Niger, to acquire a 
geographical knowledge of the countries through which 
it flows ; and to procure all possible information relative 
to the condition of the inhabitants, their commercial rela- 
tions and their general state of improvement. With a view 
to the attainment of these objects of practical and scientific 
enquiry the leader of the expedition would be enjoined in 
the most strict and positive terms by his official instructions, 
to avoid all acts of aggression towards the natives, and 
(except in cases of absolute self-defence) to abstain from 
every species of violence. He would be farther directed to 
use his utmost endeavours to establish a friendly inter- 
course and communication with the inhabitants ; and for 
this purpose to employ the most intelligent of the black 
troops, in all cases in which it might be practicable, as 
volent persons, who have witnessed the state of slavery in the West Indies (and 
the assertion has every appearance of probability) that the embodying and em- 
ployment of black troops has had the happiest effect in elevating and improving 
the Negro character, and in giving a greater degree of importance to that 
oppressed race. In the instance of Sierra Leone, to which these observations more 
immediately relate, compare the situation of a captured Negro, when rescued from 
the horrors of a slave vessel with that of the same man a short time afterwards, when 
serving as a British soldier! The ordinary condition of human life has nothing 
similar to this change ; it'is a transition from the most abject misery to ease, 
jcomfort, and comparative dignity. — Add to this, the extreme difficulty (which 
every unprejudiced enquirer must admit) attending the management and disposal 
of great numbers of these captured Negroes in a small colony like Sierra Leone ; 
and the utter impossibility, considering their savage ignorance and total want 
of habits of industry, of providing all of them, or even any tolerable number, with 
agricultural establishnaents. 
