AND PORTO SANTO. 113 



the zea mui/s is sown in the provinces immediately after the wheat 

 harvest in June, and is ready for taking in in October ; the same 

 land thus yielding a crop of each in the same year. Kice is merely 



of the Mediterranean,) is considered the second best variety, and the ' white-flaV 

 (from the Azores and America,) the third ; and even this will fetch sixpence a 

 bushel more than the yellow-flat. In the Canaries the yellow-round is preferred. The 

 exporter may get six and a half bits the alquiem (six shillings and fivepence the 

 English bushel according to the present rate of exchange) for the white-round. I 

 am thus particular, in the hope of inducing the cultivation of the more profitable 

 variety on the Gold Coast. " Before Mr. Hope Smith's government, the natives of 

 the Gold Coast scarcely grew corn enough for their own consumption ; famines 

 sometimes resulted from the Ashantee invasions, but as often from their own indo- 

 lence — never from the unkindness of nature, who has, perhaps, been too prodigal of 

 her bounties for the rapid increase of African industry. The natives were persuaded 

 and excited to grow corn largely in the neighbourhood of Succondee and Accra, and 

 within the last two years, I am positively informed, by a commercial resident, at least 

 fourteen vessels have been laden exclusively with corn, for Madeira and the West 

 Indies. Several cargoes had been exported during the short period of Mr. Hope 

 Smith's government which preceded my departure from Africa." Bowdich on the 

 British and French Expeditions to Teembo, with Remarks on Civilization in Africa, 

 &c., p. 12. In Fantee, a puncheon of corn (equal to two chests) well heaped up, (so 

 as to give nearly a bushel in e.xcess) costs the shipper an India Romal, worth twelve 

 shillings in England, or about twelve shillings and sixpence to the importer in Africa. 

 At Accra, it is to be purchased still cheaper. It must be understood, however, that 

 that is the price during the three or four months after the harvest, (in August,) when 

 it crradually becomes dearer. It is not considered hard enough for shipment before 

 October. In the time of the slave trade, the Governor of Annamaboe Fort was 

 obhged to send to Succondee (nearly fifty miles off) for palm oil to light the lamps : 

 the last Governor collected and shipped upwards of 1200 puncheons in twelve months. 

 It has been found very advantageous to export it into Brazil, for the sake of the 

 negroes alone, who cook almost every thing in it, and are as passionately attached to 

 it as their countrymen in Africa. " A great deal has been said of the improbability 

 of getting any thing but gold and ivory as a return from Africa. I submit two facts 

 in reply. The palm oil trade at Calebar did not exist in the time of the slave trade ; 

 it was created and necessitated by the abohtion. It was felt to be very laborious by 

 the natives at first, in comparison with the indolence of the slave trade ; but no easier 

 commerce could be devised, for it was the only natural product which immediately 

 stared them in the face. This trade grew under the care of a few persevering Liver- 



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