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.”