44 PETHERICK'S JOURNEY UP THE WHITE NILE, &c. [Jan. 9, 1860. 



in the country witlaout cultivation on the part of the people ; they found that 

 the missionaries in Abeokuta, going up the valley of the Niger, observed 

 the same thing ; and Mr. Petherick going down the White Nile, from the 

 northward, found the people there growing and manufacturing cotton. And 

 on the Gold Coast very large communities of people were engaged in the 

 production of this article. In the quarter which he had visited he ven- 

 tured to say that cotton was not only abundant in quantity, but excellent in 

 quality. He found in the country immediately to the interior of Sherboro, 

 that cotton was the great staple article of production ; the people there were 

 in the habit of producing and manufacturing it, and the cloths which they 

 manufactured were precisely the same quality as those which we found from 

 the accounts of missionaries up the Niger, and were highly valued by the 

 people. The future of Africa, to which the attention of the scientific world 

 was now directed, might be of more importance in its results and consequences 

 than we could foresee at present. He believed himself that if the slave-trade 

 was ever to be suppressed, if England was ever to derive any advantage from 

 the great sacrifices which she had made in behalf of Africa, it was not so 

 nmch by means of keeping naval squadrons upon the coast in order to inter- 

 cept the slave ships, as it was by introducing civilization, by teaching the 

 people how to profit by their labour and make it of value to the civilized 

 world, so that it should be felt that inasmuch as mankind were all of one 

 family, it was only fair to " let kind offices go round." 



Mr. Petherick, in reply to a question, said that the boomerang used by the 

 natives to the most southern point he reached was the same as that used in 

 Australia. When thrown forward it would return to the hand. It was made 

 of iron, was about 15 inches in diameter, and curved. 



The President, in adjourning the meeting, was confident that he might, 

 without fear, congratulate them upon the result of the discussion. It con- 

 cerned a topic in which, at the present moment, our interest was deeply ex- 

 cited ; and we had, he thought, derived very great and valuable information 

 from the Paper which had been read, and the observations to which it had 

 given rise. Among them he thought none had been on every account more 

 interesting than those which had been addressed with so much eloquence and 

 feeling by Mr. Hanson, on behalf, so to speak, of his own fellow countrymen. 



Fifth Meeting, Monday^ January 2^rd, 1860. 

 SIE EODEEICK I. MUECHISON, Vice-Peesident, in the Chair. 



Presentations. — Edward Butler ; F. B. Montgomerie ; and Charles 

 Otter, Fsqrs., were presented upon their election. 



Elections. — The Rev. Thomas Butler ; the Rev. Thomas F. Crosse, 

 D.c.L. ; the Rev. C. S. A. Dickinson ; the Hon. H. Courtenay Forbes ; 

 the Hon. A. Gordon ; Lieut. W. Murray ; the Rev. J. Ouvry North ; 

 Major H, A. Sarel; Capt. A, E. Wilkinson, b.a. ; and John Boustead ; 

 C. W. Franks ; B. Hennessey ; G. H. Inskip, e.n. ; William Lake ; 

 Thomas Molson, of Montreal; Chas. H. C. Plowden; Henry Rich, t&.v. ; 

 John L>, Trigg ; and Frederick Verbeke, Esqrs., wer elected Fellows. 



