THE PALMS OF EUROPE AND AFRICA. 65 



and for healing woirads occasioned by them. 

 But its great use is as an article of commerce to 

 Europe, Avhere it is applied to various purposes. 

 In the year 1841, the large quantity of 168,528 

 hundredweight was imported, and now it has 

 reached upwards of 400,000 hundredweight 

 annually, worth more than £600,000. When 

 the slave trade was first abolished the quantity 

 of palm oil imported was very trifling ; bi;t it 

 has been shown in evidence before a committee 

 of the House of Commons, that the increased 

 consumption of palm oil had led to the employ- 

 ment of a vast number of persons, who would 

 otherwise be engaged in the slave trade. This 

 increased commerce of Africa in a legitimate 

 commodity, is interesting as a proof of the cor- 

 rectness of judgment in one of the earlier 

 friends of negro emancipation, whose very 

 name seems to have been forgotten in the long 

 list of the honoured friends of that cause. Mr. 

 Thomas Bentley, of Liverpool, a predecessor of 

 Sharp, and Clarkson, and Wilberforce, v/as 

 sagacious enough to perceive, and bold enough 

 to maintain, when a merchant in that slave- 

 trading port, that some articles existed in Africa 

 more suited to the commerce and conscience of 

 England than negroes. He told his fellow- 

 townsmen, tliat they thoidd send their ships, 



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