Selections. 
[no. Sj new series, 
AFRICAN COTTON. 
Considering therefore the general quality and limited supply yet 
received from India by free labour, the whole sea coast of Africa 
presents a large, cheap, and more contiguous field for the wants of 
England ; while it offers an extensive market for our manufactured 
goods. Park and almost all African disctverers speak of markets 
for the sale of native cloths, made of their indigenous Cotton ; but 
the separation of the raw material from the seed must occasion 
them much trouble and loss of time. So far as I can learn, the 
process is very rude, and by hand picking is verj- tedious. The 
saw gin moved by the hand will become the means of supply- 
ing their own wants first, and thereafter of increasing expor- 
tation ; the screw-press packing it into square bales for ship- 
ment. The original mode of packing, still practised, was for a man 
to stand inside of a large round bag and press it down with his 
feet. St. Domingo Cotton is still liable to this objection, and is 
thereby exposed to a double or triple freight. 
The question is does Cotton abound on the coast of Africa ? 
From the reports of Missionaries and of gentlemen who visited 
the Niger it appears to be plentiful ; and they are the men who by 
acquiring the esteem of the Natives, rendering them teachable (as 
in many instances they have), and residing among them, are the 
most likely to introduce both the saw gin and screw-press. Of 
cotton cultivation the natives most likely know more than Euro- 
peans. 
I understand, from the Secretaries of the Wesleyan and B:iptist 
Missionary Societies, that the missionaries of those societies have 
not only their sanction, but their instructions, to promote such 
objects among the Natives at their several stations, as a means of 
enabling the Natives to support their missons, and of drawing the 
aborigines within reach of teachers. AVe find these Missionary 
establishments all along the coast of Western tropical Africa ; — 
and to the former has now been added the Scotch ; or rather 
Jamaica establishment, at Old Calabar, near to Fernando Po. 
The cost of a common eighteen saw gin, moved by a wheel and 
pinion and crank-handle, is about £25 to £30. Larger and more 
