THE PRECEDING NARRATIVE, 
ftraints on the tranfit of other merchandize. But if, on the 
fyftem of the Moors, the effed of which has been tried too 
long for its wifdom to be difputed, alTociatrons of Enghflimen 
fliould form caravans, and take their departure from the higheft 
navigable reaches of the Gambia, or from the fettlement which 
is lately eftabliflied at Sierra Leona, there is reafon to beheve, 
that countries new to the fabrics of England, and probably in- 
habited by more than a hundred millions of people, may be 
gradually opened to her trade. On this fyftem, much greater 
would be their profits than thofe which the Merchants of Fez- 
zan receive; for they would reach, by a journey of 700 miles 
from their veftels, the fame markets to which a land-carriage of 
3000 conveys from the Mediterranean the goods of the Fez- 
zanners; and they would alfo pofTefs the farther advantage of 
obtaining at prime coft, the fame articles for which the Mer- 
chants of Fezzan are fubje6ted to the complicated difadv^antages 
of a high price, of an inferior quality, and of the varying ex- 
a6:ions that the defpotic Governments of Barbary impofe. Now 
if it be confide red, that notwithftanding the vaft expence of land- 
carriage, and of an exorbitant price on the purchafe of the ar- 
tides which they fell, the Traders of Fezzan are ftill enabled to 
colleft a profit that upholds and encourages their commerce, it 
muft be evident, that the gain which the Merchants of England 
would 
