African. This is an institution which was formed in the year 1788, for the purpose of promoting discoveries in the interior parts of Africa. Out of the number of the members, of which this society consists, five are elected for the management of its funds and correspondence, and for the appointment of persons to whom the missions are assigned. Mr Ledyard was the first who was sent out, for accomplishing the object of the society. He undertook the adventurous task, of traversing from east to west, the widest part of the African continent, in the latitude which was ascribed to the Niger; and with this view he arrived at Cairo in August 1788. But before his projected journey commenced, he died, and the hopes that were entertained of this enterprising and persevering traveller were disappointed. Mr Lucas was next chosen by the committee. ASS

Association committee. In October 1788, he embarked for Tripoli; and he was instructed to proceed over the desert of Zaara to Fezzan, to collect all the information that could be obtained, respecting the interior of the African continent, and to transmit it by way of Tripoli. He was then to return by way of Gambia, or the coast of Guinea. But his peregrinations terminated at Misurata. The difficulties and dangers which presented themselves deterred him from proceeding farther. He transmitted to the society only the result of his conferences with the traders to Fezzan, with whom he was travelling; measured back his road to Tripoli, and soon after returned to England.

The society still persevered in its object, and in the year 1790, appointed Major Houghton, with instructions to sail for the mouth of the Gambia, and to traverse the country from west to east. He arrived on the coast in November the same year, immediately commenced his journey, ascended the river Gambia to Medina, 900 miles distant from his mouth, and thence proceeded to Bambouk, and to the adjoining kingdom of Kaflon, where, in September the year following, he unfortunately terminated his travels with his life, near to the town of Jarra.

Mr Park was engaged by the society in the same service in 1795, and pursuing the route of Major Houghton, more successfully explored the banks of the Niger, to Sego and to Silla, the first of that great line of populous cities which divide the southern from the northern deserts of Africa. The information which Mr Park collected, during his adventurous journey, was communicated to the society in 1798.

The last of the labours of the society, was the appointment of Mr Horneman, who had offered himself to the committee in 1796. Having pursued for some time the requisite studies to qualify himself for the undertaking, he departed from London in July 1797, and having remained some time at Cairo, where he was received under the protection of Bonaparte, then commanding the French army in Egypt, he commenced his journey westward with the caravan, in September 1798. In November following, he arrived at Mourzouk in Fezzan, from which his last despatches to the society were transmitted by way of Tripoli. And from the successful progress which he had made, he entertained great hopes of being able to penetrate farther to the southward and westward, than any former traveller had been able to accomplish. The discoveries which have been communicated to the world, from the labours of these travellers, under the patronage of the society, are fully detailed in the account which we have given of Africa.