1 Benjamin Franklin [1771 
of profit or of plunder, or to gratify resentment; to 
procure some advantage to ourselves, or do some 
mischief to others. But a voyage in now proposed 
to visit a distant people on the other side the globe; 
not to cheat them, not to rob them, not to seize 
their lands, or enslave their persons; but merely 
to do them good, and make them, as far as in our 
power lies, to live as comfortably as ourselves. 
“It seems a laudable wish that all the nations of 
the earth were connected by a knowledge of each 
other and a mutual exchange of benefits; but a com- 
mercial nation particularly should wish for a general 
civilization of mankind, since trade is always carried 
on to much greater extent with people who have the 
arts and conveniences of life, than it can be with 
naked savages. We may therefore hope, in this 
undertaking, to be of some service to our country as 
well as to those poor people who, however distant 
from us, are in truth related to us, and whose inter- 
ests do, in some degree, concern every one who can 
say, Homo sum, &c.” 
Scheme of a voyage by subscription, to convey the 
conveniences of life, as fowls, hogs, goats, cattle, corn, 
iron, &c., to those remote regions which are destitute 
of them, and to bring from thence such productions 
as can be cultivated in this kingdom, to the advan- 
tage of society, in a ship under the command of 
Alexander Dalrymple. 
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