840 
MISSION TO ASHANTEE. 
ship is allowed to visit this coast, the great convenience and the 
great profits of the trade will recur, and be perpetuated amongst 
the Ashantees ; they will linger in the hope of its entire renewal^ 
and view the English invidiously, as the enemies to what they con- 
ceive to be their only natural commerce ; this is another advantage 
to the Dutch, added to the inherent bias in their favour ; and, from 
the reception and facilities which slave ships meet with at Elmina, 
our odium is aggravated instead of being participated. " Delenda 
est Carthago/' 
present ignorance of every thing that regards geography, &c. might be pleaded by mer- 
cantile speculators, but can have little weight with those who have the interests of science 
at heart, or the national honour and fame, which are intimately connected with those 
interests. It was not with a view to any immediate commercial advantages, that this 
liberal encouragement for the discovery of the north-west passage was held out, but 
with the same expanded objects that sent Cook in search of a southern continent." 
Voltaire's remark on India is now only applicable to Africa, Plusieurs y ont fait des 
fortunes immenses, pen se sont appliques a connoitre ce pays." I would even recommend 
indulging the wish of the King of Dahomey to renew and perpetuate his connection with 
the English, not indeed by resuming the fort, that would be a useless expense, as there 
is no trade but in ivory, but by establishing a Residency at his capital, the most frugal 
method of collecting the various accounts of the interior of that neighbourhood for geo- 
graphical investigators, besides supplying the naturalist. Geographical discoveries in 
Africa have long been ardently emulated between England and France, and they have 
stimulated a generous rivalry of investigation between the men of science of both countries. 
An Englishman first penetrating to the Niger, and determining its course at the moment 
a learned investigator of the other kingdom had concluded it to be a contrary one, was 
one of those rational and illustrious triumphs which adorn the historical pages of a nation 
much more than those of war ; for the gratification and the benefit is shared by both, 
and such successes cease to be invidious when the interests of science are thus mutually at 
heart. The following immortal tribute from a classic of a rival nation, should stimulate 
lis to. challenge as illustrious a record of intellectual -research, 
- - - - " monumentum sere perennius, 
Regalique situ pyramidum altius ;" 
by a correspondent pursuit of intelligence in Africa. 
" Un Anglais, detruit tout ce vain amas d'erreurs dont sont remplies nos histoires des 
Indes, et confirme ce que le petit nombre d'homjnes instruits en a pense." Voltaire, 
