FORESTRY OF WEST AFRICA. 19 



natives lead does not admit of the estimate of the 

 number of the population, but that on the coast 

 occupied by the European element the population 

 comes up to 200 souls ; and of the cultivation it is said 

 that " manioc " is the principal farming, with dried 

 fish the ordinary food of the people. Rice and maize 

 are cultivated to a small extent. The imports from 

 Senegambia and the other French settlements into 

 the United Kingdom do not afford detailed particulars, 

 which by way of comparisqn I had hoped to have 

 here inserted. 



I notice, however, in the ' Statesman's Year Book, 

 1886,' the French Possessions in Africa represented 

 as — Senegambia, with an area of 250,000 square miles, 

 and a population of 197,644 ; Gaboon and Gold Coast, 

 with an area of 20,000 and a population of 186,133 ; 

 and the Congo Region, of an area of 430,000, with a 

 population of 500,000 : and that France claims also 

 as " Protectorate, a considerable area in West Africa 

 extending along the Ogoue and its tributaries to the 

 Central Congo," and extended "in 1882-3 the area of 

 her Protectorate in Senegambia as far as Bukako on 

 the Niger." 



French Gold Coast Possessions are made up of 

 Grand Bassam, Assine, Grand Popo, Kotonu, Porto 



Novo. 



The Portuguese Possessions on this coast are 

 represented as — in Senegambia, Bissao, area 26 square 

 miles, lying between the rivers Cacheo and Nunez, 



C 2 



