176 WILD AND CULTIVATED COTTONS 



The following passages from his work manifest the chief points of 

 interest in the present connection : 



' Cotton grows wild in many parts of West Africa, and is exten- 

 sively cultivated in some districts, though more for the purpose of 

 supplying local demands than for export. In the latter respect, the 

 trade in this article has proved a disappointment ; great hopes were 

 entertained at one time that Manchester would be able to draw 



Lagos largely on West Africa for her supplies, but so far the total annual 

 value of cotton imported into Great Britain from West Africa has 

 never exceeded a few thousand pounds. During the American War 

 the price of cotton became so high that the West Coast merchants 

 saw an opportunity for developing this trade ; they accordingly sent 

 out machinery and started operations in many different parts, chiefly 



Gold in the neighbourhood of the Gold Coast and Lagos. Little, however, 



came of the enterprise, for with the conclusion of the American War 

 prices fell again, and there was no market for West Africa cotton.' 

 ' For the past few years the export of this article even from Lagos 

 and the Gold Coast has been so insignificant that its value has not 

 been separately recorded ; while from other parts of British West 

 Africa no considerable amount of cotton has ever been exported.' 

 ' It seems extraordinary that this should be the case, when it is 

 known that it grows freely in every variety of soil and is cultivated 

 with the minimum of labour ; but, on the other hand, it must be 

 remembered that the natives are most conservative in their ideas, 

 and prefer making up their own cloth to purchasing ready-made 

 European material. Another point is that West African cotton (as 

 grown in the British possessions) is of an inferior kind, that grown 

 near Lagos being of a brown colour, rough and short.' ' Mr. Scott 

 Elliott says : " The quality is not good, being only about one inch 

 long in staple, and cannot be easily spun over thirty hanks ; it is 

 therefore only worth about 5d. to 6d. a pound in Manchester. The 

 cotton grown in the country is worked into fairly strong coarse 

 sheeting by the natives in every village. It is first combed or carded 

 by means of two brushes (boards six to nine inches with handles), 

 studded with vertical steel wires. The lengths are spun into thread, 

 and apparently have to be wound and re-wound two or three times 

 before the thread is in a fit condition for weaving. This process of 

 winding seems to require exposure, and sometimes one sees the 

 threads pegged out in a great square with sides forty to fifty feet 

 long, round which a slave with a spindle walks carefully." ' ' When 



