CHAP. xxvn. OF AFRICA. 



collected from the streams, and carried about in 

 quills as an article of traffic. In Morocco there 

 are reports that gold and silver mines were for- 

 merly worked by the Portuguese in the province 

 of Susa, near to Mesa, and similar reports have 

 been circulated of the province of Bambouk, near 

 Senegal ; but in both cases the operation of ob- 

 taining it is said to have required such application 

 of human labour that the employment yielded no 

 profit, and has been long discontinued. 



There is no way in which an accurate estimate 

 can be formed of the gold produced in Africa, 

 and the only clue to guide an inquirer are the 

 accounts kept by the late African company, which 

 registered only that brought to England by ships 

 of war. Such ships probably brought the largest 

 portion, both on account of their greater security 

 and lower rate of insurance, and because most of 

 the merchant vessels trading to Africa in their 

 way home first made a passage to the West 

 Indies to procure freight of colonial produce for 

 England. 



According to accounts furnished from the 

 records of that company, the whole quantity so 

 imported, from the year 1808 to 1818, both in- 

 cluded, amounted to eighty-one thousand nine 

 hundred and five ounces. Of this, in the seven 

 years of war, from 1808 to 1814, there were fifty- 

 one thousand five hundred and sixty-nine ounces 

 valued at two hundred and five thousand three 



