i 
| 
they sell to the Euro 
_ into ornaments the solid pieces, and even hold them 
« aps je ig recommendation. 
encourage the progress of 
GUI 
on the subject. It is only gold-dust that 
s, as they generally convert 
sacred, if tolerably large. The gold of this country, 
whether in grains or in dust, is extremely pale, sisted 
“very pure ; and greatly resembles the filings of yellow 
r, with which it 1s sometimes fraudulently mixed. 
This alloy is easily discovered by means of aqua fortis ; 
but it is sometimes also imperfectly cleaned from the 
sand, which is of a quartzose nature, and which re- 
quires a keen eye, a glass, or even the crucible to de- 
tect its presence. The native brokers or gold-takers 
are extremely skilful in this commerce, and know with 
the utmost precision the value of what they sell; but 
they are often equally well versed in the arts of knavery, 
requiring to be trusted with great caution, and 
n Apollonia, it is said, 
is more secure, either from exactions or im~ 
- positions, and his person is considered as sacred. The 
trade is understood to have diminished consider- 
of late, in consequence of the more powerful 
having attem to secure a monopoly for 
themselves, by compelling the weaker to renounce the 
working of their mines. Cowries and gold form the 
current medium of exchange, especially the former, as 
being easily reduced to the smallest sums. Forty 
cowries make a string; fifty strings a head, which is 
equal to one ackey goles and sixteen ackies make 
an ounce, which is valued at four pounds sterling.* 
The price of gold never fluctuates ; and it is commonly 
estimated to yield in Europe a profit of 25 per cent. 
Much attention has recently been directed to the im- 
provement and civilization of this and other tracts on 
the western coast of Africa; and a more interesti 
topic could scarcely be presented to enlightened hu-~ 
manity, than an enquiry into the most effectual means 
of promoting the benevolent object. It has been sug- 
: in general, to extend our;trade inland, by form- 
ing alliances with the princes, and placing residents in 
the principal towns ; thus reaching the resources of the 
q a ing the confidence of the natives, and en- 
larging the demand for ph, co manufactures ;—to 
tivation, by protecting 
planters from Europe, and directing the industry of the 
natives to the production of new articles of export ;— 
to annihilate Schiele every vestige of the slave trade, 
to establish schools for the instruction of the people, 
and to exercise, in the vicinity of our settlements, as 
much controuling power of government as possible, for 
introducing salutary regulations, and enforcing orderly 
obedience.t ‘ There exists no country in the world,” 
s the French mineralogist De Montfort, “ so suscep- 
tible of eral cultivation. We know that certain dis- 
tricts of Africa are fertile in corn, and grain of every 
kind grows there intermixed with sugar-canes lately 
Iicrebaced, and which protect the grain from hail. The 
aga of India, Europe, America, Australasia, or the 
portion of the globe, will flourish there in perpe- 
tual spring, and the animals of all climates can be easi- 
ly n lized. The negroes, whose respect for the 
whites is extreme, notwithstanding what they have 
suffered from them, will cheerfully give up their lands 
to be cultivated by us.” Philosophical Magazine, vol. 
* Itis said that a 
555 
GUL 
xlvi. p. 802, See Meredith’s Account of the Gold Coast; Guitar, 
Smith’s Voyage to Guinea; Peuchet’s Dict. De la Geog.; 
and wh Geography. @) 
GUITAR, Guitarra Sania , Chitarra Vtalian, from 
Cithara, is the name of a musical instrument, common. 
ly strung with wire ; but in Spain, the guitars are al- 
ways strung with catgut or bowel strings, which gives 
them a much finer tone. The Guitar seems to have been 
introduced into Spain by the Moors, and has at parti- 
cular times been more or less in use in almost every part 
of Europe. 
GULF Srreaw, is the name given to a constant cur- 
rent in the ocean, produced by the trade winds, which 
are constantly blowing from east to west. This cur« 
rent, coming from the Pacific and Indian Oceans, 
round the Cape of Good Hope, and, after goin 
along the coast of Africa, it crosses to America tow 
the equator. It is there divided, and reflected south- 
wards to the Brazils, and running along the shores of 
Guiana and Terra Firma, it through the Ca~ 
ribbean Sea, and coasts along the Gulf of Mexico. 
Issuing from the Gulf between Cape Florida and 
the island of Cuba, it traverses the coasts of East 
Florida, the United States, New Brunswick, and Nova 
Scotia, and advances eastward to the banks of New- 
foundland, where it turns off to the south-east and runs 
through the Western Islands, from which it goes to the 
coast of Africa, and in a southerly direction along that 
coast, till it supplies the place of the waters carried away 
to the west by the trade winds. “It is perhaps on ac~ 
count of these currents,’ says Dr Thomas Young, “that 
the Red Sea is found to be about 25 feet higher than 
the Mediterranean. { Their direction may possibly 
have been somewhat changed in the course of many 
es, and with it the level of the Mediterranean also, 
since the floor of the cathedral at Ravenna is now se- 
veral feet lower with respect to the sea than it is sup 
posed to have been formerly ; and some steps have been 
found in the rock of Malta, apparently intended for as« 
cending it, which are at present under water.” M. 
Humboldt remarks, “ that the Gulf Stream is occasioned 
by the current of rotation, (trade winds,) which strikes 
against the coasts of Veragua and Honduras, and as- 
cending towards the Gulf of Mexico between Cape Ca- 
loche and Cape St Antoine, issues through the canal of 
Bahama. It is owing to this motion, that the vege- 
table productions of the Antilles are carried to Norway, 
Ireland, and the Canaries.” 
The general breadth of the Gulf Stream is about 50 
or 60 miles. Sir Charles Blagden, in a voyage to Ame- 
rica in the year 1774, found that the water of the Gulf 
Stream was from 6° to 11° warmer than the waters of 
the sea through which it ran. The heat at its com- 
mencement in the Gulf of Florida was about 82°, and 
it lost 2° for every 3° of latitude in going northwards, 
It continued sensible off Nantucket. 
The Gulf Stream may be easily distinguished from 
the other waters of the ocean, by the gulf-weed with 
which it is every where Sgr oe and by its not 
sparkling in the night. In high latitudes it is always 
covered with a thick fog. Its breadth is diminished by 
north-east and east winds, which also increase the ra- 
pidity of its motion, and drive it nearer the coast. A 
man, during the plentiful season, from September to May. can subsist abundantly on two strings, or two- 
pence farthing a day ; and that the usual pay of a labourer is from two to three ackies per month, ¢. e. from 10s. to 15s. currency. 
+ For the best views of this interesting subject, the readers may be referred to the Reports of the African Institution; and the accounts 
‘of these publications in’the Edinburgh Review. 
* The observations of the French engineers make it 6 toises or 38 feet, 
Gulf 
Ss 
tream. 
