26 



Minnie Throop England 



stems of the Acacia horrida — and, while this gum is found in 

 abundance, pickers are not plentiful. Labor is especially scarce 

 since the French authorities have forbidden native raiding to 

 secure slaves for this work. In the second place, France pos- 

 sesses nearly all of the regions containing the tawny Moors, a 

 people of commercial enterprise. From the earliest historical 

 accounts of these Moors up to the present time they have drawn 

 the trade from the rich and fertile districts, carried it across the 

 desert to trade with the white Moors who in turn delivered the 

 goods to Mediterranean and Red Sea ports. But the Portu- 

 guese opened up the West Coast seaboard trade and as a result, 

 the tawny Moors for four hundred years have been suffering from 

 commercial wars. This accounts in part for the decay of the 

 great towns of Timbuctoo, Jenne, Mele and others. In addition, 

 native religious wars and strife have decreased the economic 

 prosperity of these regions. 96 



The French colonies as a whole (exclusive of Algeria and 

 Tunis) carry on a large proportion of their trade with France. 

 The percentage for 1905 was 43.3. This is a falling off from 

 1880 when the proportion of trade with France was 53.5 per 

 cent. 97 France's trade with the colonies does not loom up very 

 large in comparison with French foreign trade. In 1905 it 



99 Kingsley, West African Studies, 235-237. 



"Trade of the French Colonies (Exclusive of Algeria and Tunis). 



Compiled from Statistiqucs Coloniales pour I'annee 1889, 119, 121; 

 Monthly Summary of Commerce and Finance, October, 1901, pp. 1533, 

 !S3S; and Report by Lister on French Colonies, 50. 



202 



