FORESTRY OF WEST AFRICA. in 



wild state — a field ready for development and easy of 

 approach. Yet, strange though it may seem, coffee 

 is, and has been, noticeable by its absence from the 

 exports of one of the oldest possessions of the Crown, 

 viz., the Settlements on the Gambia. 



Attempts on a large scale at coffee plantation in 

 different parts of the French Possessions, to wit, at 

 Assine by M. Orndier, and the Gaboon, principally at 

 Sibange, proceed ; but these plantations are not yet, 

 I learn, in a state to be reported upon. 



With regard to the Portuguese Possessions, Mr. 

 Monteiro, in his 'Angola and the River Congo,' says : — 

 " The trade in coffee is almost entirely restricted to 

 Ambriz, and it comes principally from the district of 

 Encoge, a considerable quantity also being brought 

 from the Dembos country, and from Cazengo to the 

 interior of Loanda, from which latter place the trade 

 is shut out by the stupid and short-sighted policy of 

 high custom-house duties on goods, and other restric- 

 tions on trade, of the Portuguese authorities. Very 

 little of the coffee produced in the provinces of Encoge 

 and Dembos is cultivated ; it is the product of coffee- 

 trees growing spontaneously in the virgin forests of 

 the second elevation. The natives, of course, have no 

 machinery of any kind to separate the berry from the 

 pod, these being dried in the sun, and then broken in 

 a wooden mortar, and the husks separated by winnow- 

 ing in the open air. 



" The great forests in the slopes of the chains of 



