XJF439208 Thomas Edward Bowdich\'s request for free passage through West Africa, 1817 (printed paper); Private Collection; (add.info.: Written by Thomas Edward Bowdich (1791-1824), here spelt Bowdick, this is a letter, written in both English and Arabic, asking free passage for a British Government expedition that intended to proceed from Senegal and attempt to trace the course of the River Niger and open the interior of West Africa to British trade and commerce; The expedition was undertaken by Major John Peddie and Captain Thomas Campbell; The letter also informs that should anyone deliver a letter from the expedition to Cape Coast Castle (in modern day Ghana) they would be rewarded with five ounces of gold; The letter was written at Coomassie, the capital of the Kingdom of Ashantee on the 30th June 1817; T.E. Bowdick writes this letter in his capacity as the conductor of the mission from Cape Coast Castle; The letter is topped by the seal of the Royal African Company which shows an elephant and castle atop a coat of arms flanked by two Africans, one holding a bow and arrows and the other a scorpion; The inscription on the seal reads "Freed Trade to Africa by act of Parliament 1750";); out of copyright.