TRADE--METALS--MINES--VEGETABLE
PRODUCTIONS--GUMS--OIL--COTTON--DYE-STUFFS.
The trade of Africa for an almost indefinite time must consist of the
materials for manufactures.
The fact that old formations reposing on granite, or distorted by it,
form a large proportion of its geological surface, indicates that
useful metals will probably be found in abundance. In comparing it with
California and Australia as to the probability of finding deposits of
the more valuable metals, two circumstances of great importance must
be kept in view. These countries were possessed by natives who had no
domesticated animals, and therefore were not called upon to exercise
over the soil the same inquisitive inspection for herbage and water as
were required from the races among the mountains and deserts of Africa,
so that the chances of finding any thing were not the same.
The other circumstance is, that metals were comparatively little
known to the aborigines of California, and not at all to those of
New Holland, so that discoveries of the kind would neither be sought
for, nor reckoned of much value when they occurred. On the other
hand, metals of all kinds have during indefinite eras been regarded
as of high importance, and have been used in various ways by the
African nations. Copper, and some alloys of it, seem to be used for
ornaments throughout the whole south. These are smelted from the ores
by the natives. They also manufacture their own iron. Their desires,
therefore, and their necessities, and their arts, render it probable
that no deposits of metals exist, except such as require scientific
skill to discover, and mechanical resources to procure.
Gold is not in this predicament. Wherever it occurs in abundance, it
has been collected by elemental waste from disintegrated rocks, and is
mixed with gravel and alluvial matters in those portions where men of
nomadic habits, and familiar with metal ornaments, would most readily
meet and appropriate it. Some, probably a great proportion, of the gold
of ancient Egypt, was got by a laborious process of grinding, on which
their wretched captives were employed. This would not have been the
case if the metal had been found plentifully throughout the extensive
regions with which they were acquainted.
An addition to the metallic riches of the world from Africa, is
therefore to be looked for in the discovery of deep-seated mines,
if there are any, and in better modes of working those which exist,
particularly the alluvial deposits of gold along the northern shores
of the Gulf of Guinea and the shores of the Mozambique Channel. The
present export of gold from all Africa, probably amounts to about two
millions of dollars per annum.
The vegetable articles of export are of great value. Cotton may be
produced in unlimited abundance. The African dye-stuffs are already
recognized as extensive and valuable articles of commerce. Indigo is
used extensively by the natives. When we recollect that the vast trade
of Bengal in this article has been created within the memory of men
still living, and that India possesses no natural advantages beyond
those of Africa, we may infer what a profusion of wealth might be
poured rapidly over Africa by peace and good government.
Gums, of various kinds, constitute a branch of trade which may
be considered as only commencing. The extensive employment of
india-rubber, and the knowledge of gutta-percha, are only a few years
old. Africa gives promise of a large supply of such articles. Its
caoutchouc has already been introduced into the arts.[2] It may be
long before the natural sources of supply found in its marshy forests
can be exhausted. Be that as it may; when men are induced, as perhaps
they soon will be, to substitute regular cultivation for the wild and
more irregular modes of procuring articles which are becoming every
day of more essential importance, Africa may take a great share in the
means adopted to supply them.
Palm-oil has become pre-eminently an object of attention. The modes of
procuring it are very rude and wasteful. The palm-nuts are generally
left for a day or two, heaped together in a hole dug in the ground.
They are then trodden by the women, till they form a greasy pulp; out
of this the oil is rudely strained through their fingers, or water is
run into the hole to float the oil, and it is skimmed off with their
hands into a calabash. In Benin they employ the better mode of boiling
it off. The oil occurs in a kind of pulp surrounding the seed, as is
the case with the eatable part of the common date; it is evident,
therefore, that more suitable modes of producing it may be put in
practice.
What may be done in the production of sugar and coffee, no man can
tell. James Macqueen, who has, during great part of his life, devoted
his attention to the condition and interests of Africa, gave evidence
before a committee of the British House of Peers, in 1850, to the
following effect: “There is scarcely any tropical production known in
the world, which does not come to perfection in Africa. There are many
productions which are peculiarly her own. The dye-stuffs and dye-woods
are superior to any which are known in any other quarter of the world,
inasmuch as they resist both acids and light, things which we know
no other dye-stuffs, from any other parts of the world, can resist.
Then there is the article of sugar, that can be produced in every
part of Africa to an unlimited extent. There is cotton also, above
all things--cotton of a quality so fine; it is finer cotton than any
description of cotton we know of in the world. Common cotton in Africa
I have seen, and had in my possession, which was equal to the finest
quality of American cotton.
“Egyptian cotton is not so good as the cotton away to the south; but
the cotton produced in the southern parts of Africa is peculiarly
fine. Africa is a most extraordinary country. In the eastern horn of
Africa, which you think to be a desolate wilderness, there is the
finest country, and the finest climate I know. I know of none in South
America equal to the climate of the country in the northeastern horn
of Africa. It is a very elevated country; and on the upper regions
you have all the fruits, and flowers, and grain of Europe growing;
and in the valleys you have the finest fruits of the torrid zone. The
whole country is covered with myrrh and frankincense; it is covered
with flocks and herds; it produces abundance of the finest grain. Near
Brasa, for instance, on the river Webbe, you can purchase as much
fine wheat for a dollar as will serve a man for a year. All kinds of
European grain flourish there. In Enarea and Kaffa, the whole country
is covered with coffee; it is the original country of the coffee. You
can purchase an ass’s load (200 lbs.) of coffee in the berry for about
a dollar. The greater portion of the coffee that we receive from Mocha,
is actually African coffee, produced in that part.”
[2] The Rev. J. Leighton Wilson, who was a missionary of the American
Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, at Cape Palmas and at
the Gaboon River for more than twenty years, first called attention
to a vine, or creeper, as affording india-rubber. It is now collected
from this plant in the Gaboon district; and two or three cargoes have
already been shipped to this country, with a prospect of its becoming
a lucrative article of trade. We may look to intelligent missionaries,
like Mr. Wilson, for securing such benefits to traffic and art, as well
as to science and literature. We are glad to learn that he contemplates
an extended work on Africa, which will no doubt be highly acceptable to
the public.