Chapter XVIII 



ADVENTURES IN THE MAHOGANY FORESTS 



The average American seldom realizes all that he owes 

 to Tropical Africa. Yet it is a fact that it is impossible 

 for him to go through a single day without using many 

 things produced in the tropics. He has slept between 

 sheets made from cotton. In his morning bath he has 

 used soap manufactured from the oil of the palm. The 

 copra of cocoanut, and oil from other palms finds its 

 way on to his breakfast table, disguised as butter. The 

 sheaves of corn from which his bread is made, if not 

 grown in Africa, have probably been tied with binder 

 twine from the sisal fibre which grows there. Flax comes 

 from the highlands of Kenya and provides the raw ma- 

 terial of the best linen. Ground nuts from Nigeria are 

 often used in the manufacture of confectionery. Gin- 

 ger, spices, gum, sauces, pickles and a hundred and one 

 of the little luxuries of life, are produced on the equator, 

 not to mention rubber, which directly or indirectly 

 plays a very great part in modern industry. 



The mahogany forests, which provide timber so 

 greatly sought after, also yield countless supplies of 

 other products which are both cultivated and also found 

 naturally. The average person already realizes that his 



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