304 THE EVOLUTION AGAINST NARCOTICS 



be glad to know that the ravages of the drink traffic were not so 

 serious at the Gold Coast as was generally supposed. Out of the 

 hundreds of cases tried at his court during the twelve months, not 

 one was traceable to the abuse of strong drink." 1 



506. " But what are the facts of the case ? The author has for 

 many years been favourably situated for ascertaining the condition 

 of affairs in Africa. He has conversed with men of culture who 

 have resided for many years on the coast at various places of trade, 

 and the consensus of opinion as well as the facts that have been 

 narrated to him point to a widely different conclusion. The 

 exportation of strong drink from England to the West Coast of 

 Africa is enormous. It chiefly consists in rum ; and by far the 

 larger portion of this is forwarded into the interior, and is drunk 

 out of sight amongst the savage tribes who are rarely visited by 

 Europeans." 2 



507. The ancient Germans were exceedingly intemperate. 

 According to Tacitus, " intemperance proves as effectual in subduing 

 them as the force of arms." " They gloried in passing whole days 

 and nights at the table ; and the blood of friends and relations 

 stained their numerous and drunken assemblies. . . . Strong beer, 

 a liquor extracted with very little art from wheat or barley, and 

 corrupted (as it is strongly expressed by Tacitus) into a certain 

 semblance of wine, was sufficient for the gross purposes of German 

 debauchery. But those who had tasted the rich wines of Italy, 

 and afterwards of Gaul, sighed for that more delicious species of 

 intoxication. They attempted, not, however (as has since been 

 executed with so much success), to naturalize, the vine on the banks 

 of the Rhine and Danube ; . . . The intemperate thirst of strong 

 liquors often urged the barbarians to invade the provinces on which 

 art or nature had bestowed those much envied presents. The 

 Tuscan who betrayed his country to the Celtic nations attracted 

 them into Italy by the prospect of the rich fruits and delicious wines, 

 the productions of a happier climate. And in the same manner the 

 German auxiliaries, invited into France during the civil wars of 

 the sixteenth century, were allured by the promise of plenteous 

 quarters in the provinces of Champange and Burgundy. Drunken- 

 ness, the most illiberal but not the most dangerous of our vices, was 

 sometimes capable, in a less civilized state of mankind, of occasion- 

 ing a battle, a war, or a revolution." 3 



1 Rev. Dennis Kemp, Nine Years at the Gold Coast. 



2 Samuelson, History of Drink, p. 9. 



3 Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. i. pp. 255-6. 



