still remains a desideratum to ascertain what species are to be preferred. The large ground lizards are not esteemed, and probably the dif ferences between them are analogous to those in snakes, some of which I have found rich succulent eating, and others, when dressed, as dry, tough, and tasteless, as a piece of boiled Jack cord. Two sorts of lizards which I have eaten are most delicate and luxurious; but alligators, both young and old, insipid and uninviting.

H. S.

LETTER CLXXIX.

From the same.

Dear Sir, London, Oct. 15, 1785. As I have already intimated to you, I am going out once more to the coast of Africa, having planned and undertaken the management of a very important enterprise of commerce and agriculture for an eminent African house in the city. I shall go to their principal settlement on the Isles de Los, where I shall have, probably, always ten or a dozen white men, artificers, and on an average two or three hundred blacks under my direc tions, and almost daily opportunities of sending by ships and small craft in the same employ, as well as by other traders, to all the rivers, ports,

and creeks upon the coast, for upwards of two hundred miles to the northward and southward; and I shall have nearly as much influence with them as if they were under my command. By these means also I shall have a constant communication with all the king's principal chiefs and traders in the country, who are very ready to oblige the whites, and especially those in this employ, in any thing that is curious. I shall also have great opportunities of visiting, under powerful protection, all this part of the Continent, and the islands in the neighbourhood, of which I mean to avail myself to my further advantage, and the promotion of science, by making various researches and observations after new subjects of commerce and manufactures, some of which I have already discovered; as also collections, drawings, and descriptions of every thing which may be deemed curious or useful; viz.

Plants living and dried.

Woods, gums, and balsams.

Fruits, seeds, and bulbous roots.

Birds, beasts, reptiles, and fish, with their nests, eggs, skins, bones, and exuviæ.

Insects, with their nests, eggs, cocoons, and exuviæ.

Shells, corals, corallines, and spunges, with other zoophytes and marine subjects.

Minerals, fossils, earths, sands, and clays.

Utensils, weapons, instruments, ornaments, dresses, manufactures, dies, and useful inven

tions, and all other artificial as well as natural productions, worthy of preservation or notice.

In order to put these intentions into execution with full effect, it will be expedient for me to have a small sailing-boat and skiff entirely at my command; and the successes of my exertions must be proportioned, in a great degree, to the number of assistants I shall be enabled to take out, qualified to collect, draw, and preserve curious objects.

The number and value of my collections will also be increased by having a good apparatus, which must consist, in the first place, of instruments proper for the obtaining and investigating the objects of our pursuits, and next, for the preservation of them, as much as possible, in their natural perfection and beauty, and conveying them in that state to England.

The greater part of these can only be provided at home, as books of natural history, &c. philosophical instruments, paper for drying plants, drawing, &c. colours, nets, traps, and dredges of various kinds, fowling-pieces, and many sorts of tools, boxes with divisions, and others lined with cork for insects, wide-mouthed bottles with stoppers, casks, jars, &c. powder, shot, pins, fishhooks, &c. camphor and other antiseptics, mineral acids, culinary utensils, bedding, linen, &c. a medicine chest, with select drugs from Apothecaries Hall, and many other articles too numerous to be mentioned in this outline; but some of them pointed out in the account of the difficulties I had

to struggle with in my last voyage, and which rendered many of my exertions abortive. By the provisions I shall now make they will be entirely prevented.

The gentlemen with whom I have made the mercantile and cultivating engagement, will furnish me with proper artificers, mills, engines, stills, chemical vessels, and outfit needful for carrying the improvements I have projected into execution; and consent, in consideration of the advantages they expect from me in that line, to my taking out in any of their ships from eight to ten assistants in my researches after specimens of Natural History, and such goods, apparatus, &c. &c. as may be necessary for that purpose, without any expence for passage, freight, or provisions; and will also permit them, as well as myself, free access to their public table, and other conveniencies, as is customary to their own officers and factors at the Settlement.

These are advantages of such considerable importance, that I can scarcely fail with good assistance, moderate exertions, and tolerable fortune, to make a most extraordinary and valuable collection of every thing that is curious on that part of the coast. By such a collection alone, I cannot fail to enrich science in general; and the obtaining the different specimens must necessarily, if I have a proper philosophical apparatus, furnish me with many interesting facts relative to the Natural History of that continent, useful to the Physician,

the Philosopher, the Patriot, and the Philanthropist; which, compared and combined with the observations I formerly made on the coast, and which various disappointments have hitherto prevented me from publishing, may form a mass of most interesting and important information. Not only the Materia Medica may be enlarged, for the alleviation of human misery, but several useful drugs, and other commodities, may be introduced, tending to improve and increase our trade and manufactures. I have already discovered a balsam which is very valuable, and two dyes of great consequence, not yet imported into Europe.

We have few African plants from the equinoctial regions, either in our hot-houses or cabinets. We know still less of their birds, shells, or marine subjects; and we are almost totally ignorant of their minerals, their arts, and their manufactures. It is not improbable, that most of the riches of the East may be found, at one-fourth of the distance we usually sail to procure them; and the climate, the soil, and the situation may be found much better than they are supposed, and capable of being turned to great national advantage.

With from £350 to £450 I can furnish myself with every kind of apparatus necessary for my collections and observations, and fit out eight or ten assistants; and with £100, or £150, more, I shall be able to take out such an adventure as will purchase a good vessel suitable to my business.

I propose to take a Botanical Gardener for the