262 POPULAR ECONOMIC BOTANY. 



wise have conceived. Let us take a glance at its uses : 

 first, in its native country it furnishes, under the name of 

 ghea (butter), a portion of the food of the natives, probably 

 not less than a million and a half in number ; then in our 

 own and other countries it forms a moiety of the antifric- 

 tional compound which gives safety to the wheels of every 

 railway-carriage : these (according to Mr. Braithwaite Poole, 

 probably the best authority in the kingdom) are in our 

 country no less than 108,284 in number, representing a 

 capital of £15,657,890; we may then double this for the 

 whole of the European railways, and without exaggeration 

 may affirm that palm oil assists the motion of railway car- 

 riages so numerous as to be worth in round numbers 

 £32,000,000 ; besides which it forms a large proportion of 

 one-fchird at least of the common hard soap manufactured 

 in this country, or in figures, one of the principal con- 

 stituents of 17,800 tons of hard soap. These results show 

 to what an extent European enterprise has stimulated the 

 industry of the negroes of Africa, furnishing them with a 

 trade more lucrative than the demoniacal traffic which pre- 

 viously constituted their chief occupation. The numbers 

 employed in collecting the fruit, in pressing the berries, and 

 in conveying the oil to the coast merchants, must be im- 



