-^ f*epper and Gold 



grains of Paradise in malt liquor, strong waters, and 

 cordials. 



The other pepper ^ that was found on the West Coast of 

 Africa was closely akin to the Indian kind. It was a true pepper 

 and of two species — Piper subpeltatum and Piper guineense. The 

 first named, and perhaps the other as well, is still found growing 

 wild in the Liberian coast forests and in most other parts of 

 West Africa as far east as the Bahr-al-Ghazal region of the 

 Nile. These kinds in the trade are known as " Ashanti " 

 pepper. It is said to have been brought back by the Norman 

 adventurers to Dieppe and Rouen in 1364. The Portuguese 

 also pushed a trade in it, especially in the country of Benin, 

 until towards the middle of the sixteenth century. When the route 

 to India had been discovered, the importation of this African 

 pepper was forbidden in Portugal, in order that it might not 

 compete with the Indian trade. 



After gold, it was perhaps pepper that made the adven- 

 turous spirits of Europe more anxious to explore the West 

 Coast of Africa than any other motive down to the end of 

 the fifteenth century. I have already described what led to the 

 abrupt end of the Norman trade with West Africa. From 

 the middle of the fifteenth to the middle of the sixteenth century 

 the Portuguese had the Guinea trade entirely in their own 

 hands, and they imitated the Venetians in trying to control the 

 pepper trade and run up the price of these spices. With the 

 same result, that the English under Mary I. and Elizabeth, 

 and a little later the Dutch and the Flemings, resolved to follow 

 the tracks of the Portuguese and find out where the pepper 

 came from. 



The first Englishman that (so far as we know) found his 

 way to West Africa travelled more or less in disguise as a sea- 



' Pepper is also made in Liberia from the fruits of Xylopia (sthiopica. 



59 



