56 
they will therefore be obliged to any of 
the friends of the inststution who shall . 
point out the best means -of remedying 
zt. 
The directors having apphed to Br, 
Roxbureh, of Cateutta, for jhis assistance 
an obtaining seeds and plants from In- 
dia, have the satisfaction to state, that 
they have received the most liberal as- 
surances of his best. exertions in favour 
of the institution. He has already trans- 
mitved to this-country, with a view to 
their propagation im Africa, several va- 
-duable seeds, with the requisite 
tions for their management. The direc- 
tors are happy in this opportunity of exe 
pressing their bivh sense of the oblma- 
fious conferred on the institution by Dr. 
~Roxbargh. 
The directors have, drawn the atten- 
tion of their correspondents in Africa to 
a discovery (communicated to them by 
R. H. Marten, esq. and said to have 
been lately made in the West Indies) 
of the practicability of producing excel- 
Jent rope from the fbres of the plantane 
tree, They have as yet received no 
report on this subject from Africa. 
Referring the meeting to whiat was 
commum fences in the last < annual report, 
on the subject of a species of hemp, ma- 
nufactured from the ieaves of a particu- 
Jax kind.of paln which abounds in Si- 
erra Leone and 1s neighbourhood, the 
directors have now to add, that one of 
their board, Mr. Allen, has lately sub- 
jected a sivall quantity of cod, manu- 
factured from this substance, to experi- 
ments calculated to ascertain its streng'h, 
as compared with the same length and 
weight of common hempen cord. The 
result has been very satisfactory. In five 
trials, the hempen cord broke. with the 
following weights, viz. in the ist, with 
44ibs. avoirdupois; in the second, with 
4ilbs.; in the third, with maite.: in 
the four abs with 4ilbs.; and in the 
fifth, with 41ilbs.: while ’ African cord, 
of the same length and weight, required 
to break it, in the first trial, 54lbs.; 
in the Seoul 55lbs. 37 in the third, 
52zlbs.; in the fourth, 59 lbs.; and in 
the fifth, 47lhs, The average is as fol- 
lows: hempen~cord, 48lbs, 3 fifths; 
African cord, 53ibs. 2 fifths; being a 
difference in favour of the African cord, 
of iGibs. in 43}bs. 
The directors noticed in their last 
report, the disadvantages under which 
theg@ade of Africa laboured, in conse- 
guence of the high duties imposed on 
the different articles of its produce. A 
struc. 
The African Institution. 
fAug. i, 
representation to this effect having been 
mad¢ to his Majesty’s government, thie 
matter was taken into their ‘considera 
tion, and a modification of some of those 
duties has been obtained. “The duties 
on coityon wool, gmger, and coffee, the 
produce of his. Majesty’s dominions ir 
Africa, are now the same as those pay-_ 
able on the like articles when imported 
from the West Indies; and on paim 
oil, the duty has been reduced from 
about 12s. 8d. 240 4s. per hundred- 
weight. On one article, Guinéa grains, 
or Malaguetta pepper, the duty has 
been doubled : not with a ‘view of in- 
creasing the revenue, but of operating 
asa prohibition of the use of ity as it is - 
supposed to have been extensively em- 
ployed in the brewing of malt liquor. 
The directors, however, have great reas 
son to doubt the estseenee vf the dele- 
terious qualities abseribed to this drug ; 
as they find it to be universally estecmed 
in Africa one of the most w holesone of 
spices, and gene: rally used by the natives 
to season their food. 
The directors have not as yet engaged 
imany direct attempt to explore the con- 
tinent of Africa, principally because no 
proper means have offered themselves to 
their notice, {t has, however, been 
communicated to them, that it is the 
intention of the African Association te 
send, at an early opportunity, one or 
more persons from this country, charged 
with the important object of farther diss 
covery. The directors have signified 
their readiness to concur in any eligible 
measure of this description. © 
Before the directors quit this subject, 
they think it right to advert to a come 
munication which has been made te 
them by lieut.-col. Maxwell, the’ com- 
mandant of Senegal, respecting the ces 
lebrated traveller Mungo Park, ina let. 
ter dated on the 28th of January last, 
which contains the following passage : 
‘“«T avail myself of an opportunity, ” 
by way of Guernsey, to communicate to 
you the intelligence of the arrival if this 
colony of the bleck man named Isaacs, 
who was the guide who conducted Mr. 
Mengo: Park*to Sansanding, and whose 
schoolma aster, who resides there, furnish- 
ed Mr. Park with a guide to take him to 
Kassina. This person appears convinced 
that Mr. Mungo Park is not dead: he 
says, if it was the ‘case, he certainly 
‘should have heard of it: mot having heard 
of him, he supposed he had returned ta 
England, 
s¢ To ascertain the certainty of the 
fate 
