But it was very long before the Senegal, one of the chief of these rivers, was traced higher than the falls of Felu; or the Gambia, another river of note and magnitude, than those of Baraconda.  In the year 1723, Captain Stebbs, who was employed by the Royal African Company, succeeded in going up this river as far as the flats of Tenda.  Soon afterwards, some information respecting the interior of Africa, especially respecting Bonda, (which is supposed to be the Bondou of Park, in the upper Senegal,) was received through an African prince, who was taken prisoner, and carried as a slave to America.

All the information which had been drawn from these, and other sources, respecting the interior, was collected and published by Moore, the superintendent of the African Company’s settlements on the Gambia; but though the particulars regarding the manners, &c. of the inhabitants are curious, yet this work adds not much to our geographical knowledge of the interior of this part of the world.

In the year 1788, the African Institution was formed:  its object was to send persons properly qualified to make discoveries in the interior of Africa.  The first person engaged by them was Mr. Ledyard; and, from all accounts of him, no person could have been better qualified for such an arduous enterprise:  he was strong, healthy, active, intelligent, inquisitive, observant, and undaunted; full of zeal, and sanguine of success; and, at the same time, open, kind, and insinuating in his looks and manners.  At Cairo he prepared himself for his undertaking, by visiting the slave market, in order to converse with the merchants of the various caravans, and learn all the particulars connected with his proposed journey, and the countries from which they came.  But be proceeded no farther than Cairo:  here he was seized with an illness, occasioned or aggravated by the delay in the caravans setting out for Sennaar, which proved fatal.

Mr Lucas was the next person employed by the African Institution.  In October, 1788, he arrived at Tripoli, from whence he set out with two shereefs for Fezzan, by the way of Mescerata.  On the fourth day after his departure, he reached Lebida, on the sea coast, the Leptis Magna of the Romans.  He found, on his arrival at Mescerata, that he should not be able to procure the number of camels necessary to convey his goods to Fezzan; and was obliged to abandon his enterprize.  From the information which he derived, at Mescerata, confirmed as it was by what the Association had learnt from the narrative of a native of Morocco, the geography of Africa was extended from Fezzan, across the eastern division of the Desert, to Bornou, Cashna, and the Niger.