FORESTRY OF WEST AFRICA. 145 



industry proceeds around Lagos which should admit, 

 in time, in addition to the supply of local wants, of a 

 considerable export. In 1883 and 1884, against like 

 imports to the value of £1021 and ^^480, there were 

 sent out free of duty from that Colony to the Wind- 

 ward and Leeward Coasts, and to Brazil, pagns worth 

 £7A02, and £6,%22. 



The primitive hand-loom in use among the natives 

 is what has come for centuries to them from their 

 ancestors, and is capable of improvement to their 

 advantage. It deserves attention. 



The nearer the coast line, the easier is it to procure 

 European stuffs, and hence the same necessity does 

 not exist for an extended cultivation of the cotton 

 shrub ; yet I found that in certain parts, especially in 

 Yoruba and in the Gambia, Mahommedan natives 

 preferred for their tobes the home-made article, viz., 

 the cloth loomed from the cotton thread of the country, 

 which can bear the wear and tear of use for years. 



To arrive at some estimate of supply and demand, 

 we must pit against the foregoing statistics the imports 

 from the United Kingdom into West Africa of cotton 

 manufactured, with the direction they take. And we 

 must bear in mind that the largest supply of the raw 

 material for these manufactures reaches the United 

 Kingdom from the United States of America, from 

 plantations the output of which has been dependent 

 in the main on the labour of Negroes freed from the 

 slavery to which they before were condemned. Why 



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