F. Fremantle observed, “he had acquitted himself well, with very inadequate means.”
On his return home, in 1820, Captain Smyth represented to Viscount Melville, that the operations carried on by Captain Guattier du Parc, of the French navy, in the Archipelago and Levant, were, to his personal knowledge, so scientific and accurate, that it would only be waste of time to go over the same ground; but that their operations, if united, would form a complete basis for the construction of a chart of the whole Mediterranean sea. His lordship was pleased, thereupon, to send him to Paris, with full authority to make such arrangements as should embrace the object. This being accomplished, he was directed to complete his own division of the points more decidedly, and to finish the examination of the coast between Algiers and Egypt
Captain Smyth also had interviews with Lord Melville and the Right Hon. F. J. Robinson, then President of the Board of Trade, on the subject of African explorations. He represented, that, from the kindness he had experienced amongst the Moors and Arabs, he had no doubt but an opportunity was now open to the centre of that vast country and that both the moral and physical difficulties of travelling were much less in North than in West Africa. He also held, that something of a plan might be pursued, from our great influence with the ruling powers, to revive the drooping commerce of Malta, by trading directly with the interior, through Tripoli, – an object the more obvious from that island’s vicinity, and its people having a common language with those of Barbary. He therefore suggested that a person conversant with trade, and of suitable experience, should be attached to the travelling party, with a moderate adventure, in order to give a fair trial to the market, and enable the parties to furnish the public with information upon which the mercantile world could rely. “A field might thus be opened,” said he, “equally accessible to the people of other countries. The day is passed by when privileges are stipulated in treaties, otherwise, if this trade were capable of any extent and duration, that nation which overcame the early obstacles should be entitled to
