xcviii 
ACCOUNT, &c. 
since the Abolition of the slave trade.* We. may also 
reasonably expect that such enterprises, judiciously con- 
ducted, will have important effects upon the civilization 
and general improvement of Africa, by exciting industry 
and diffusing useful know^ledge among the natives ; and 
that some portion of these advantages may, in due time, be 
extended to those remote and sequestered countries, which 
are at present excluded from all intercourse with Europe, 
and abandoned to hopeless ignorance and barbarism. Let 
us hope that the honour of passing those barriers, which 
have hitherto separated Africa from the civilized world, is 
reserved for the courage and perseverance of that nation, 
by whose enlightened and disinterested exertions so much 
has been effected in modern times, for the advancement of 
geographical knowledge. The voyages of discovery which 
have been undertaken by the command of His present 
Majesty, unstained by the guilt of conquest, and directed 
exclusively towards objects of humanity and science, have 
conferred a lasting distinction on the British name and 
character. The attempt to explore the interior of Africa, 
dictated by the same generous views, is in no respect less 
interesting, nor does it promise less important results, even 
than those great undertakings; and it will be peculiarly 
worthy of an age and nation, rendered for ever memorable 
in the annals of mankind by the Abolition of the African 
slave trade. 
* See Appendix. No. VI. 
