266 COFFEE I ITS CULTIVATION AND PROFIT. 



natives, who bring their harvests down to the coast at Ambrig 

 and neighbouring settlements to sell to the white (principally 

 French) traders. 



"The Portuguese colonists of Angola, Suo Thorne, and 

 Principe plant Coffee largely, and their products are high in 

 value. At the Gaboon the French missionaries have tried 

 with some success to introduce Coffee planting. The Ameri- 

 canized Negroes of Liberia cultivate lazily and half-heartedly 

 some of the fine local species, such as C. Liberiensis. I think 

 a little desultory planting goes on in Sierra Leone and the 

 Gambia Colonies. The French are doing a great deal in 

 Senegal. The Coffee plant grows wild in the Congo region, and 

 the districts round Glanlypool are eminently suited to its 

 cultivation, but as yet no one has commenced any Coffee 

 planting, and the natives of these countries, unlike the Negroes 

 farther south towards Angola, ignore the properties of the 

 Coffee berry. 



" I believe something is done in Natal and a good deal is 

 going to be done on the Zambesi. Usambara, opposite 

 Zanzibar, is a glorious field for Coffee planting admirable 

 soil, peaceable inhabitants, cheap labour (from the Zanzibar 

 labour market), and land to be had for next to nothing. The 

 missionaries of the Universities' Mission are distributing the 

 Coffee berry among the inhabitants to induce them to cultivate 

 it. Transport is easy, and the distance from the coast and 

 good ports a matter of one to two days' journey. Further into 

 the interior there are increasingly fine sites and suitable soil for 

 Coffee planting, only owned as yet by the birds of the air and 

 the beasts of the field. The writer has planted Coffee on and 

 at the base of Mount Kilimanjaro, and from six months' 

 experience finds the young plants thrive wonderfully. 



" Farther north, in Somaliland, Coffee is everywhere wild, 

 but apparently remains uncultivated by man. This rapid survey 

 of Africa brings us back to Southern Abyssinia and the country 

 of Kaffa, where Coffee first began to be cultivated and intro- 

 duced to the world. 



" The best fields for Coffee planting in Africa known to the 

 writer are the Usambara, Pare, and Kilimanjaro districts (where 



