LIFE OF MUNGO PARK. 
xcvii 
interpreters of the expedition and messengers of peace and 
conciliation. 
By the plan which has thus shortly been described, 
every disadvantage which attended Park's mission, would 
be avoided, and all its defects supplied ; and there seems 
to be every reasonable assurance that an expedition, formed 
and conducted upon such principles (with a due attention 
to the proper season for travelling), would be attended 
with ultimate success. 
It would be difficult to anticipate the full extent of those 
beneficial consequences which may ultimately be expected 
from the successful result of such an expedition. We may 
perhaps be justified in expecting that the intercourse, thus 
formed with the interior of Africa, will eventually open 
new communications of trade, and possibly create new 
markets ; that a certain portion of that vast commerce, 
which is now carried on with Tombuctoo from Morocco 
and the shores of the Mediterranean, may be diverted to 
the western coast ; and that great quantities of European 
goods, now conveyed through other channels, may be 
transported into the centre of Africa through the new route 
of the Niger. 
But without speculating too confidently upon commercial 
revolutions of the nature here alluded to, which are for the 
most part very slow and gradual, and seldom effected 
without much difficulty ; we may safely conclude that any 
rational and well concerted expedition to the interior of 
Africa must be of great efficacy in promoting and extending 
the legitimate and beneficial commerce with diffi^rent parts 
of that vast continent, which has been rapidly advancing 
VOL. II. o. 
