320 



FRENCHMEN. 



quantities could be grown there, but the natives, 

 though large advances have been offered to them, 

 will not extend their cultivation for fear of low- 

 ering the price, which has lately doubled. 

 Erench ships now visit the West Coast of India 

 as far North as Kurrachee, in search of sesamuni, 

 and last year (1856) 27 vessels took cargo from 

 Bombay. 



At length the Marseille houses found out 

 that Zanzibar is overstocked with buyers ; that 

 demand in these regions does not readily, at 

 least, create supply ; that it is far easier to dis- 

 pose of than to collect a cargo ; that the African 

 man will not work as long as he can remain idle, 

 and that sure profits are commanded only by the 

 Banyan system ; briefly, the two French houses 

 are eating up each other. The Messrs Vidal are 

 named for a loss of $400,000, which it will be 

 impossible to recoup. It is also reported that 

 too sanguine M. le Chancellier was threatened 

 with a proces-verbal ; of his 232 ships 70 were 

 whalers, many names had been twice registered, 

 and only 32 (232 minus 200) took in cargo. 



The houses from Hamburg, that ' Carthage of 

 the Northern Seas,' conclude the list of Euro- 

 peans. The brothers Horn and M. Quas, agents 

 for Messrs Herz and Co., are the most successful 



