June 1, 1805.1 THE TECHNOLOGIST. 



THE KOLA-NUT. 519 



MaTcalso, that of Kola being unknown. I had formerly been under the 

 impression that this appellation might claim its descent from a 

 M'bunda source, but ample inquiries since instituted among the people 

 of N'gola have satisfied me that my surmises were destitute of founda- 

 tion. It must, however, be expressly understood that this designation 

 is only recognised by European traders, and negro tribes in the imme- 

 diate vicinity of colonies, originally founded by the Portuguese. It is 

 neither appropriated nor employed by any other of the populations of 

 the most distant, or even adjoining countries, each of which has its own 

 vernacular name, distinctive from any other. Perhaps, the most feasible 

 explanation is that furnished by the Foula traders, who occasionally 

 visit Sierra Le3ne, and which, to me, appears to be the real source of 

 the term. They candidly affirm that it is simply a vernacular negro 

 corruption, Gola or Kola being deduced from that of Guro or Goro, a 

 Foula and Soudan designation. Many centuries since, a very lucrative 

 commerce was established in this article, large trading caravans coming 

 from the interior of the Timmane markets to purchase this commodity ; 

 hence the tribes in the maritime regions, unable from physical defects of 

 the vocal apparatus to articulate the letter " r," were compelled to adopt 

 that of "/;" so that the word Guro, or Goro, became converted into that 

 of Gola or Kola, the substitution of these, and in fact other letters, being 

 of proverbial occurrence to those conversant with the African languages. 

 This modified term was ultimately adopted by the Portuguese, first in 

 the neighbourhood, but long antecedent to the foundation, of the colony 

 of Sierra Leone, and wuthin a brief period, after the discovery of the 

 river of the same name. In this locality they were actively engaged in 

 accumulating cargoes of the Kola-nut by means of numerous small 

 vessels detached to different portions of the coast for this purpose, — a 

 custom continued so late as the commencement of the present century, 

 and mentioned by Afzelius, in his report on the vegetable resources of 

 the infant settlement of Sierra Leone for 1794. 



From the great reputation these nuts had acquired, previous to the 

 sojourn of the English in "West Africa, we may suppose that no length of 

 time elapsed before they adopted the example of their predecessors. In 

 the old books of travels, we may observe various descriptive details, in 

 which their virtues and qualities are conspicuously extolled. Premising 

 that the following remarks pertain more to the Senegal and Gambia 

 rivers, where this production is not indigenous, as affording perhaps Jche 

 most appropriate illustration of what may be termed the most invaluable 

 of all the negro luxuries. It had been noticed by the English traders, 

 among the Mandingo's of the Gambia, that in their limited traffic with 

 the inhabitants of the .interior they carried with them large quantities 

 of salt, either of native or foreign manufacture, and received in exchange 

 gold dust and a roundish, compressed, bitter nut resembling a European 

 chestnut, and known by the appellation of Gola, or Kola. They were 

 purchased, after a toilsome journey, a great distance inland. They were 

 vol, v. 3 r 



